District Improvement Plan
2010-2011
Notes:
- The District Improvement Planning Committee has identified essential questions that will guide conversations at all levels. The continued conversations around these essential questions will be a catalyst for effective and sustainable change
- The essential questions reflect best practices for every child, regardless of AYP cell.
District Improvement Guiding Belief
"Quality instruction is the single most significant factor that affects student achievement." (McKinsey & Company, 2007)
We believe that any school system should develop goals embedded in best practices to support every child. In order to provide quality instruction every day, every moment, for every child, Federal Way Public Schools should have the following four focuses:
- K-12 Alignment
- Professional Development/Coaching
- Leadership
- Parent/Community Involvement
Specific, Measurable Achievement Goals
| Student Groups | Immediate Goal | Guiding Goal |
| All students |  |
All students meeting or exceeding grade level expectations as measured by the state assessment and/or district assessments at grade levels where state assessment is not given. |
| AYP sub-groups | A decrease in 10% of students not meeting or exceeding grade level expectations as measured by the WASL (safe harbor). | All students meeting or exceeding grade level expectations as measured by the state assessment and/or district assessments at grade levels where state assessment is not given. |
Note: This is a “working document.” Therefore, it is subject to revisions as new information is gathered.
Strategies
- Strategy #1: K-12 Alignment
- Strategy #2: Professional Development/Coaching
- Strategy #3: Leadership
- Strategy #4: Family/Community Partnerships
Guiding Resources
The majority of this work is based on the committee’s findings in two meta-analyses of the most current research. These two reports are the McKinsey Report and OSPI’s Characteristics of Improved School Districts: Themes from Research. Sections of the “Executive Summaries” have been highlighted as they have provided the foundation for the work of this committee.
How the World’s Best-Performing School Systems Come Out on Top, McKinsey & Company, 2007.
“There are many different ways to improve a school system, and the complexity of this task and the uncertainty about outcomes is rightly reflected in the international debate about how this should be done. To find out why some schools succeed where others do not, we studied twenty-five of the world’s school systems, including ten of the top performers. We examined what these high-performing school systems have in common and what tools they use to improve student outcomes.
The experiences of these top school systems suggest that three things matter most: 1) getting the right people to become teachers, 2) developing them into effective instructors and, 3) ensuring that the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child.
These systems demonstrate that the best practices for achieving these three things work irrespective of the culture in which they are applied. They demonstrate that substantial improvement is possible in a short period of time and that applying these best practices universally could have enormous impact in improving failing school systems, wherever they might be located.”
Characteristics of Improved School Districts: Themes from Research, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 2004.
“An analysis of the studies identified 13 common themes, which have been clustered into four broad categories: Effective Leadership, Quality Teaching and Learning, Support for Systemwide Improvement, and Clear and Collaborative Relationships. The themes should be viewed as integrated and interrelated – they are important to district effectiveness but not sufficient in isolation. Although they are treated discreetly in the synthesis of research, they are connected, impact one another, and infuse the organization. A conceptual framework illustrates the relationships among these 13 themes and four categories.” In addition to these two guiding resources, committee members attended various professional development workshops (ASCD Regional Conference, Washington State ASCD Conference, Equity and Achievement Conference, Parent Involvement Conference) to learn new information to guide our work.
Technical Assistance from OSPI
OSPI has worked collaboratively with our district improvement planning team. They have provided us with the School System Improvement Resource Guide (SSIRG) in addition to the research they have conducted. In addition, we have utilized and will continue to utilize Bill Rossman, Director of School and District Improvement, to answer questions and concerns that come up in the improvement planning process.