In schools across America, educators are increasingly using continuous improvement methods to address issues related to school climate, disproportionate outcomes in math and literacy, postsecondary planning, and other complex problems. Sometimes, however, even well-intended school improvement efforts fail to fully understand what’s needed to enact effective change.

Student-powered improvement believes that solutions to education’s most complex problems should be designed with students rather than for students. Through empathy, partnership, and reimagining who has power in schools, student-powered improvement leads to solutions that better meet students’ needs. 

Informed by the work of Networks of School Improvement supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we developed the student-powered improvement framework below. This framework shows the intersections of continuous improvement methods with four ways to engage students. Explore the framework more deeply in this self-guided course.