The Impact of PDSA Cycles on Reading Achievement

Dr. Cherry-Ann Joseph-Hislop • Cahn Fellow 2022

Increasing student achievement is the ultimate goal of education in all sectors of society today, but continues to be a challenge for many schools, especially those in high poverty neighborhoods such as PS. 59. This year we embarked on a new approach to increasing student achievement known as PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) cycles. The acronym was adapted from a  year of study by our Administrative team on Improvement Science from Fordham University.  For the purposes of this paper, the PDSA cycles can be seen as a systematic approach to solving the problem of low student achievement among our third to fifth-graders. To address this problem, grade teams were formed and a weekly protocol was established for them to engage in data analysis to complete a root cause analysis, and then use the PDSA cycles to implement a plan that included research-based strategies to increase student achievement. This approach not only fostered a culture of collaboration among the teachers and administrators, but became one of the favorite staff development opportunities for our school this year. The PDSA cycles were done in six-week intervals and all grade teams had to present their work to the entire staff. The presentations were so well portrayed and impactful, that teachers made it into a competition, and as administrators we were forced to create the prize of an extra prep for the winning team. 

PDSA cycles increased student achievement at our school while bringing joy to the work and building our school culture. There were potential challenges and limitations of this approach; these we will discuss later on in the paper. However, the overall impact of PDSA  cycles on student achievement at PS 59 was positively seen across all grades in this study.