Action Plan Steps
The first step will be to gather two sets of information. One is a full review of the literature on the best practices for closing the achievement gap. The other is the information about the gap in Broward County specifically. We can only close the gap if we correctly identify it. Information about educational outcomes will need to be compared with income, race and gender data. The next phase of the action plan will be to identify key interventions, using the best practices identified in the literature. The third phase of the action plan will be to identify and engage with the relevant stakeholders, as defined by those action plans.
Strategies
There will first need to be adequate resources to execute the action plan. This will involve re-allocating parts of the budget at both the school board level and the individual school level for the programs recommended. If there is an anticipated shortfall of funding, then a proposal will have to be made for whatever grants, tax increases or other funding methods might be required to close the gap. The correct human resources will also need to be identified. If this necessitates hiring, then positions will need to be created and authorized. If people...
In addition to the need for a budget and human resources to produce this material or buy...
…be have a strategic planning document, so that there is full transparency and the different stakeholders understand clearly what the objectives of the project are, and what their role in the project is. Having a document that is visible to everybody typically results in a higher level of buy-in. Furthermore, victories will be celebrated people need to know that what they are doing is working, and the best way to do that is by communicating regularly about the results and outcomes of that work (Amabile & Kramer, 2011).
Each school year will have a review of the results, and open discussions about what worked and what did not. Decisions will be made on the basis of results, and this feedback process. This will ensure that decisions are not being made on the basis of guesswork,…
