Quality Assurance & Improvement Flashcards

A curriculum coordinator compares her district's student performance data against that of the highest-performing districts in the state. This quality improvement practice is called:

Answer: Benchmarking

Benchmarking involves comparing one's performance against recognized standards or top-performing organizations to identify improvement opportunities.

In a quality management framework, which of the following BEST distinguishes 'quality assurance' from 'quality control'?

Answer: Quality assurance focuses on preventing defects through process improvement; quality control identifies defects in outputs

Quality assurance is proactive (improving processes) while quality control is reactive (inspecting outputs for defects).

A teacher team reviews student writing samples from multiple sources—classroom essays, portfolios, and standardized test writing prompts—before making an instructional decision. This approach is called:

Answer: Data triangulation

Triangulation uses multiple data sources to arrive at a more accurate and credible conclusion than any single source alone.

Which of the following BEST explains why continuous improvement cycles (such as PDSA) are considered iterative?

Answer: Each completed cycle produces insights that inform and refine the next cycle

Iterative cycles build on previous learning; each PDSA loop generates data and insights that shape the hypothesis and plan for the next cycle.

A school improvement team identifies that only 3 of 15 problems account for 72% of student referrals to the office. Which tool guided this finding?

Answer: Pareto analysis

Pareto analysis (based on the 80/20 rule) identifies the vital few causes responsible for the majority of problems.

When evaluating an instructional program for quality, which type of validity evidence is MOST important for ensuring the test actually measures what the program taught?

Answer: Content validity

Content validity ensures the assessment adequately and representatively samples the content and skills the program was designed to teach.

A district's data team creates a shared dashboard where all schools can view their own performance data alongside anonymized peer school data. The PRIMARY quality improvement purpose of this practice is:

Answer: To foster collaborative learning and data-driven goal-setting across schools

Shared dashboards promote transparency, collaborative problem-solving, and goal-setting by allowing schools to learn from their own and peers' data.