Imagine your program in a year, or even five. What will be new or different? What will you have achieved together, and how will you have gotten there? What new insights will you have gained? How will this benefit your students?
Continuous improvement planning is a unique opportunity to bring together students, staff, and partners to set a shared vision and chart a course for strengthening your program and student outcomes. This course guides you through the process, offering collaborative and data-driven strategies and tools for evaluating your program, setting purposeful and achievable goals, and reflecting on process and outcomes.
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Program leaders and directors
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Staff members in other roles who will help lead or participate in a continuous improvement planning process
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Teams of program staff in diverse roles
This professional development activity/course is designed for:
The Continuous Improvement Planning course guides program teams through the process of collaboratively planning to better serve your students and community. The course offers strategies and tools for reflecting on your program’s strengths and needs, setting a shared vision for the future, creating a plan to the vision, evaluating progress, and implementing lessons learned. Along the way, we will address tools and strategies for including diverse voices in this process and explore what it takes to foster a sense of shared ownership, collective agency, and a culture of collaboration and innovation.
This offering addresses Indicator 9 of Program Quality (IPQ 9), which tells us that effective adult education programs conduct “a continuous improvement planning process that supports high-quality practices and a shared vision for student and staff success, with the goal of improving student outcomes.”
Course Format & Requirements: This course is blended, with four synchronous meetings. You must attend all four sessions (totaling 14 hours) and complete independent activities between sessions (totaling approximately 2 additional hours). This course encompasses 16 total PD hours.
The synchronous sessions will offer a blend of online and in-person options: some will be entirely online, and some will be hybrid with the option to attend in-person or online. Participants will receive a survey about availability and preferences for hybrid options following registration.
- Session 1: Synchronous meeting on Zoom (02/14/25, 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.)
- Session 2: Synchronous meeting on Zoom (02/28/25, 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.)
- Session 3: Synchronous hybrid meeting (option for Zoom or in-person) (03/14/25, 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.)
- Session 4: Synchronous hybrid meeting (option for Zoom or in-person) (04/11/25, 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.)
Note that we strongly encourage (but do not require) staff to participate in teams in order to facilitate collaborative learning and working.
Extending Your Learning: After the course, you will have the option to work with a Continuous Improvement Planning Coach as you continue to develop and implement your program’s plan.
Course Access & Support: Several days before the event, you’ll receive a calendar invitation and an email with the Zoom link from Jane at jane_brandt@worlded.org. If you need technical assistance or have questions about accessing the course, please contact Jane.
To ensure that you receive information about your training, please save jane_brandt@worlded.org to your email address book.
If you have questions about the requirements, format, or content of the course, please contact facilitator Alexandra Papagno at alexandra_papagno@worlded.org.
Additional offerings of this course: If you can’t attend this session, we will be offering it again this year in March 2025.
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Describe a continuous improvement planning cycle and its relationship to student outcomes, staff growth, and program accountability
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Locate, evaluate, and make meaning of multiple sources of relevant information (including program data, stakeholder input, and program context) to inform continuous improvement planning
- Collaborate with students, staff, and program partners to identify areas of growth and set continuous improvement goals that are aligned with a shared vision for the program
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Create an action plan to achieve continuous improvement goals, and then reflect on, evaluate outcomes, and make adjustments to the plan
Upon completion of this professional development activity/course, you will be able to:
United States
