Internship - Action Planning Reflections

Concerns – Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and list at least three concerns that you have identified from these experiences – a concern may be any matter that engages your attention or interest.

1. Strategic Planning – I am concerned that not all the action plans will be implemented with fidelity and that they will be forgotten if we get a new superintendent next year.
2. College and Career Initiatives – I am concerned that some of the initiatives that the district would like  to implement for college and career standards require additional staffing and flexible scheduling in a time where budget is tight and so are the schedules.
3. Data-Decision Making AYP – I am concerned that the district did not meet AYP due to Special Ed. numbers and we did not plan effectively enough to make wise decision on which tests our special education students took.

Affirmations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and affirm or identify at least 3 actions that must be sustained and supported to achieve the District/Campus improvement initiatives.

1. Strategic Planning – In order to keep this plan moving forward, the superintendent needs to keep it called to stakeholders attention.  Implementation needs to begin quickly and referred to often.
2. College and Career Initiatives – The initiatives need to be a part of all of our meetings on instruction and curriculum.
3. Data-Decision Making AYP – The meeting dates need to be scheduled now.  Each campus needs to track their own Sp. ed. and LEP data and bring to each meeting to look at as a district.

Recommendations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and describe at least 3 recommendations you would make regarding the District/Campus Improvement plans or action research plans.

1. Strategic Planning - The district and campus improvement plans need to support the districts long-range strategic plan.  I recommend that the district’s mission and vision statement be the same on all three documents.  Currently they are not.
2. College and Career Initiatives – That we also hold parent trainings to teach parents how they can help their children prepare for college or a career and that they understand that their child can attend college if they so choose.
3. Data-Decision Making AYP – Make district “war boards” so that when we meet to discuss sp. ed. and LEP data as a district, we have a visual to work from that represents the data collected from each campus.

Evaluate - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and identify at least 3 strategies for evaluating the improvement plans or recommendations.

1. Strategic Planning – Look at the timeline and see if we are still on track in the implementation phase of the action plans.
2. College and Career Initiatives – At the end of the year, give a survey to parents and high school students about whether or not they feel they have been prepared for college or a career through their experience in the district. Look at college acceptance percentages of this years senior class compared to last years.
3. Data-Decision Making AYP – Compare the data from each meeting this year and see how it compares to the AYP data we receive for the 2012 school year.

Week Three Assignment, Part 2 – Part C of the Comprehensive Final Report

Describing Recommendations and District/Campus Improvement Initiative/Action Research Lessons Learned

During my internship, I have had the privilege to participate in several improvement initiatives that have broadened my experience from campus decision making to district decision making.

The experience I have gained the most insight from was being able to be a part of our district’s strategic planning.  The Superintendent brought in a consultant from Cambridge Strategic Services who trained us not only on the process of strategic planning, but guided us on the path successfully creating a strategic plan for our district.  I was able to participate on one of the Action Teams as well. I participated on the Unity and Pride team. We developed an action plan to develop a culture of unity and pride throughout our schools and community. This committee was one of five for the district plan. The focus of strategic planning was not to plan for just one year, but to plan for many years to come.  At this time, all of the action teams have completed their action plans and they have been accepted by the original committee and the superintendent. We will now begin the implementation phase of each plan.  My concern is that there will not be any follow through with the plans or that a change in leadership would stop the plan from moving forward.  I recommend that the superintendent continue to publicize the plan and monitor each phase of its implementation.

Another experience that helped me look at the district as a whole was participating in a leadership team meeting where we analyzed our AYP data for 2011. At this meeting, the principals met with the special ed. director, the bilingual director, and the assistant superintendent of curriculum to discuss where we did not meet AYP and brainstorm what we can do as a collaborative team to meet AYP this coming year.  Our plan includes meeting once a month with the different special program directors to assess data and create action plans to implement to improve that data.

A final activity that I was able to participate in was in learning about and planning for the implementation of the K-12 Career and College Initiatives.  I met with the Coordinator of Advanced Academics to discuss the college readiness standards and how they could be integrated into the district curriculum.  Although many of these standards are already embedded in our curriculum, we determined that teachers need to be trained on looking at these standards and understanding their importance.  We are starting this initiative at the Kindergarten campus where we will teach the students what a college is and how they can go to college if they choose too.