Sola Takahashi

Overview

Sola Takahashi is a leading expert in measurement and analytics for continuous improvement in education, with a focus on equitable and just systems. For over a decade she has led large-scale efforts to develop and use measurement to improve educational systems through a continuous improvement approach. A seasoned designer and facilitator of trainings, she integrates continuous improvement methods into a wide range of coaching, technical assistance,, and research. Blending a rigorous training in mixed-methods research with her many years of experience leveraging continuous improvement methods in education, she works with partners to address their most pressing challenges through an inquiry approach to change. Takahashi is deeply committed to educational equity and justice and centers this commitment in her work.

Takahashi has been working with math education leaders in recent years through a concerted focus on “practical measurement” in mathematics—timely, accessible, and useful data that provides information about the specific focus of improvement. This has included directing the Math Practical Measurement project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2020–2024). In this and other work, she not only supports the identification of the right measures for a given context and users but also collaborates with school and district partners to engage the measures in a learning system that includes everything from the social routines of sensemaking to the infrastructure that support the quick and regular access of key data. She approaches this work with a sensitivity to data work as human, social, and relational work, as much as it may involve technical aspects. Takahashi and a team of colleagues at WestEd developed the Math Practical Measurement Repository website (wested.mpm.org), which houses examples of practical measures of math classroom teaching and learning processes and provides guidance on uptake and use. To date, the website has been accessed by over 5,000 unique visitors from around the world.

Takahashi’s past experiences in measurement for improvement and practical measurement have addressed the topics of early career teacher development and retention, elementary school writing, social–emotional learning, chronic absenteeism, and teacher preparation, among others.

Before joining WestEd, Takahashi was a senior associate, improvement analytics and measurement development, at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For 6 years, she led the analytics work for one of the first Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) and then for a network of NICs. She has also conducted research and evaluation on systemic school improvement efforts at Education Matters, Inc. Takahashi’s experience as an elementary school teacher in a diverse public school in the San Francisco Bay Area continues to ground her in the realities of the work of schools.

Education

• EdD in educational leadership, policy, and instructional practice, Harvard Graduate School of Education
• MA in education, University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education
• BA in sociology and studio art, Wesleyan University

Select Publications

Takahashi, S., & Norman, J. (In press). Practical measurement: Foundational concepts in practice. In P. LeMahieu & P. Cobb (Eds.), Catalyzing Educational Improvement: The essential role of practical measurement. Harvard Education Press.

Takahashi, S., Jackson, K., Norman, J., Ing, M., & Krumm, A. E. (2022). Measurement for improvement. The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education, 423-432.

Takahashi, S. Norman, J., Jackson, K., Ing, M., & Chinen, S. (2020). Measurement for improvement. In D. Peurach & J. Russell (Eds.), Oxford bibliographies in Education: Scholarship on improvement. Oxford University Press.

Valdez, A., Takahashi, S., Krausen, K., Bowman, A. & Gurrola, E. (2020). Getting better at getting more equitable: Opportunities and barriers for using continuous improvement to advance educational equity. WestEd.

Honors, Awards, and Affiliations

Proposal reviewer, Carnegie Summit on Improvement in Education (2017–present)

Proposal reviewer, American Educational Research Association Improvement Science Special Interest Group (2021–present)