The Massachusetts Education Partnership (MEP) was focused on driving district and school improvement through shared leadership and collaboration between union leaders, district administrators, and school committees.
The Massachusetts Institute for College and Career Readiness (MICCR) paired researchers from across the country with Massachusetts school districts to advance college and career readiness programs and evaluate their success.
The Massachusetts Teaching & Learning Network (MassTLN) brought together four networks in a learning community aimed at improving educator effectiveness within districts and schools across the state. This project promoted a bottom-up approach to change by empowering teachers to develop, assess, and share practices that work for their students.
The Excellence through Social and Emotional Learning Network brought together educators to gain critical insight on how to support the development of social-emotional skills through changes in policy and practice at the district, school, and classroom levels.
Through these programs, the Rennie Center has gained expertise in how to create and support improvement efforts. As part of these projects, we developed a rigorous approach to planning and implementing district/school improvement strategies: the Rennie Center Change Management Framework. Grounded in the principles of improvement science, this framework outlines a path to change that centers around a shared problem of practice; identifies well-established interventions to address the challenge; measures outcomes; develops a committed and trusting team; and supports practitioners’ capacity to test new practices.