EDLD 5399 Week 3

Week Three Assignment, Part 1 – CARE Model Analysis of District/Campus Improvement Initiatives or Action Research Plans

Please review your intern plan. In the first course, students were encouraged to engage in some action research, or participate in district or campus improvement initiatives. Each of you has had some experiences with such initiatives or action plans. Please review those experiences and complete the following analysis:

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. Campus improvement plans are not aligned with district plan.
2. District goals are outdated.  Goals had target dates for 2010-2011.
3. Goals for technology support not reached.
4. Lack of community involvement in planning.

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. The plan is comprehensive and addresses needs.
2. The plan is organized and easy to follow.
3. The plan has evaluations built in.

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. A more structured approach to developing the plan sequenced with campus plans and CNA’s.
2. Inclusion of technology and technology instruction/support for teachers.
3. Involve all stakeholders through opportunities for input and follow with plan and consistent promotion of plan to create a working document.

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. Use evaluations of each development activity and correlate with plan goals/objectives.
2. Departmental analysis of student performance data in vertically aligned department conference planning periods.
3. Monthly meetings of district and campus improvement teams with feedback provided from evaluations and analysis from#1 and #2.

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

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

Review the above analysis, and write at least one page thoroughly describing recommendations and lessons learned from experiences with the improvement initiatives or action research plans.

During my internship I have served on both the campus improvement team and the district improvement team.  We have monthly meeting at the district level and at the campus level with some months meeting twice on campus.  The majority of the district meetings have been canceled due to lack of business to address.

Based on my experiences I believe that our district should reestablish the planning process as a basis for school improvement and create an outline for the district planning process to include the selection of members, the role of those members, goal setting and the support of goals through objectives and activities, schedule of meetings and meeting targets, incorporation of plan into decision-making, identifying resources, collection of feedback, ongoing evaluation, accountability, and needs assessment.  Members must be representative of all stakeholders to include community interest and therefore meetings scheduled accordingly.  The use of diverse methods for collection of feedback from all stakeholders through committee members and other forms of collections such as surveys and open communication creates ownership and buy-in and results in a “living” document rather than one stuck in a notebook on a shelf or a file in a computer.  Teachers and other stakeholders must be able to see the pay-off of their many hours of work in the creation of the plan.

Every district improvement meeting will be conducted with information from representatives reporting on the daily activities of each school supporting objectives and goals.  Information, as previously stated, is continuously generated through activity evaluations, department meetings, data analysis, grade-level team meetings, campus team meetings, community feedback, and more.  This allows for information to flow from the student level to the administrative level so that data based decision-making is student centered.  It also validates the importance of the plan and its supporting activities to all stakeholders thus strengthening ownership. 

The accountability of the plan not only comes from the ongoing evaluation but also from the established structure of meetings and calendar dates.  Meetings must occur and be conducted to support and align with established goals.  Although evaluation and analysis is ongoing, dates must be set for the establishment of revised goals, yearly needs assessments, and improvement plan revision.