About

Built by educators, for the improvement community.

This tool was built at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, through its National Coalition for Improvement in Education, by people who spend their days helping coaches, district and agency teams, and network hubs across education and the social sector learn from variation instead of reacting to it.

Why we built this

We want to see these charts everywhere improvement work happens.

Much of the way education and the social sector use data leaves educators and frontline staff feeling shamed or blamed when outcomes move in the wrong direction. Too often, the data we rely on make it hard to tell whether a change reflects something meaningful — or just the normal ups and downs of a complex system. When we can't tell the signal from the noise, we chase the wrong explanations, or we miss the moment something truly shifts.

Shewhart control charts draw that line. In our own work supporting improvement networks, we have watched them change the conversation in a room — from who to blame toward what to learn. But they have stayed hard to produce, interpret, and share; they can feel like something reserved for researchers. So we built a tool that puts a statistically trusted chart, and an honest reading of it, within reach of any team with a spreadsheet and a question. Our hope is simple: that learning from variation becomes ordinary practice across the field, in service of deeper improvement work for students and communities.

“These charts matter, not because educators need another technical tool, but because they help us see the story behind the numbers. They support a shift from blame to learning, and from reaction to understanding.”

Ben Sanoff and Brandon Bennett, writing in EdSource

Who we are

Improvement practitioners, data people, and former teachers.

Between us, we have supported improvement work in clinics, classrooms, districts, and statewide networks. This tool carries what we have learned about how data gets used — and misused — in schools and across the social sector.

Brandon Bennett

Senior Partner · Improvement Collective

Brandon Bennett is Senior Partner at the Improvement Collective. He is an advisor, teacher, and author who helps organizations across healthcare, education, and social welfare improve outcomes for the communities they serve. He is the author of Journey to Improvement and Improvement Science at Your Fingertips, and has partnered on improvement efforts ranging from clinical care to national education systems. Brandon holds a B.S. from UC Davis and an M.P.H. from Loma Linda University, and is a frequent speaker on improvement science around the world.

Ben Sanoff

Director of Data Analytics · HTH GSE

Ben Sanoff is Director of Data Analytics at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, where he supports teams in using data for learning — including the data work behind NCIE's RAISE Network, 23 California districts working together to reduce chronic absenteeism. Since joining the GSE in 2016 he has helped practitioners across its networks and the Center for Research on Equity and Innovation use data to solve problems of practice together. A former social studies teacher and technology coordinator at Berkeley High, he attended Colby College and holds master's degrees in education from UMass Boston and the HTH GSE.

Erica Geary

Data Scientist · Center for Research on Equity & Innovation, HTH GSE

Erica Geary is a Data Scientist at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education's Center for Research on Equity and Innovation, where she supports the data work behind the RAISE Network's effort to reduce chronic absenteeism across California. With Lloyd Provost and Brandon Bennett, she co-authored Applied Shewhart Charts in Education to Understand Chronic Absenteeism Across the State of California in Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation. A former high school Spanish teacher in Los Angeles, Erica studied at Azusa Pacific University and American University, earned her TESOL certification in Kolkata, and has lived in Spain, Guatemala, and Mexico. She is passionate about people, equity, language, and math.

Advisor

Lloyd Provost

Co-founder, Associates in Process Improvement · Senior Fellow & Improvement Advisor, IHI

Lloyd Provost is a statistician and a foundational leader in improvement science whose work has shaped how organizations around the world learn and achieve better outcomes. As co-founder of Associates in Process Improvement (API), he has dedicated his career to helping diverse organizations — including those in healthcare, manufacturing, and education — apply the science of improvement. Through API's partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), he serves as a Senior Fellow and Improvement Advisor, where he advises on planning, measurement, and the design of studies. He is a pioneer in creating improvement collaboratives and networks, bringing statistical thinking and systems methods to real-world challenges. Mr. Provost co-authored several foundational texts, including The Improvement Guide and The Health Care Data Guide. In recognition of his contributions, he received the Deming Medal from the American Society for Quality in 2003.

High Tech High GSE · NCIE

Where this work comes from.

The High Tech High Graduate School of Education works to advance deeper learning and continuous improvement across K-12 education — preparing educators to lead that work, and partnering with schools and systems to make it real for students. Its National Coalition for Improvement in Education (NCIE) exists to “champion and amplify the use of improvement methods to transform educational systems so all young people learn and thrive, especially those furthest from opportunity.” This generator grew out of that work — and out of the data support NCIE's networks needed to learn from their own results.

The RAISE Network

Raising Attendance and Improving Student Engagement is a California networked improvement community connecting 23 districts that serve more than 350,000 students, working together to cut the state's chronic absenteeism rate in half by 2029. The charts this tool makes are the charts RAISE teams learn from.

Networks and the Summit

NCIE also supports the National Attendance and Engagement Meta Network, the CARPE College Access Network, and district mathematics networks, and hosts the National Summit on Improvement in Education — learning our way to better outcomes for students, and better systems for all.

Ready when you are

Your data is ready to teach you something.

Bring a spreadsheet and a question. The generator handles the statistics.

Open the Shewhart Control Chart Generator

Bookmark it: charts.hthgse.app