School improvement planning provides a mechanism for identifying needs and establishing a common approach to meeting those needs at the school level. Effective school improvement planning contributes to overall school performance by:

● Establishing an understanding of the “big picture” of a school's current state, including student achievement, school environment, teacher community, parent community, and administrative issues;

Reaching consensus across the school community on which needs represent the highest priorities for action based upon the potential to improve overall student and school performance; and

Identifying for implementation objectives and tasks, including specific targets, effective practices and milestones required to address the school priorities.

Purpose of this Guide

The North Carolina School Improvement Planning Implementation Guide is intended to provide a best practices approach to the school improvement planning process. This guide offers schools and districts interested in re-focusing their planning efforts guidance and a model for conducting school improvement planning. While certain aspects such as the legal requirements for school improvement planning and the referenced teacher and executive standards are applicable regardless of a school or district's planning approach, the model presented in this guide is NOT a mandate from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI). Schools or districts may continue using existing school improvement planning processes if these best serve their current needs.

This guide resulted from feedback from several school districts across North Carolina that identified problems with the school improvement planning process, such as a lack of guidance from the NCDPI, the volume of planning that occurs at the school and district level, and the frequent duplication of efforts. To address these problems, NCDPI staff developed the North Carolina School Improvement Planning Implementation Guide for use by all districts. As part of this effort, NCDPI personnel met with many district, school, and internal representatives to understand current practices and to collect recommendations for a comprehensive approach to school improvement planning. Areas researched and reviewed included the following:

● Legal requirements for school improvement planning;

State-level school improvement planning guidance and School Improvement Planning (SIP) guidance from other states;

Overall NCDPI direction with respect to serving schools and districts (i.e., District and School Transformation processes currently underway throughout the state);

● Available student, school performance, and Teacher Working Conditions Survey data;

● Teacher, principal, and superintendent evaluation requirements.

G.S. § 115C-12 (19) directs NCDPI Department of Public Instruction, to consolidate all plans that affect the school community, including school improvement plans. Further, the law requires the consolidated plan shall be posted on each school's Web site for easy access by the public and by school personnel. While agency staff originally focused on plan consolidation, a review of improvement plans from schools across the state found a wide disparity in plan format and content. In particular, some plans included a collection of short, focused set of goals and strategies for every school program, but failed to outline overall goals or justification for the

programs and strategies. Consistent with the vision of NCDPI as a student- and school-focused service organization, the agency expanded its view to include plan consolidation as well as a review of current school improvement planning best practices.

In 2011, NCDPI began utilizing a web-based school improvement management tool, NCStar. NCStar is powered by Indistar® and was developed by the Academic Development Institutes (ADI) with the firm belief that district and school improvement is best accomplished when directed by people, working in teams, closest to the students. NCStar, guides school teams through a process of charting improvement and managing the continuous improvement process. NCStar builds accountability as well as helps schools track their improvement plans. NCStar requires a “culture of candor” in which district and school personnel talk openly and honestly about their professional practices that contribute to student learning. Since school improvement is such a unique process for each school, NCStar contains over 100 research based effective practices (indicators) and allows schools flexibility to personalize their school improvement plans to meet their distinct needs. More information about NCStar as well as a series of How to Videos may be found at www.ncstar.weebly.com

To further support district and school efforts in consolidating plans, schools designated as low performing according to G.S. 115C-105.37 will use the NCStar tool and receive feedback via the Statewide System of Support efforts. Through NCStar, needs and support can be identified and available resources deployed.

NCDPI encourages schools and districts to provide feedback on the North Carolina School Improvement Planning Implementation Guide and the associated web-based plan management tool. To provide your comments and improvement suggestions, please contact:

Alessandro Montanari, School Improvement Planning Coordinator Phone: 919-807-3825

Email: alessandro.montanari@dpi.nc.gov

Dr. Chris Vecchione, School Improvement Grant Coordinator Phone: 919-807-3911

Email: chris.vecchione@dpi.nc.gov