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"School Improvement has been likened to a journey. Thus the planning process becomes the vehicle to reach the destination and the plan itself the map. It should not be overlooked, however, that the quality of ongoing discussion and reflection is of considerably greater importance than the plan. If the plan itself becomes a substitute for school improvement or its intended outcomes, the whole process will become a pointless paper and pencil exercise."

During the past quarter century, local educators have been involved in various efforts to improve their schools. The legislature enacted multiple initiatives on school reform and conscientious educators responded to new requirements for curricular change and assessment of student achievement.

An annual School Improvement Plan is required of each school in the state. The plans must be developed annually because school leaders are expected to make comparisons of "student performance and school improvement for the preceding academic years." In other words, School Improvement Plan is designed to assure continuous school improvement from one year to the next. Continuous improvement must be measured by indicators of student performance of all students in the school.

The new Accreditation Process requires local educators to provide evidence that all students learning. A seven-step planning model is being using by District 108. The model satisfies three requirements: data collection, data analysis, and continuous school improvement planning. 

The model addresses these fundamental questions:

  1. Are all students learning? (Setting goals for learning that are aligned to State Learning Standards. Developing common measures for student performance. Gathering data on student learning)
  2. How do we know they are learning? (Establishing criteria and common measures to determine student gains. Analyzing student achievement data.)
  3. What changes need to be made in our program so that all students will be successful? (Identifying areas of student achievement that are strong or need strengthening. Designing alternative instructional strategies that provide for greater student achievement.)
  4. Where are we as a school, now? (Gathering data through needs assessments from staff, parents, students, community.)
  5. Where do we want to go? (What priorities need to be set to improve our current efforts?)
  6. How will we get there? (What strategies, resources and/or commitments need to be made to get where we want to go?)
  7. How will we know when we arrive? (How can we monitor and evaluate our progress? How can we assure continuous progress)


Internal and External reviews focus on three areas:

  1. Teaching and Learning
  2. Student Learning, Progress and Achievement
  3. The Learning Community
In each of these areas, specific topics are reviewed through direct observations in classrooms; shadowing students; interviewing teachers, parents, staff and others; studying documents such as the School Improvement Plan; analyzing assessment results; and examining various artifacts of student work such as portfolios, projects and works of art.

School improvement efforts will be facilitated through the School Instruction Leadership Team in each school. Input, participation and ownership will come from all interested stakeholders who are willing to give the time and effort necessary to achieve continuous progress outcomes.