e-STRATEGIC PLANNING IN PENNSYLVANIA

1. e-STRATEGIC PLANNING IN PENNSYLVANIA Montgomery County Intermediate Unit

2. Training Purpose: Provide participating district leadership team representatives with background training for: • The use of processes and techniques necessary to develop comprehensive strategic plans. • The use of eSP for Comprehensive Strategic Planning and Plan Completion.

3. AGENDA • Chapter 4 Strategic Plan Requirements • Overview of e-Strategic Planning • Approaches to Strategic Planning • Using the e-Strategic Planner • Next Steps

4. CHAPTER 4: STRATEGIC PLAN REQUIREMENTS

5. Miscellaneous Requirements Academic Standards – Description of academic standards for student achievement consistent with those under § 4.12 • Strategic Planning process – brief description of process to develop strategic plan • Strategic Planning Committee – A list of persons involved in developing the Strategic Plan • Strategic plan should be developed through active participation by parents, students, school directors, teachers, school administrators, other school personnel, businesses and community representatives

6. Goals • A listing of the school entity’s educational and organizational goals as they relate to student achievement including high school graduation requirements and for having students meet or exceed proficiency levels established for state academic standards

7. Graduation Requirements • Each school district, including charter schools, shall specify requirements for graduation in the strategic plan. Requirements shall include course completion and grades, completion of a culminating project, and results of local assessments aligned with the academic standards.

8. Measurable Annual Improvement Targets • Your plan must address improving students’ achievement, including specific, measurable goals for student growth and planning that is designed to attain students’ achievement goals. Achievement goals shall demonstrate a connection to the academic standards including but not limited to annual improvement goals for student scores on State and Local assessments.

9. Curriculum, Instruction & Instructional Materials • Your plan must address providing all students access to a rigorous education program including: curriculum that is aligned to the academic standards, the planned instruction to be offered and the instructional practices and instructional materials to be used to strive for the academic goals and attain academics standards and the high school graduation requirements.

10. Assessments & Public Reporting • Your plan must describe the local assessment system including methods and measures used to determine the degree to which students are achieving academic standards, including: • descriptions of methods and measures used to determine achievement, • how information from the assessments shall be used to assist students who have not demonstrated attainment of the academic standards at a proficient level or higher, • how all students as well as significant student subgroups are achieving as compared to the standards and annual improvement targets, and • how information from the assessments shall be made available to the public and each students' parent's or guardians.

11. Assessments & Public Reporting • Your plan shall also address how assessment data, including value-added assessment data, is shared with and used by district-level administrators, school administrators and professional educators to change instructional practice in order address the learning needs of students.

12. Targeted Assistance for Struggling Students • Your plan must provide for additional instructional opportunities for students not achieving at the proficient level, including: • identification procedures, • alternative instructional strategies, • monitoring of assessment procedures, and • opportunities for extended learning time, including tutoring. • Your plan shall also describe how grade-level learning plans for students who have not achieved proficiency in reading and mathematics during their primary grades (K-3) have been implemented and specify the instructional opportunities for students who have not achieved proficiency in reading and mathematics by the end of grade 5.

13. Support for Struggling Schools • Your plan must address the school district's (or area vocational technical school with multiple campuses) process for assisting schools that do not meet the annual student achievement improvement targets and schools experiencing other challenges that deter student attainment of the academic standards at a proficient level or higher.

14. Qualified, Effective Teachers & Capable Instructional Leaders • Your plan must include the school entity's goals, strategies and performance measures regarding provision of teachers and school leaders designed to ensure that all students attain the academic standards at a proficient level or higher. • Your plan shall specifically address how the school entity deploys its most effective and highly qualified teachers in order to meet the learning needs of students who are below proficiency or are at risk of not graduating.

15. Parent & Community Participation • Your plan must describe the school entity's approaches for involving parents or guardians, community groups, businesses and institutions of higher education in the learning process, as appropriate.

16. Pre-Kindergarten Transition • Your plan must address how the school district will accomplish coordination with the following before or after school programs and services for all grade levels, including pre-kindergarten, if offered, through 12: • child care, • after school programs, • youth workforce development programs, and • tutoring.

17. Utilization of Resources • Your plan should describe the resources the school entity plans to devote to the attainment of academic standards, including professional personnel, school library, classroom materials, educational technology, school facilities, budget and other resources available to the school entity.

