When meaningful data can be gathered from multiple assessment measures, schools and districts struggle with how to make results accessible and meaningful to parents and community members in spite of the complexity of the assessment process. Quarterly reviews with Joint Venture staff and collaboration with 21st Century Education Initiative board members who know the teams well help teams identify weaknesses and develop solutions. Partnerships with businesses provide expertise in such things as organizational development, strategic planning, and effective use of resources. Challenge 2000 teams, in a historically insular organizational culture, are finding there is much to learn from the business community. As business leaders and teams come together, they are learning from one another, and optimizing their strengths to benefit the students.
Systemic change requires commitment to the continuous improvement process.
While the initial changes are difficult, the intense focus on improvement in either literacy, math or science usually results in almost immediate improvement in student scores. Gains that can be achieved relatively easily have been achieved. It is at this time that commitment to the process of continuous improvement becomes essential even though future gains require more stringent analysis of the programs and processes being used, and often require changes that are more difficult to bring about. Teams that can continue to grow in the third year and beyond are those who are institutionalizing the continuous improvement process. While substantial gains were made at most grade levels during the first year or two, the rate of improvement decreased thereafter.