New to Northfield Public Schools this year is a partnership with Studer Education backed by the StriveTogether Accelerator Fund. The district will work with Studer to adopt a districtwide continuous improvement approach over a three-year timespan. In the first year, the focus will be on district leaders and key adopters. In the second year, the focus will move to the school building level.

Matt Hillmann, Northfield Superintendent of Schools, noted, “The district is fully committed to the concept of continuous improvement and using data to confirm that progress. Working with Studer will enable Northfield to take this work to a new level.” Hillmann sees Studer as an organizational coaching group whose work is based on the familiar Baldridge model*.

In addition to a focus on annual goals, the Studer project in Northfield will attend to formative goals, calling out those intermediate steps as a gauge of ongoing progress. After the project is firmly established at the leadership level, it will move into building-level efforts. Surveys will be employed with various cohorts to measure progress. For example, one of the surveys will give building-level leaders the opportunity to provide feedback about the quality of District Services support. Parents and students will also be invited to respond to various feedback opportunities.

Studer Education partners with organizations across the country to support system-wide, continuous improvement and performance excellence. Using consistent, best-practice approaches, the effort is designed to result in improved outcomes throughout the district and across the Northfield Promise cradle-to-career continuum. Studer services include: strategic planning; leadership training and development; survey research, development and administration; and coaching to support continuous cultural improvement.

Like Baldridge, Studer’s experience with leadership development and continuous improvement was vetted in the healthcare industry. Both models have also moved on to educational systems that are committed to achieving outcomes together.

* The Baldridge model is designed to help manage all the components of a business or other organization as a unified whole, ensuring that plans, processes, measures, and actions are consistent.