Committing To A Long Term Focus

Last week I had the honor of sitting with a room full of teachers and principals going through three days of School Site Strategic Planning.  This is the next step in the Strategic Planning Format.  It allows schools to align their school site strategic plans with the district plan.  It also allows schools some autonomy and uniqueness as they develop their individual site plan.  During the training one of the teachers turned to me and asked a really important question.  She stated that over the course of time programs and ideas had been introduced and proved to have a short shelf life.  She stated that people felt positive about some of the changes that were happening in the district and that they wanted to be open toward where we were heading.  She then asked me,  What are our priorities?  I was ashamed.  I felt horrible that I had not done a better job of communicating and painting the big picture for the entire staff as to where the district was going.  I don't want anyone to feel out of the loop.  In response to the need for more information I want to give you some of the big picture by telling you what my response was to her.

I have been in education for a long time and have a few pet peeves.  The number one per peeve that I have is that we never allow things enough time to produce the changes that we want.  We put in place a new change initiative after evaluate the issues that trouble us.  Next we analyze the problem and implement a plan of action.  In a year or two our professional ADD kicks in and we go for another flavor of the month change.  If we didn't see immediate results with the last idea for change we are on to a new one.  My experience with running schools and bringing about change is that most meaningful change takes several years to have an impact.  You can do change that is cosmetic overnight and it has little impact.  Changing the culture and beliefs of an organization takes much longer.  As Superintendent I am committed to organizational and structural change.  I want to change who we are, how we operate and our long term results.  We cannot be self-satisfied with where we are. The system that we currently have in place is only capable of producing the results that we currently have.  By long term measures such as our average ACT score, percent of students who go to two and four year colleges and the percent of students who score 3 or higher on AP exams, we are not currently a high achieving school district. It is not a pleasant message to digest but unless our data belongs to some other district, it is the truth. Remember that at Convocation my challenge to all of us was to build a model school district, not one that is a little better.  To do meaningful, long term change you must focus on a few priorities.  You must decide which changes will cause a tipping point in the performance of this district, if these changes are pursued for five or more years. 

In working with the Executive Team, School Board and Staff I would like to list the things that we will focus on over the next five years at least.  I would like to promise you that we will focus on these things forever, but unfortunately, Superintendents generally do not have the luxury of being in the same place forever.  These things are:

1. Strategic Planning - District Level and School Site Level
2. Universal Instruction
3. Professional Learning Communities
4.. Response to Intervention - Ensuring that there is an immediate response to student failure that is systematic and proactive, not reactive or delayed.
5. PBIS - A Universal way of responding to and shaping student behaviors at the elementary and middle school level. A corresponding program at the high school level.

Some of you may be wondering, what about other things like I Can Statements, Leveled Literacy, Technology, Focus on Character, Service Projects, Grading Changes, Common Formative and Summative Assessments?  These are all the outworking of the five things listed above.  Many of you are already working on these things or about to work on them.  These things are also imbedded into the Action Plans and Action Steps of the District Strategic Plan.  Think of it this way: It is as if we are all construction workers working on the same building.  We are operating from the same blueprint and need to know what the finished product will look like. The Strategic Plan is the blueprint that establishes what the priorities are and ensure that there is a long term focus that does not change from year to year.  Builders do not switch to a different blueprint in the middle of a building a house or skyscraper. That is why the life cycle of our Strategic Plan is in five year increments or until all the initial Action Plans and Steps are fulfilled. When this is accomplished we go through the Strategic Planning Format all over again. The things that need to be changed in the Plan, get changed.  The things that don't, don't.  The life cycle of a School Site Strategic Plan is approximately three years.  When it is accomplished the plan is updated and new Action Plans and Steps are written.  As you can tell this is a cycle of contiuous improvement.  What I have to make sure of is that all of you are constantly aware of where we are going and why.  Since School Site Planning is done by the staff at each school and is not a top down thing I know that you will feel complete ownership.  Thank you for allowing me to give this initial explanation to help clarify things.  If you can respond to this blog and let me know what other clarification any of you need, do not hesitate to contact me.