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EDUCATOR DEVELOPMENT, EFFECTIVENESS & RETENTION
- Develop strong processes for recruiting and supporting principals and teachers.
- Ensure qualified principals and teachers are in every school and classroom.
- Professionally develop educators throughout their careers and work with them to take on leadership roles and new positions within the district.
- Coach, evaluate and provide feedback for principals and teachers to help them continuously improve their effectiveness.
- Recognize and retain effective principals and teachers.
SCHOOL PLANNING & CHOICE
- Assess programmatic and educational needs of each ward and the availability of quality school options.
- Engage community in any decisions about locating schools, transitioning ineffective programs, and re-using buildings.
- Ensure open student enrollment process is transparent and objective.
- Collaborate to solve common challenges such as transportation.
- Improve enrollment process to ensure that more students get one of their top three choices.
- Improve communications with families about quality school options through guidebooks, websites, fairs, etc.
- Successfully implement “community school” pilot to provide more non-academic supports to South Ward students and families; plan for expansion elsewhere.
DATA USE, MEASUREMENT & ACCOUNTABILITY
- Use data to measure the effectiveness of central office and school staff.
- Use data to measure district and school performance and progress.
- Train district and school staff to analyze and use student learning data to make decisions and improvements.
- Train families and community to interpret information about district and school performance and progress to help them make informed educational choices, including enrollment.
- Publish guidebooks and school performance reports to help parents better understand school strengths and weaknesses.
CURRICULUM & ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
- Use content and standards that are rigorous enough to prepare students for college and careers.
- Use content that is accessible to students of all different performance levels and learning styles.
- Invest in and integrate technology into curriculum and classrooms to ensure students are ready for 21st century careers.
- Use “benchmark” or other formative assessments throughout the year to make sure students are on track to make progress.
- Strengthen science, technology, engineering and math content.
- Offer more arts during and after school.
- Increase focus on humanities (Literature, Social Studies, etc…) and language.
- Create consistent vision, instruction and programs to meet the needs of English language learners.
- Ensure that special education students are in more inclusive environments.
- Continue to increase participation in, and quality of, early childhood pre-K programs.
STUDENT SUPPORTS
- Use information from classroom observations to help teachers improve their teaching.
- Customize academic supports for each student to ensure instruction and resources meet their needs.
- Revise discipline code to reflect policies that focus on remediation and healing, not punishments.
- Provide more customized social and emotional supports to each student.
- Improve school building security and school culture to make sure students feel safe.
OPERATIONS, FINANCE & GOVERNANCE
- Improve school services (janitorial services, food services, etc.).
- Establish policies for how school board will function and be structured once local governance is returned.
- Continuously update district policies to meet evolving needs of all students and staff, and to align with current operations.
- Expand training for school district staff and School Advisory Board members on district policies.
- Develop an evaluation process that holds superintendent accountable for the school district’s progress.
- Allocate school-based funds based on students’ needs, such as more funding for special education students.
- Develop and widely share online budgeting tools to help stakeholders understand funding realities.
- Better analyze, understand and explain key budget variables (enrollment, demographics, etc.).
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
- Ensure that central office and schools regularly engage school staff, families and other community stakeholders about key decisions.
- Create internal and external “feedback loops” to provide regular input to district and school leadership.
- Ensure school-level strategic plans include community engagement goals, strategies and coordination with the Office of Family and Community Engagement.
- Conduct regular conversations with key stakeholders (i.e., parents, grandparents, principals, teachers and students).
- Continue working with Mayor’s Office and city leaders to identify collaborative approaches to solve common challenges.
- Establish structures and supports for working with non-English-speaking communities.
- Expand partnerships with community organizations and local colleges and universities.
- Train parents and community members how to effectively advocate for their children’s needs.