18. Milestones of Progress • Your plan should list the specific goals, tasks, and initiatives that shall be accomplished by a specified date within each year of the planning cycle; such goals, tasks, and initiatives shall be derived from the priorities described in the strategic plan, as locally appropriate benchmarks that shall ensure consistent monitoring and midcourse correction.

19. Professional Education Plan

20. Needs Assessment • A description of the needs assessment and how the plan meets the educational and staff development needs of the school entity, and its professional educators, students and the community;

21. Education Options • The professional education needs/goals that will be met by completion of each continuing professional education option and how each relates to areas of assignment and certification or potential administrative certification. The options may include but shall not be limited to: • Collegiate studies; • Continuing professional education courses taken for credit; and • Other programs, activities or learning experiences taken for credit or hourly

22. Limited English/ESL • School entities that have students who are limited English proficient/English language learners address the professional education needs of staff who work with these students

23. CPR Training • Evidence that the school entity offers CPR training on site at least once every three years

24. Gifted Education Training • Evidence that school districts and IUs provide in-service training for gifted and regular teachers, principals, administrators and support staff persons responsible for gifted education

25. Professional Education Providers • A list of providers, courses, programs, activities and other learning experiences approved by the professional education committee to provide the continuing professional education options listed in the plan

26. Professional Education Action Plan • Action plans for professional education activities to meet the goals of the three-year plan. Action plans must include objectives, a listing of the actions to be taken, timelines for completion, person(s) responsible for action plan implementation, and evaluation procedures

27. Annual Review • A description of the process for reviewing and amending the plan annually

28. Criteria and Balance • Evidence that the plan meets the professional education criteria and strikes a balance between content, pedagogy and other skills

29. Teacher Induction Plan

30. Teacher Induction Planning Participants • The name of the induction coordinator and a description of the individuals who developed the plan and how they were selected;

31. Goals and Competencies • A list of goals and competencies for the induction program

32. Assessment Processes • A description of how the needs of inductees will be assessed

33. Mentor Selection • A description of how the mentors were selected

34. Activities and Topics • A timeline of activities/topics, including the Code of Conduct, to be addressed

35. Evaluation and Monitoring • A description of the procedures for monitoring and evaluating the induction program

36. Participation and Completion • A description of how records of participation and program completion will be kept

37. Approaches to Strategic Planning

38. DISTRICT VISION FOR INCREASING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT SPECIAL EDUCATION PLAN CHAPTER 12 PLAN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN TECHNOLOGY PLAN

39. Phase I: Setting the Stage • Products: Planning Team; Planning Process; Planning Schedule; Communications to Stakeholders; Preliminary Data Packaging • Process: Leadership of the district will: • Analyze the mandated plans to identify “who should be in the room” from the start of the planning process • Customize the planning process to accommodate local culture and conditions; establish the tentative schedule for conducting the process • Designate an internal process owner • Determine and allocate resources and support needed for the strategic planning processes • Recruit the comprehensive planning team • Inform stakeholders about the process: Why this? Why now? How will it occur? • Define and format (“package”) initial data to be used – student results; other locally-defined indicators of district success; regularly available process/context data • [Options: These tasks can be completed during a single, multi-day meeting or as a series of shorter meetings of the leadership team] Comprehensive Strategic Planning Framework Nancy Aronson and Donald Burkins 2006

40. Phase II: Initiating the Process – Opening the Comprehensive Umbrella • Products: reinvigorated mission and beliefs, a vision and district focus (comprehensive goals) for this planning cycle • Process: The planning team will complete processes that include: • Honoring The Past & Present (What is the best of “what we are doing” and what are the possibilities for the future?). • Scanning the Environment (What trends and forces shape what we can and must do; what are the implications for action?) • Analyzing Student Results (What does student data suggest that our students know how to do well? That we know how to do well? Where do we need to go next?) • Building Future Scenarios (From the perspective of each of the required plans – what can we envision as desirable future scenarios?) • Identifying Strategic Goals (What common themes emerge from future scenario-building?) • Chartering Work Groups to build actions and specific mandated plans • Options: Selecting processes by which to complete each task of the “process” outlined above – e.g., appreciative interviewing, mind-mapping, process flow charting, data dialogues; Providing parameters and any other “givens” to the groups; adding other criteria to the chartering, for example, district-wide themes, etc. that need to be considered or incorporated into plans (e.g. professional learning communities) Comprehensive Strategic Planning Framework Nancy Aronson and Donald Burkins 2006

