Clearly defined components and practices are a prerequisite for sound implementation. Practice Profiles help your LEA identify core components of essential functions of evidence-based programs.

They:

Identify the core components of the program
Describe the key activities
Enable the practice to be Teachable, Observable, Learnable, and Doable
Make the process clear so practitioners can carry out the practice

Once an innovation is described in sufficient detail, effective implementation methods can be applied to develop the competency of staff to do the new way of work, to use data to continuously improve the innovation and to ensure that leadership and administrative practices are in service to new expectations. Unfortunately, when a results focus does not exist, there is a tendency to keep adopting new programs and initiatives, never stopping to ask about the outcomes that will lead to achievement.

View the Practice Profile template.

The main heading encourages your LEA to list the priority and practice to measure.

Next, determine a Statement of Practice and the elements of the practice your LEA determines are essential for fidelity. Think of this as the Gold Standard for implementation and Capacity.

When your LEA begins collecting data, observational notes will be collected to add to the data which will lead your LEA to develop necessary Action Steps toward improvement.

These Action Steps are a critical part of the Practice Profiles and the continuous improvement cycle of the Plan Do Study Act.

According to NIRN, The Plan, Do, Study, Act Cycle involves a “trial-and-learning” approach in which the PDSA steps are conducted over iterative cycles designed to discover and solve problems, and eventually lead to achieving high standards.

“Plan” needs to be operationalized (what to “do” to enact the plan) based on student outcome data. This compels attention to the core innovation components and provides an opportunity to:
- begin to develop a training process (e.g. here is how to do the plan) and
- create a measure of fidelity (e.g. did we do the plan as intended).
“Do” portion allows implementation of the practice. It is important to monitor progress, including student outcome, implementation and capacity data and take observational notes along the way.
“Study” part of the PDSA cycle (e.g. did the plan produce desired results?). If the plan was done as intended and there are poor results (an innovation problem), the innovation needs to be changed before the next cycle. If the plan was not done as intended (an implementation problem), then the plan needs to be improved before the next cycle
“Act” portion of the cycle allows teams to implement changes or continue as intended if desired results are observed but there is a need to allow more time to implement to see progress.

Google Practice Profile Template

Google Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle Template

Activity:

Complete a Practice Profile and PDSA plan