From School Improvement Plans to Measurable Results: Building Your Personal Theory of Action
- Chad Ransom
- Oct 1
- 8 min read
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." — John F. Kennedy
Why Most School Improvement Plans Never Reach Their Potential
Every fall, educational leaders across the country invest countless hours crafting School Improvement Plans. Teams gather data, identify priorities, and outline ambitious goals for student achievement. Yet despite this investment, many of these plans fail to produce the transformative results we hope for.
The problem isn't lack of commitment. The problem is that most improvement plans focus exclusively on the "what" while neglecting the critical question of "how." Research shows that leadership is the second most impactful within school factor on student achievement—a significance that underscores why getting leadership right matters so deeply.
In our recent blog series, we've explored why school leadership matters, what high-impact leaders focus on, how evidence-based practices drive progress, and what internal skills and mindsets—Personal Leadership Resources (PLRs)—enable those practices to succeed. Today, we take the next essential step: transforming your improvement plan into a personal Theory of Action that drives measurable, sustainable change.
Two Stories That Reveal the Missing Link
Story One: When the Practice Isn't the Problem
Several years ago, we worked with a principal deeply committed to elevating instructional quality in her building. Her leadership team had identified teacher feedback as the cornerstone of instructional growth and developed a comprehensive plan for regular classroom observations. The research supported their approach, the plan was sound, and the principal was fully invested.
Six weeks later, progress had stalled. Despite her genuine commitment, she hadn't increased her time in classrooms. During our coaching session, we mapped out her typical week—and the real barrier became immediately clear. Her calendar was consumed by reactive tasks: responding to parent emails, handling discipline issues, managing building emergencies, attending district meetings. Time management, not motivation or knowledge, was preventing her from executing the very practice she believed in.
Together, we rebuilt her weekly schedule. She created a calendar routine that protected specific blocks for classroom walkthroughs and streamlined recurring administrative tasks. Within two weeks, she had doubled her classroom visits. The quality of feedback to teachers improved dramatically. Teacher trust increased. And most importantly—student learning began to shift in measurable ways.
The instructional leadership practice wasn't the problem. The underlying personal competency—in this case, strategic time management—was the missing piece.
Story Two: When Quantity Doesn't Equal Quality
In another case, a principal made impressive gains in how frequently he visited classrooms and provided feedback to teachers. His observation logs showed a threefold increase in walkthroughs. By all surface measures, he was executing the leadership practice effectively.
Yet over time, we noticed something troubling: instruction hadn't meaningfully improved. When we paused to examine teacher perceptions and classroom data more closely, we discovered the feedback lacked specificity and relevance. Teachers appreciated the increased visibility, but the comments weren't actionable enough to change practice. That's when we shifted our focus from the quantity of feedback to its quality.
This story highlights a critical dimension of this work: your Theory of Action must be testable and adaptive. Each step in the causal chain should be observable, measurable, and subject to revision. If results plateau or regress, you must be willing to re-examine your assumptions and adjust accordingly. This is adaptive leadership in action.
Understanding the Three-Level Framework for Change
Here's the framework we use in our leadership coaching to transform plans into results:
WHAT (your goal) ↓ HOW (your leadership practices) ↓ HOW (your Personal Leadership Resources)
Notice there are two distinct levels of "how":
The practices you'll use to lead change — the visible actions and routines that research shows drive improvement
The personal competencies you must strengthen — the internal capacities required to execute those practices with excellence
This second "how" represents the missing link for many educational leaders. We've become skilled at identifying research-based practices, but we often underestimate the personal development required to implement them effectively.
Why Every Leader Needs an Explicit Theory of Action
Every educational leader operates from a theory of action, whether they've formally articulated it or not. A theory of action is simply a cause-and-effect hypothesis that connects your actions to desired outcomes:
If I do X, then Y will improve.
The difference between effective and struggling leaders often lies in whether they've made this theory explicit, testable, and subject to continuous refinement.
A Simple Example
Consider this theory of action:
If I improve my time management skills, then I can complete more classroom observations.
If I complete more observations, I can provide teachers with better, more timely feedback.
If teachers receive higher-quality feedback, their instructional practices will improve.
If instruction improves, student learning outcomes will rise.
Each link in this chain can and should be measured. Are you actually completing more observations? Are teachers implementing the feedback? Are instructional quality indicators improving? Your theory of action isn't a static document—it's a working hypothesis you refine based on evidence.
From School Improvement Plan to Personal Action Plan: A Four-Step Process
Here's how we help educational leaders translate improvement plans into actionable, personal theories of change:
Step 1: Clarify the WHAT
Begin by reviewing your School Improvement Plan with fresh eyes. Ask yourself:
What is our highest-leverage student learning goal?
Which research-based priority will move the needle most for students over the next 10 weeks?
Can we anchor this goal to clear, measurable indicators?
Important note: This step should be a collaborative discussion with your Building Leadership Team, not a solo exercise. When done well, this collective clarification leads to more aligned and actionable improvement efforts. (We'll explore how to facilitate this collaborative process in depth in an upcoming blog post.)
Step 2: Define the Leadership Practice (First HOW)
Once you've clarified your student learning goal, identify the specific leadership behavior or practice that will most directly support it. Ask:
What will I do differently as a leader to advance this goal?
How will I know this practice is improving over the next 10 weeks?
