{"id":88,"date":"2017-03-29T18:17:45","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T18:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.education.uw.edu\/slmi\/?page_id=88"},"modified":"2023-10-05T03:32:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T03:32:53","slug":"practical-measures","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.education.uw.edu\/slmi\/practical-measures\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical Measures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Practical Measures are tools intentionally designed to be quick, frequent, and manageable measures to support teachers\u2019 daily practice. Practical measures stem from the field of Improvement Science, and were originally developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to address perennial challenges in education.\u00a0Ideas about practical measurement emerge from the understanding that many large-scale reform efforts in education failed to deliver on the sweeping improvements they promised, in part because reformers are not using learning in a systematic fashion (Yeager, et al., 2013<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In contrast to tools designed for accountability or research,\u00a0practical measures are focused on improvement within particular working contexts (Solberg, Mosser, & McDonald, 1997<\/a>). Because they are easy to use and deliberately short in duration, they can provide teachers and school\/district leaders with immediate information about student and\/or teacher thinking and learning, and potential barriers to their learning.<\/p>\n

Practical measures are developed as part of a design cycle that includes four stages beginning with identifying a problem of practice. Next, tools such as practical measures that support improvement are developed and implemented. The final stage is reflection on the tool\u2019s design and implementation with the goal of making changes for further improvement (Berwick, 2008<\/a>; Bryk, Gomez, Grunow & LeMahieu, 2015<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Key Features of Practical Measures<\/em><\/p>\n