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In any school district, education is most effective when everybody within the system—teachers, paraeducators, administrators, office and support staff, as well as parents and students—works together toward a common goal or set of goals. When everyone is on the same page, student outcomes are likely to be good. When there’s disagreement or dissonance, student learning is negatively impacted.
At Alludo, we know that providing teachers with training and support in the form of professional development is a key component of effective education. When teachers are afforded the opportunity to learn and grow in their jobs, they’re less likely to leave and more likely to be transformative in the classroom. Part of your strategic planning should include a budget for professional development.
Since strategic planning and budgeting can be challenging, we have created this complete guide to help you with creating an action plan for school district goals.
Let’s start by reviewing what a school district action plan is and what it should include. Action plans are commonly used in business and have made their way into the educational system as a useful tool for the pursuit of school district goals and initiatives.
An effective action plan for your school district should involve three things:
In the business world, strategic plans might be decided and implemented by a few key people. In education, school districts are most likely to succeed if they bring the larger community into the process of strategic planning and into the pursuit of common goals. Everyone in your school district should be working together to educate students as effectively as possible.
Stakeholders in any school district include district leaders, including the superintendent and assistant superintendent, as well as school boards, school administrators, teachers, paraeducators, office and school support staff, parents, and students. A strategic plan can’t be successful if these people aren’t involved in it in some way.
Before you create an action plan to help you achieve your school district goals, you should know that there are three main models that can be used to create an action plan.
A plan on a page is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a one-page document that outlines your school district goals on one side of the page and the actions required to achieve them on the other.
Each goal you list in your plan should be a SMART goal: Specific, Attainable, Measurable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Here’s an example of a SMART goal that might appear on a school district action plan.
By June of 2023, there will be an increase of 10% in the number of students reporting that they find school to be a safe and caring environment.
With a one-page plan, you may not have room to list your current metrics in each category. The action plan for our sample goal might include creating student focus groups, conducting surveys, and implementing suggestions from students about what might make them feel safe and cared for when they’re at school.
VMOSA stands for Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans. It’s a type of strategic planning that takes a big picture view of the school district, allowing everyone involved to understand your school district’s vision and break down what must happen in order for that vision to become a reality.
You can look at a VMOSA plan as a cascading plan because its name also describes the order in which information should appear. Here’s a rundown of what each of these terms means in practice:
As you can see, VMOSA allows school districts to identify and carry out their vision by breaking each piece of the plan down into specific steps that may be completed in pursuit of the vision.
The five-step model of strategic planning involves asking questions and answering them in detail to create an achievable action plan:
The five-step plan is a useful one if you’re not sure of your vision yet because answering questions can help you focus your efforts where they’re most needed.
The steps to create a school district action plan are relatively simple. We suggest starting with a plan model to use to communicate your plan, and then taking the following steps:
The process of creating an action plan isn’t complicated but it does require attention to detail and specificity.
Let’s look at what a school district action plan might look like. For this example, we’re using the plan-on-a-page model.
Vision
Goals
Key Players
Action Items
Metrics
Every student performing at or above grade level
By (year) all students will meet or exceed grade-level testing benchmarks.
Teachers and paraeducators; parents; students
Provide students with small group instruction to understand tests; start a peer tutoring program; provide students with monthly practice tests.
85% of all students in grades 3-8 will have scores at or above the benchmark by (year.)
Every person in the school district is treated fairly and with respect.
Close the achievement gap in grades 3-8 by (year.)
Teachers, administrators, parents, and students.
Provide encouragement to minority students and give them personalized attention; provide staff training in equity and inclusion.
By (year), enrollment in high academic courses will match the district’s ethnic makeup.
Every student feels safe and supported at school.
Implement new programs and strategies by (year) that make students feel safe and supported.
School board, district officials, teachers, students.
Conduct student focus groups to understand what students need and want; adopt specific strategies based on student feedback.
Conduct student survey; goal is to increase the % of students who feel safe and supported by 15% by (year.)
Every teacher and staff member feels supported and appreciated.
Implement online, asynchronous professional development by the start of the next semester.
District officials, school board, school administrators.
Partner with an affordable PD provider to give teachers the opportunity to learn and grow in their jobs.
80% teacher engagement by the end of (school year.)
This is only one option to organize a one-page action plan—and of course, you could use one of the other models we discussed. The key is to work from your vision down to make sure that you’re thinking big while planning small, actionable steps to help you achieve your vision.
Creating an action plan for school district goals is necessary if you want to improve student learning and outcomes while reducing teacher turnover and burnout. Whichever plan model you choose, teacher professional development should have a place in your plan because you need teachers to achieve any goals you set.
The Alludo platform provides a convenient and affordable way to offer professional development opportunities to teachers, administrators, and staff in your district. With prices starting at under $5 per adult learner per month, you can provide PD for hundreds of educators each year for less than it would cost you to offer traditional PD to just a few teachers.
Keep in mind that when teachers support your district goals, you’re likely to achieve them because they’re the ones in the classrooms with students and are in the best position to provide students with the support they need to excel.
Creating an action plan for school district goals is the first step toward achieving your most important goals. Whether you want to improve student test scores, promote equity, or decrease teacher turnover, adding professional development to the mix can help you get to where you need to be.
Are you looking for a cost-effective way to improve professional development in your district? Alludo can help! Click here to get your free trial of Madagascar, our online asynchronous professional development platform.