41. Phase III: Generating Mandated Plans and Action Plans Process: • Work groups “work,” completing mandated plan processes (prof. ed. plan, teacher induction plan, special education plan, educational technology plan, NCLB district improvement plan if required), while actively seeking to build integration/connections between each mandated plan and the comprehensive plan, including: • “Reengaging” the data that’s relevant for informing your planning [Mind maps: What is affecting ‘X’?; Process flow chart(s) – how do we do it now] • Generate first draft of assigned plan (including action steps) [What changes in our work processes will bring about the changes we want in our student or related program results?] • Drafting the implications for other plans and communicating them • Making the connection to the larger district focus (comprehensive goals). • Incorporate input from other planning groups into draft Comprehensive Strategic Planning Framework Nancy Aronson and Donald Burkins 2006

42. Phase III: Generating Mandated Plans and Action Plans • Products: action plans and all required components of each mandated plan • Process: • Midcourse planning/integration meeting to connect the plans (seeking redundancies, gaps, areas of integration, identifying areas of contradiction/conflicting direction) and see the emerging whole. Is this hanging together? Are we aligned? (Options: large group assembly, meeting of the chairs, document exchange) • Generate completed mandated plan drafts; action plans, per chartering in Phase II Comprehensive Strategic Planning Framework Nancy Aronson and Donald Burkins 2006

43. Phase IV: Synthesizing The Whole • Products: comprehensive plan that integrates and aligns each of the PDE-required plans; shared understanding and commitments to action among stakeholder groups across the system • Process • Whole group assembling of district-wide plans (a compilation of all plans) and a final assessment of alignment and coherence. Final recommendation to move the document(s) for approval, submission to the state, and implementation in the district. Comprehensive Strategic Planning Framework Nancy Aronson and Donald Burkins 2006

44. Phase V: Implementation And Regular Monitoring • Products: plan-aligned actions across the school system; data regarding impact; revitalization and revision of individual plans, as appropriate; regular re-engagement of stakeholders with their shared vision of a higher-performing school system and the progress being made toward creating it. • Process • Annual implementation and review meetings to keep the process moving, to reinforce integration and coherent district actions, and to enable adjustment of plans, as appropriate. Comprehensive Strategic Planning Framework Nancy Aronson and Donald Burkins 2006

46. PDE’s “Getting Results” School Improvement Model • Aligned with NCLB Requirements • Aligned With Format for e-Strategic Planning • Aligned with other anticipated PDE initiatives • Incorporates Best Practices • Now a “required” format for submitting plans

47. CORE BELIEFS AND MISSION

48. Overview>Getting Started

49. Guiding Questions for Clarifying SHARED VALUES, MISSION & VISION SHARED VALUES (or Core Beliefs) Consider the following Guiding Questions as you reflect on your current set of shared values (core beliefs) or as you develop new ones. Through discussion and involvement of all stakeholders, strive for school-wide consensus on the following key questions. 1. Regarding expectations for student learning * • Can all students really learn? • What exactly do we expect all students to learn? • How will we respond when all of them don’t learn it? 2. Regarding expectations for professional practice • What standards will we hold ourselves to relative to the quality of our instructional practices? • What are our expectations regarding professional collaboration & continuous learning? • How will we ensure internal accountability within our professional community? 3. Regarding relationships among stakeholders • What values will guide/ground conduct & relationships among stakeholders in our learning community – student-to-student; student-to-staff; staff-to-staff; staff-to-parents/families; school-to-community. • How must our shared values change to reflect the culture we want & the results we desire for students? MISSION (or Purpose) The mission is the statement of your school’s essential purpose – its reason for being. The mission gives a shared meaning to the work of the school. A good mission is a driving force for productive change – it is a declarative statement of “what we have come together to experience and to accomplish,” consistent with the school’s shared values. As you reflect on your school’s mission, consider the following: • What does your school need to be like or be about in order for you yourself to find personal meaning in its mission and personal alignment with its goals? • Does our mission promote student achievement and/or excellence in educational practice. VISION Your school’s vision is a clear, compelling ‘picture’ of the desired state; it is an image of what your school will be like when you are being your best. In that sense, the vision sets the “standards” for action and performance. Consider these points relative to your school’s vision: • Does our vision reflect strong results for all students? • Does our vision honor quality professional practices? • Is our vision clear about the standards and expectations for all? *Adapted from Professional Learning Communities at Work by Richard DuFour & Robert Eaker

50. IMPROVEMENT TARGETS