Examples of leadership practices might include:
Establishing more consistent feedback cycles with teachers
Reallocating time to prioritize instructional leadership over managerial tasks
Facilitating more effective professional learning community meetings
Implementing data-based inquiry protocols with teams
The practice should be concrete, observable, and directly linked to your student learning goal.
Step 3: Identify Your PLR Focus (Second HOW)
This is where the transformative work happens. Go deeper and ask:
What internal leadership competency do I need to strengthen to execute this practice with excellence?
Consider these Personal Leadership Resources:
Time Management — protecting priorities, eliminating low-value tasks, building sustainable routines
Problem Solving — both proactive (anticipating challenges) and reactive (responding effectively to crises)
Communication — including the ability to navigate difficult conversations with clarity and empathy
Change Management — building buy-in, supporting transitions, managing resistance
Strategic Thinking — seeing the big picture, aligning initiatives, eliminating contradictions
Systems Thinking — understanding how various elements of your school interact and influence each other
Reflection and Self-Efficacy — learning from experience, maintaining confidence amid setbacks
Contextual Judgment — knowing when to be directive versus collaborative
Honestly assess:
What's genuinely getting in the way of executing this practice?
Which of these PLRs, if improved, would create the biggest breakthrough?
This requires vulnerability and self-awareness. The principals in our opening stories had to acknowledge that time management and feedback quality—not just effort or intention—were their real growth edges.
Step 4: Create Your Theory of Action Statement
Now synthesize your thinking into a clear, testable Theory of Action. Use this frame:
If I [improve specific PLR], then I will [execute leadership practice more effectively], which will help [achieve specific goal], so that [student outcome] improves.
Example Theories of Action:
Example 1: If I strengthen my ability to facilitate difficult conversations, I can lead more honest, data-focused team meetings, which will improve our intervention planning processes, so that student learning gaps close faster and more students meet grade-level standards.
Example 2: If I develop more disciplined time-blocking habits, I'll protect weekly time for classroom walkthroughs, which will help teachers receive consistent, specific feedback on their instruction, so that teaching quality and student engagement improve.
Example 3: If I improve my strategic thinking skills, I'll better align our various improvement initiatives and eliminate contradictory demands, which will reduce teacher burnout and confusion, so that implementation quality increases and student outcomes rise.
Notice how each statement creates a clear causal chain that can be tested at every step. This isn't wishful thinking—it's a hypothesis you'll validate or revise based on evidence.
Building Support Structures and Cycles for Sustainable Change
Creating a Theory of Action is valuable. But change doesn't happen because we make a plan—it happens because we build systems that help us stick to it.
Two-Week Improvement Cycles
We recommend working in focused two-week cycles:
Select one PLR or practice to improve — resist the temptation to tackle everything at once
Define what success looks like — what will be observably different after two weeks?
Reflect and adjust — at the end of each cycle, honestly assess progress and refine your approach
This rhythm creates momentum without overwhelming you. It also builds in regular checkpoints for course correction.
Create External Supports
Change requires more than willpower. Ask yourself:
What will help me remember my commitment? (Calendar reminders? Visual cues in your office? An accountability partner?)
What support do I need? (Coaching? Feedback from a trusted colleague? Protected time in your calendar?)
Who else needs to know about this focus? (Your assistant principal? Your coach? Your superintendent?)
The principals in our opening stories succeeded not just because they identified the right focus, but because they built structures to support follow-through.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Let's revisit our first principal to see how this framework guided her transformation:
WHAT: Increase the percentage of students meeting grade-level standards in literacy by 15% by the end of the school year.
First HOW (Leadership Practice): Conduct weekly classroom walkthroughs with a focus on literacy instruction, followed by specific, actionable feedback to teachers within 24 hours.
Second HOW (PLR): Improve time management by creating protected blocks for instructional leadership and streamlining reactive administrative tasks.
Theory of Action: If I strengthen my time management skills by protecting weekly blocks for walkthroughs and delegating routine tasks, then I will consistently complete classroom observations and provide timely feedback, which will help teachers refine their literacy instruction, so that more students reach grade-level reading proficiency.
Two-Week Cycle 1: Redesign weekly calendar to protect Tuesday and Thursday mornings for walkthroughs; delegate lunch duty coordination to assistant principal.
Measured Progress: Observation frequency increased from 2-3 per week to 8-10 per week; teacher survey data showed 85% felt feedback was timely and useful; interim literacy assessments showed a 7% increase in proficiency.
When progress stalled at the 7% mark, she revisited her Theory of Action and realized the next limiting factor was feedback quality—leading to a new cycle of development.
Moving Forward: Your Next Steps
Great educational leaders don't just make plans—they build habits, test assumptions, and adapt based on evidence. They recognize that school improvement is ultimately personal improvement: the work you do on yourself directly impacts the work you can do for students.
As you consider your own leadership context, ask yourself:
What's the highest-leverage student learning goal in my School Improvement Plan?
What leadership practice would most directly support that goal?
What personal leadership competency is currently limiting my ability to execute that practice with excellence?
What would my Theory of Action be if I addressed all three levels?
In our next post, we'll show you exactly how to build these theories into a personal improvement plan using 10-week block planning and two-week practice cycles. You'll learn how to measure progress, adapt your approach, and build the leadership habits that create lasting change.
Building Your Theory of Action
Discussion Question: What's one leadership competency you need to strengthen in order to carry out your current improvement goal? What would change for your students if you developed that competency?
Share your Theory of Action in the comments below. Let's learn from each other as we transform from planning to action.
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