What Is a School Improvement Plan?
A school improvement plan (one we call an “annual school plan”) is a document that puts forth a vision of what your school seeks to accomplish, sets forth a series of goals, and a reasonable path to accomplish these goals in a set amount of time. New Jersey, the state that I work in, requires all schools to have an annual school plan. According to the New Jersey Department of Education website, “The New Jersey Annual School Planning process serves as a framework for long-term sustained improvement that is considered best practice.”
Where You Should Start
You need to start with a set of goals. Keep the goals simple and make sure they fit the acronym “SMART.” This stands for “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound.” These goals should come from an annual school planning Team that represents a good cross-section of your school and district. Our committee includes me, the principal, our early childhood supervisor, a teacher, a reading specialist, a parent, and a community member.
The school improvement plan committee needs to review the curriculum, the core programs of the school, and the standardized testing data from the previous year. Other factors should be taken into consideration as well. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and other related factors, social and emotional needs have come to the forefront. Our committee considered this in addition to the basic academic goals we identified. After reviewing all of this, the committee should determine the school’s greatest needs. Now it is time to write your specific goals.
Identify Your School Vision
Our school mission statement is the guiding document from which we base all of our academic and extracurricular programs and initiatives.
Mission Statement Example
Collings Lakes Elementary School is dedicated to allowing each student to maximize their full academic and social potential. To accomplish this, we seek to ensure that:
- The principal leads by example and encourages all students, staff, and parents to fully participate in the life of the school in their respective capacities.
- The staff works as a dedicated collaborative team, exchanging ideas, concepts, strategies and outlooks.
- Each student is supported in all academic and social endeavors and is equipped with every available resource.
- Each student is encouraged to put forth their best effort and participate fully in all the school activities.
- Each member of the teaching and support staff feel fully appreciated and are fully utilized in their assigned role.
- The school’s successes are celebrated and publicized.
- Parents are always welcomed into the school and encouraged to participate in our Parent/Teacher Organization and volunteer for events as able.
- Participation from outside community organizations and their sharing of resources is encouraged.
As you can see, our statement seeks to balance the academic and social needs of our students. This is especially important given the age ranges of our students: preschool to second grade, which includes ages three to eight. Our school’s tagline also emphasizes the social and academic balance. This tagline is on our letterhead: “Growth and Development, Friendship and Community.”
If I were to summarize our school’s vision in one sentence it would be “Collings Lakes school seeks to assist our students in meeting their academic and social potential.” Now it’s obvious that students will not meet this lofty goal, save a few exceptional cases, but it’s an ongoing standard that is always set.
Analyze What You Need
The committee needs to review the mission statement/school vision, curriculum, the core programs of the school, and the standardized testing data from the previous year. Other factors should be taken into consideration as well. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and other related factors, social and emotional needs have come to the forefront. Our committee considered this in addition to the basic academic goals we identified. After reviewing all of this, the committee should identify the school’s greatest needs. Now it is time to write your specific goals.
Determine Your Action Items
After our committee completed our review in June 2023, we were ready to write a specific set of action items. This is what we came up with in June:
- By June of 2024, 90% of K-2 teachers will implement small group ELA instruction daily, as evidenced by walkthroughs, lesson planning, and observations.
- By June of 2024, 90% of K-2 teachers will implement small group math instruction daily, as evidenced by walkthroughs, lesson planning, and observations.
- By June of 2024, 90% of K-2 teachers will implement social/emotional lessons during greeting time three times a week as evidenced by walkthroughs, lesson plans, and observations.
Communicate the Plan
Our initial committee meeting this school year is on October 11th. Once the committee meets, reviews the goals, and confers on them, the plan will be shared with the superintendent, the director of curriculum and instruction, and the entire school staff. The staff will be asked to assist the team in meeting the goals. It isn’t going to be a tough task to have the staff buy in as the goals are aligned to the school and district’s curriculum and instructional methodologies.
A school improvement plan, or annual school plan is a great tool for a school to sharpen its focus on its already existing vision. It gives your team and your school a specific set of goals it identifies and seeks to meet reasonably. My advice is to keep it as basic and simple as possible. What is your school’s overall vision, and what set of goals can best encapsulate that vision? Once you have that identified, you should be able to easily come up with a viable annual school plan.
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