Comprehensive School Plan

Every DC public school is required to have a Comprehensive School Plan (CSP). It is designed to be a living document that school leaders develop, implement, monitor, and adjust to drive school improvement. The CSP goals and priorities should be embedded in every aspect of the school. Here is the CSP template that is provided to DCPS principals.

What is a Comprehensive School Plan for?

The Comprehensive School Plan  is intended to: 

• help schools focus on a few specific initiatives in a deep and intentional way

• ensure that the district, school staff, and school community are on the same page about what priorities the school has each year, and how they will approach and monitor these priorities

• serve as a guide for the school’s efforts throughout the year

Where can I view my school's current Comprehensive School Plan?

A brief "snapshot" version of every school's CSP is posted publicly at https://dcps.dc.gov/snapshots. To access your school's full CSP, contact your principal.

What should LSATs do about the Comprehensive School Plan?

The LSAT Chair is required to sign off that the LSAT has looked at the school's CSP for the coming school year each September.

The Comprehensive School Plan should be a standing item on your LSAT meeting agenda most months. Here's how that might look in various months:

• September - Read the first draft of the Comprehensive School Plan to understand the outlined school goals and learn about the proposed implementation of success strategies and action steps; solicit feedback from the school community to shape final draft of CSP

• October/November - Analyze Beginning of Year (BOY) data that relates to CSP goals (you can use this DCPS Assessment Overview page for info about which assessments students take at various grade levels and points in the year)

• December - Consider inviting other school personnel to your meeting for a deeper understanding of specific CSP implementation (ie. ELL teacher, reading specialist, etc.)

• January - Discuss the CSP progress made to date and reflect on what may have hindered or enabled growth in those focus areas

• February - Determine priorities for investment in the upcoming budget that would support CSP strategies

• March - Analyze Middle of Year (MOY) data that relates to CSP goals

• June - Reflect on the school’s growth towards CSP goals

• July/August - Analyze End of Year (EOY) data that relates to CSP goals and discuss what the data shows might be a CSP focus area for the coming year

Suggested Approaches to Supporting CSP Planning:

• Ask the principal to share a reflection on how things have gone with the CSP this year:

  • Was the school able to implement its planned strategies?

  • Did the strategies seem to have the desired impact?

  • How much improvement has there been? Are we expected to hit our target? Miss it by a little or a lot? Or did we blast past it?

  • Is the Comprehensive School Plan in alignment to school values?

• Have the principal share their thoughts about the CSP for next year:

  • Does it make sense to keep next year’s goals focused in the same area, and just continuing to move the needle? Or does it make more sense to shift to a different area of focus? If so, what?

  • Is our graduating class ready for their next school phase?

  • Is our feeder pattern serving our students well?

  • How will we adjust or add to our strategies to continue to improve?

• Provide input, feedback, and suggestions:

  • Discuss at LSAT meeting

  • Consider putting out a survey to determine perspectives and input of broader school community

Note for SY23-24:

A new timeline and process for initial development of the CSP is being implemented, as follows:

• Due on June 30: CSP Evaluation completed and submitted to DCPS with sign-off from the LSAT Chair, plus one from a parent if the LSAT Chair is an internal DCPS employee.  

  • The CSP Evaluation is a document which assesses a school's progress towards its CSP goals in the areas of Academics and Culture of Achievement during SY22-23 (the other two CSP areas -- Shared Leadership and Engagement -- are omitted; it seems that they will be eliminated in the SY23-24 CSP process?)

  • The Evaluation includes sections that: 

    • list the relevant data from SY22-23 related to the Academics and Culture of Achievement goals

    • summarize the strengths and gaps in performance seen in the data and in other observations made by the Academic Leadership Team

    • outline the actions and habits by teachers, and by the Academic Leadership Team, during SY22-23 that contributed to these strengths and gaps

    • describe specific plans to address the observed gaps during SY23-24, including Tier 1 (whole school), Tier 2 (small group), and Tier 3 (individual student) strategies

• Due on August 1: First draft of the SY23-24 CSP completed and submitted to DCPS for review (by instructional superintendents?) -- feedback provided by September 1. 

• September 4-28: Schools engage their stakeholders and update their SY23-24 CSPs based on feedback from DCPS and school community.

• Due on September 29: Finalized SY23-24 CSP, plus snapshot version, completed and submitted to DCPS with LSAT sign-off.

Have more questions?

To learn more, view this presentation about the CSP from DCPS