School Improvement Plan Site Reviews

Same topics, different chair.

The last two weeks I have been spending time with District Directors, School Administrative teams and SAEC Chairpersons on the School Improvement Plan Site Reviews. Each year our district has these school stakeholders and their assigned School Board members meet to review their school’s improvement plan.

What is a School Improvement Plan? “School improvement planning is the process schools use to ensure that all students achieve at high levels. The continuous school improvement planning process is the course of action employed to coordinate and prioritize all the work of the school in the context of increasing student success. A school improvement plan (SIP) serves as a blueprint for the course of action needed to produce school improvement and directs this process. An effective school improvement plan process allows Florida schools to develop a strategic and continuous plan that focuses on quality education and high levels of student achievement. Section 1001.42(18)(a), Florida Statutes (F.S.), requires that districts “annually approve and require implementation of a school improvement plan for each school in the district. The school improvement plan shall be designed to achieve the state education priorities pursuant to S. 1000.03(5), F.S. Each plan shall address student achievement goals and strategies based on state and school district proficiency standards.”  (Source: http://www.flbsi.org/word/2011-2012_SIP_TAP_Final.docx)

It was exciting for me to be a part of this as it wasn’t that long ago that I was on the other side of the table. In fact, in 2006 at Citrus Springs Elementary School it was its principal at the time, Ms. Trish Douglas, Carol Mainor, the Elementary Education Director, and myself in the same room talking about the SIP.

Attending and participating in these reviews provides me as a Board Member an opportunity to have the schools share what strategies they are using at their school to educate our students. It also gives me as a Board Member an opportunity to ask what is working and what isn’t with our students. In particular, with another challenging budget year coming for 2012-2013, this can be an excellent chance for Administrative teams to show us what is working and what is becoming a challenge.

Some of the impressive parts of my visits were seeing the “Data Rooms” where often the Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) conduct the “Data Days”. These are the days set aside for teaching teams to review student performance data, share best practices, and review as a team what is working and what isn’t.

Thank you to the students, parents, teachers, staff, principals & administrative teams for all the other work performed in research, participation, developing and writing these SIPs, and for your work done every day to make ALL our Elementary and Middle Schools into “A” schools. (High school grades have not been released yet.)

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