The best way I know to see how someone thinks is to look at the tracks of their thinking. Each tool here lays out my thinking, and each rests on published research. Use them with your team, and tell me what you find.
Amanda Swerdlow
Find your tool
Start here
The curve
Improvement in education rarely arrives in a straight line. Where programs often get cut, what happens when they make it through, and a worksheet for finding where your program sits.
Before you open the data
A guide for the team meeting before anyone opens the numbers, built on three questions.
The look-back grid
A one-meeting sheet for a team that has just finished an improvement cycle. Place what you talked about and what you measured, then look at which box is empty.
The pebble problem
How improvement cycles pick what to work on, and what happens when the problem staff feel most is not the one holding back the outcome.
Research library
Every tool here rests on published research. See all 27 sources in one place, grouped by theme, with links to the originals.
If one of these raises a question about your own program, I would love to hear about it.
Send a short note about the program or question and the decision you are facing.
I read every note myself and reply within the week.