5 year strategic plan part 2

Our School District Action Plan

The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills organization takes a comprehensive approach to preparing students for the future. During the research and presentations of our 5 year strategic planning group, many questions, concerns, and suggested directions were expressed that clearly aligned with the goals stated by the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. From formative assessments, state standards, multi-cultural approach to education, and NCLB to the skills necessary for students to be successful in our rapidly changing world, this partnership offers a direction that a forward-thinking school district such as ours should adopt as its own.

One of the statements at the on-set of our strategic planning group was, “Don’t re-invent the wheel,” and, with adoption of this partnerships platform we could put our district on a well-planned course of action that rides on the shoulders of many community, business, and educational leaders who spent countless hours developing a plan that we could not match in time or resources. This organization has developed plans that cover learning and teaching as well as leading, managing, and partnering,

It would be wise for us to spend time to really get to know this platform and its full potential before we adopt an action plan that could be short-sighted and leave us without focus and constantly scrambling to put together other in-service opportunities that may or may not accomplish what they set out to do. We need to adopt an all-encompassing vision for our district that guides our decision-making in curriculum, instruction, technology, assessments, community, and results in us fulfilling our mission statement; our promise to the community to deliver the best possible education that we can.

We need to either embrace this Partnership or find another path. I think that, if we really get to know what this partnership is all about, we’ll see that it covers the need to focus on math and science, languages, NCLB, and the critical skills for graduates of our digital world. This organization offers resources to districts to assess where the district is and what it needs to do next. I think we’ll find that its objectives are similar to our International Baccalaureate program, but that these objectives are for everyone, not just a select few.

What we need to do as a group is have everyone view their small group presentation in relation to the 21stcenturyskills.org materials and see if it is inclusive of the group’s findings. It could make our job a little easier, because then, we could adopt the 21^st century platform and work from a cohesive vision.

What I mean is, we need a common thread in our action plan that incorporates the 5 part action plan developed by our leaders. My fear is that this set of 5 action plans will be done in isolation of each other when, in fact they should be done blended together in a 21^st century framework, with 21^st century tools, skills, and assessments. If we think some things are left out, we should easily be able to plug them into this plan.

So, what I’ve done is taken the 5 step action plan proposed by our leaders and plugged it into a 21^st century framework with some modifications.

The outcome of that effort is below.

Action plan: Adopt 21st century skills, as stated by the partnership for 21st Century skills, and embed these skills into our school district's standards.

Action Steps:

1. Perform self-assessment of district using Partnership for 21^st Century Skills Mile Guide and begin our action from where we are now.

(The Partnership for 21st Century Skills developed the Milestones for Improving Learning and Education (MILE) Guide for 21st Century Skills to assist educators and administrators in measuring the progress of their schools in defining, teaching and assessing 21st Century Skills.)

2. Embed 21st century skills into every grade and into every core subject, as identified by NCLB and the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills.

3. Align incoming state and federal requirements into a 21^st century framework.

4. Align all professional Development opportunities to support the goal of providing 21^st century education to all students.

a. Train administrators in 21st century skills.

b. Bring in support from Partnership for 21^st Century Skills

c. Visit states incorporating 21^st Century Skills into standards.

d. Visit school districts that have incorportated 21^st century skills into their standards, such as Lawrence Township Schools, Indiana.

e. Provide on-going professional development in a 21^st century framework and teaching in a 21^st century context.

f. Develop a collection of teacher produced examples of technology-curricular integration best practice lessons (podcasts, vodcasts, webcasts, etc.)

g.Create instructional technology position for each building to assist teachers to be able to integrate technology skills into the classroom.

h.Formally recognize and support the efforts of the Sandbox technology team who research and develop the technology advancements that will impact our students.

i. Provide time and training to continue the successful implementation of professional learning communities in a 21^st century framework. This should encompass all aspects of the framework includingdevelopment/revision of common summative and formative assessments and to increase teacher assessment literacy.

j. Provide all teachers the comprehensive definition of assessment literacy. (Differentiation, authentic learning)

k. Develop a graduate credit course offering within the district focusing on the essential assessment skills to increase student learning and guide daily instruction in a 21^st century framework.

Embed the 21st century framework into the curriculum maps/pacing and common assessment development in the curriculum revision process.

5. Provide all students with opportunities to work in a 21^st century framework with 21^st century tools.

1. To provide transportation opportunities for students involved in after school programs (PARTA, Activity Bus, Parent volunteers)
2. Establish a high school course for credit for students that provide community service hours (tutoring, mentoring, etc,)
3. Develop additional club(s) to provide opportunities for social development and multi-cultural experiences for students.
4. Extend the computer labs hours outside of the regular school day to provide opportunities for every student to have greater access to technology.
5. Development of a Pyramid of Strategies for each building utilizing best practice interventions for student academic and behavioral support.
6. Institution of a process for referral of a student to the intervention system. Using classroom data (AimsWeb, classroom assessment) to identify the appropriate intervention level.
7. Adoption of a social skills curriculum for students needing additional support.
8. Identify pre-Kindergarten students that do not meet the academic benchmarks and provide opportunities for intervention to close the gap.
9. Adopt the Physical Education waiver approved by the Ohio State Legislation for students who have two seasons of athletics, marching band, or cheerleading, giving students the required graduation credit, and allowing these students to replace that time with other 21^st century skill opportunities.
10. Provide an expanded Foreign Language program for students beginning in the elementary school so that all students can learn in a 21^st century context and “utilize non-English languages as a tool for understanding other nations and cultures.”

These plans above are based on the following Partnership for 21^st Century Skills 9 steps to build momentum as presented in the Mile Guide.

1. Embrace a powerful vision of public education that includes 21st century skills.

2. Align leadership, management and resources with educational goals.

3. Use this tool (Mile Guide) to assess where schools are now.

4. Develop priorities for 21^st century skills.

5. Develop a professional development plan for 21st century skills.

6. Make sure students have equitable access to a 21^st century education.

7. Begin developing assessments to measure student progress in 21st century skills.

8. Collaborate with outside partners.

9. Plan collectively and strategically for the future.

Definitions:

A 21^st century framework includes the core subjects as identified by NCLB, 21^st century content (global awareness, financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy,), learning and thinking skills (critical thinking and problem solving skills, communication skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills, information and media literacy skills, and contextual learning skills), information and communications technology skills(ability to use technology to develop 21^st century content knowledge and skills), life skills (leadership, ethics, accountability, adaptability, personal productivity, personal responsibility, people skills, self direction, and social responsibility), and 21^st century assessments “(Authentic 21st century assessments are the essential foundation of a 21st century education. Assessments must measure all five results that matter - core subjects; 21st century content; learning skills; ICT literacy; and life skills. To be effective, sustainable and affordable, assessments must use modern technologies to increase efficiency and timeliness. Standardized tests alone can measure only a few of the important skills and knowledge students should learn. A balance of assessments, including high-quality standardized testing along with effective classroom assessments, offers students a powerful way to master the content and skills central to success).”

21st century context: teaching through the use of relevant real-world examples, applications and settings to frame academic content for students, enabling them to see the connection between their studies and the world in which they live.

Taken from Framework for 21^st Century Learning by The Parnership for 21^st Century Skills.