School Improvement: Revitalize Your School with Strategic Planning

The overarching, and arguably the most important common element, is the goal of improved student learning. What makes each organization model unique? First, the teachers are organized differently in each model: The recognized features of each organization model are summarized in Table 1. Organizational models facilitate, but do not guarantee collaboration.

How teachers engage in a model can make a difference. Equally important is understanding how to engage effectively in collaborative work with colleagues. As with other skills, we gain a greater capacity for collaboration with the opportunity to practice. To initiate or revitalize teacher collaboration in your school, try these five strategies.

Create a truly shared vision and goals. The level of ownership they feel in the process influences how much teachers actually invest in collaborative work. A shared vision and goals can lead to that sense of ownership. The strong connection between the work and the vision of the team can help individuals see purpose and assume ownership in the process.

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Develop a sense of community. At its core, collaboration is relational. Getting to know your colleagues, understanding their passions, and taking the time to connect on a personal level can help members gain mutual respect and look past perceived eccentricities in others. Establishing shared values and commitments can unify the group and provide purpose for their collective work. Like all relationships, a collaborative community develops over time and requires work to maintain. Trust influences the effectiveness of collaborative work.

Respecting group commitments such as being fully present at meetings and seeing the best in others helps establish trust and build a cohesive community.

Building Teacher Collaboration School-wide

Other ways to develop community include establishing traditions, celebrating accomplishments, and recognizing individual contributions. When we are transparent about our work and our beliefs, our colleagues can see our limitations as well as our strengths, placing us in a position of vulnerability. Sharing with and trusting colleagues requires courage and humility. Identifying and establishing group norms also can help develop that safe environment. Norms might include defining roles and responsibilities, using protocols for interpersonal communication, and outlining parameters for time management.

Taking the time to get to know the learning styles, needs, interests, fears, and hopes of each team member helps shape the norms for how the group engages in the shared work. Use discussion and dialogue. Whether they are integrating curriculum, analyzing data, or studying a new practice, teams should understand the roles of, and differences between, dialogue and discussion. They are equally important to the group process. Discussion moves the conversation forward.

In discussion, individuals state their opinions for the purpose of building consensus or making decisions. The goal of dialogue is to share and broaden knowledge.

Dialogue invites multiple perspectives, values the exploration of biases and assumptions, questions the status quo, and entertains new ways of knowing and being. His experiences led him to conclusion that the process is not very effective due to its complexity. The eight superintendents interviewed for this study had extensive experience with strategic planning. In all of their districts, strategic planning had been in place for three or more years.

The following questions were asked in informal interviews with each of the superintendents: Why did you decide to implement strategic planning in your school district? What did you hope to accomplish? What changes have you witnessed in the district as a result of strategic planning? What specifically has been accomplished with strategic planning?

Has the staff changed as a result of strategic planning? Do they think and act strategically? What have been the successes and struggles experienced with the strategic planning process? How has strategic planning affected your position as superintendent of schools?

The superintendents overwhelmingly agreed that strategic planning was worth the time, money, and effort in their districts. When asked what changes they had witnessed in the district, all eight superintendents interviewed agreed that strategic planning: Superintendents also reported that through strategic planning their districts had made very specific improvements such as: When asked about the school culture question, regarding staff acting more strategically as a result of strategic planning in their districts, the superintendents gave mixed reviews.

Another superintendent reported that not all staff changed as a result of strategic planning. She did say, however, that staff was more apt to get involved with proposing and implementing solutions to problems as a result of their involvement in the strategic planning process. Finally, one superintendent said this was a difficult question to answer and saw no major observable changes in the way staff thought or acted as a result of the district strategic planning process.

Overall, the superintendents interviewed believed that the strategic planning process had a positive effect on their position as superintendent. One remarked that his involvement in strategic planning gave him a clear direction and allowed him to be seen as an instructional leader.

School Improvement: Revitalize Your School with Strategic Planning - Debra A. Tracy - Google Книги

Clearly, my attempts to bring the community and the school district together to establish common expectations and goals to improve our schools would have been far more challenging, if not impossible, without strategic planning. He stated that this made his job much easier. I believe it allows me some credibility in our community when I am promoting and seeking support for specific efforts within the school department. They also indicated that the size and make up of their districts did not impede the use of strategic planning.

In fact, all those interviewed recommend that other superintendents consider the adoption of strategic planning in their districts. Findings from the review of the literature and interviews with superintendents led to the following recommendations for superintendents and other educational leaders contemplating using strategic planning in their districts. Communicate a clear purpose for strategic planning. Establishing and communicating a clear and compelling purpose for conducting strategic planning is the one of the most important things a superintendent can do prior to launching a strategic planning initiative.

It is critical that the fundamental reasons for strategic planning be communicated to school committee members, staff, parents, and community members.

Establish broad based ownership for strategic planning among key stakeholder groups. Ownership reflects a personal and collective commitment of staff and the school's stakeholders to engage in strategic planning. Ownership occurs when those impacted by strategic planning can identify with its process and purpose.

Since the strategic planning process requires wide involvement from staff and community members, it is important to develop ownership in the process. Since strategic planning requires the involvement of several stakeholder groups, it is important to build capacity for designing and implementing the plan. Capacity includes the knowledge, technical skills, and resources that the district, its staff, and stakeholders need in order to successfully engage in strategic planning.

Several of the interviewed superintendents noted that, prior to implementing strategic planning, training of the strategic planning team was conducted and needed resources were allocated to support the process. Hire an outside facilitator. The literature on strategic planning recommends that an outside facilitator be hired to facilitate the work of the strategic planning committee. All of the superintendents interviewed indicated that they employed the services of an outside facilitator.

Use the strategic plan! The greatest impediment to the successful use of strategic planning in education is the failure to implement the plan. Although there has been growing opposition to strategic planning in the literature in recent years, experience, practice, and the literature show that strategic planning can be an effective process for leading school reform and change initiatives in education if the five conditions cited above are in place.

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In the conclusion to her dissertation Canole said,. While this study presents the strategic planning process as a useful tool in educational reform, it can only guarantee results under certain conditions. When effectively implemented, it gives superintendents and other leaders a very focused and clear process for leading change initiatives. Educational Leadership, 48 7. Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations. Is there evidence of strategic thinking and acting?