Durham Reporter

Schools across the United States are focusing on improving educational experiences through strategic school improvement plans. These plans are crucial, yet simply mandating that a plan is created does not guarantee that it will faithfully address areas needing improvement. Schools identified as low performing face additional pressure to transform their environments swiftly.

The development and execution of such plans require that school leaders identify key challenges to student success, create a comprehensive strategy, and facilitate the necessary changes to enhance learning conditions. For this, a well-structured school improvement plan is vital, one centered around continuous improvement with measures in place for sustainable change.

To guide school leaders through this intricate process, the i5 School Improvement Framework has been developed. This framework offers a five-step process to help educators formulate and implement plans for ongoing improvement.

The first step involves identifying root causes using school-specific data to hone in on problems needing resolution. This step fosters stakeholder engagement and ensures that solutions are built upon a properly diagnosed foundation.

The second step is ideating solutions aligned with school improvement goals. A thorough root cause analysis is crucial during this phase, helping teams to envision successful outcomes and formulate actionable steps that will reach these goals.

In the third step, the plan’s action steps must be implemented by involved leaders who will oversee completion and document progress. This is where proposed changes are set into motion.

The fourth step involves inspecting progress to evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented actions, ensuring they are on track to solving the identified problems.

Finally, systems for sustaining improvements must be instituted. A missing element in some frameworks, continuous monitoring, is critical here to ensure lasting positive change.

The i5 process supports continuous improvement by aligning resources to goals. This encourages collective accountability and fosters team dedication to learning, growing, and effecting lasting change. Further information and a structured guide for this improvement approach are available in a School Improvement White Paper.