Every successful organization works to continuously improve its practice in order to better serve its clients. In the case of a school district, our primary responsibility is to serve its students, and in addition we also serve the entire community by providing an educational program of which the community can be proud and provide that program at a reasonable cost to the taxpayers. Good schools positively impact home values, reduce crime rates in communities, reduce the community reliance on social welfare programs, and attract businesses. To that end, the District has started a formal improvement process. The purpose of this message is to provide an overview of the process and its goals.
The improvement process begins with a self-assessment. The self-assessment begins with an analysis of our “quantitative” data related to student achievement and the allocation of resources. In this part of the process, the district is examining five-year trends in the data. We are analyzing the data looking for trends (both positive and negative) to determine areas of strength and need. As the data analysis takes place we will be conducting a series of staff, student, and community focus groups. The focus groups respond to questions related to the school program from an opinion perspective. This “qualitative” information is valuable in that it informs the process about the feelings people have about the district and its programming. The final step of the self-assessment is to compare the quantitative data and the qualitative data and look for alignment and gaps between the information gathered. Finding alignments and gaps will inform the plan from a communications perspective and from a plan development perspective.
Once the evidence is examined, a team begins the process of setting priorities and developing an overall action plan. The action plan begins with the end in mind, that being: What the Wickliffe City School District needs to look like now and into the future. The plan charts a course from the ultimate vision backward and includes specific actions steps to be taken, a timeline for completion of each step along the path, benchmark indicators for evaluation, and regular reviews of progress.
Upon completion of the planning process, the implementation of the plan begins. Implementation is effective when we follow the actions steps with fidelity and discipline, regularly chart progress, evaluate progress in a formal manner, and annually review the plan to ensure it is still appropriate. While modifications will be necessary, allowing the plan to become sidetracked by outside influences or internal disagreement must be guarded against. The most successful organizations are those that take a disciplined approach to their work and it is our goal to demonstrate the discipline necessary to become one of those great organizations.
A true improvement process is a continuous loop. The plan, once implemented, is ongoing as the best of organizations are always working to improve.
If you are interested in participating as a member of one of the focus groups and/or would like to contribute to the plan in some manner, please let us know as your input is important to us and will assist us in developing and implementing a program that is going to best meet the needs of the students of the district.