School Improvement: Concepts @ Work: Desired State Chart

Desired State Chart

United School District

Vision Statement: Every child will have access to quality education and lifelong learning.

Mission Statement: To provide Excellence in Education so that each student will discover the joy of life-long leaning and become a contributing member of society.

The District

United School District is comprised of four buildings in three communities: Chelsing has one PreK-2 Elementary, in Shardsville is the Middle School (grades 6-8) and elementary grades 3-5, and the high school can be found in nearby Jackson.
Student class size averages 90 students in grades 9-12, 88 students in grades 6-8, and 72 students in the elementary grades PreK-5.
The superintendent has three Building Administrators: one per building in each community. The Elementary Principal at Chelsing divides his time as principal and the district curriculum director. The three building administrators have been with the district 10 years or more, the superintendent is in her third year.
Demographics: 18% of students are on free/reduced lunch. There are no minorities although neighboring communities are seeing a slow increase in Hispanic student enrollment.
The 103 teachers in the district can be best described as "veteran." Only five new teachers have been hired by the current superintendent.
United enjoys their reputation as being a great school. Student achievement is perceived as being high and they have great athletic programs in football (state champions two years ago), girls' basketball, and wresting.

Professional Development

During the past two years, United has worked with three neighboring districts to bring presenters to the area. These presenters included Eric Jensen (brain research) and Lee Jenkins (data collection and analysis in the classroom).
The principal at Shardsville has worked with the local AEA to provide professional development in reading strategies for grades 3-5. Three sessions for all teachers were provided last year.
With the exception of Shardsville elementary, there have been no on-going professional development efforts. The implementation of what was learned about brain research and data collection has been left to individual teachers.

Administrative Meetings/Board Relations

Agendas for administrative meetings often reflect items about what's important at the moment. Examples of themes over the last six months include athletic issues/schedules, upcoming student field trips, preparation for board meetings, the logistics of professional development events, and parent issues.
Overall the superintendent enjoys a good relationship with the Board. There is stability among membership and no "meddling" in administrative decisions. However, both board members who have terms expiring at the end of the current year have decided not to run for election again.

Current Context

Today the superintendent attended a meeting led by a representative of the state education department. After the meeting there was plenty of discussion among the superintendents about NCLB and trajectories. Most of the conversation centered on the impossibility of it all. However, she was interested in what one of her colleagues was describing as his district's efforts to align resources (people, time, dollars) in order to meet the challenge of improving to meet their goals for all kids.

On her drive back to the district, the superintendent reflected upon what her district was doing in comparison to what her colleague described. She has come to this summary of her district's current reality:

There is no purposeful plan that coordinates the district student achievement goals with the every day efforts in the classroom. Planning up to this point has been by default, not design. This must change or we will not meet stated goals. The community would be shocked and outraged if we ended up on a "list."

As soon as she arrived back at her office, wrote the agenda for her next administrative team—it included only one item:

Begin writing a plan that will align our organizational results with the operations of this district.

Next, she got to work on analyzing district student achievement data.

Example graph: Write a caption for this graph.

Reading: Percent Proficient and Above, Radar Chart

And finally, she wrote down three strategic objectives:

Develop and implement a district-wide system to raise the achievement of low performers.
Develop and implement instructional approaches and interventions that ensure that every student demonstrates mastery of standards through multiple and varied learning opportunities.
Develop and implement staff development targeted to specific and strategic knowledge and skills of all employees.

Using the desired state chart, write a plan for what you want to accomplish and be when. Include a description of your desired state (see strategic objectives), the current reality (use student data and some of the context issues described), and steps you will need to have accomplished this year (include both objectives with months for completion).
Write the agenda for your next administrative team meeting. How will you get principals to understand the urgency of improvement that mirrors what the superintendent is feeling?

School Improvement