Strategic plan review of Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor K-8 Center

Organizational Strategic Plan Review

The plan currently under review is that of the Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor K-8 Center and its implemented Florida Differentiated Accountability Program developed and put into use during the 2009-2010 school-year in hopes of improving the school's functioning and overall mission. The school at hand has consistently sought to discover and identify the individual strengths of each child in its facility in order to promote enthusiasm and the desire to learn, and to assist students in achieving academic success. The mission of the school, and its implemented plans, aim to provide a secure, innovative, and challenging environment that affords academic achievement and a technologically-rich program for students in order for them to develop a strong, firm foundation from which to succeed and meet the challenges of the 21st century. The plan at hand sets in motion distinct goals for teacher involvement, parental involvement, and for improvements in each area of study within the school. While the plan takes into account the specifications of the school in terms of history, strengths and weaknesses, certain areas of improvement can be made in assessing the overall plan and strategy.

Overview of Plan and Development

The plan itself seeks to implement new tools and strategies to improve certain areas of school interaction, involvement and foundation as well as to provide improved scoring and educational models for the respective fields of study within the school such as mathematics, the sciences, and writing. The development of the plan begins with the assertion that the Center has consistently maintained a school grade of an "A" and has achieved this status for the past 9 years. In working in accordance with this success level, professional development in the areas of data analysis and curriculum have been offered and attended by faculty to improve student performance, providing the basis for the plan at hand.

The process by which the improvement plan was designed is focused largely on data and on how this data can be adjusted with action to provide the best overall result for the school, its respective students and the community. Specific student achievement data such as school grade trends, adequate yearly progress trends, and Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test trends were taken highly into account noting the areas of data response that are in need of improvement. Additionally, a full-faculty breakdown was provided in order to include the degrees and certifications of each respective faculty member, each member's years in the school and as an administrator, as well as a full review of each faculty member's prior performance record in order to pinpoint individual strengths for the successful implementation of the strategic plan at hand.

The plan further involves a significant amount of strategic thinking which not only evaluates the strategies of the school's respective plan, but evaluates how these strategies will work on a broader level within the community and within the state. For instance the school's principal asserts that full compliance with policies and procedures for all State and Direct assessments is always a key to success. Additionally, professional development and strategies to implement this development within the staff are consistently provided during the implementation of any plan, for example in this case, to ensure that the plan is implemented appropriately.

The improvement plan at hand largely revolves around the implementation of a Response to Instruction/Intervention (RtI) team within the school, and a point-by-point analysis of the team's function has been provided to ensure that each member has a distinctive duty backed with a full skill-set, as well as additional support for these individuals should it be needed. Further in viewing how the RtI leadership team will aid in the development and implementation of the school improvement plan at hand, the school asserts that the RtI leaders will meet with the EESAC and faculty of the school to help develop the SIP. Additionally, the RtI team will provide a variety of sources of data to individual students as well as subpopulations within the school that need special attention in order to meet standards. Finally, the RtI will provide input in the strategies and professional development activities in the plan in order to ensure that all students attain AYP.

This team, set in place as well as the school's work to continue following the School-Wide Florida Continuous Improvement Model seeks to improve overall school structure and success, and allows for consistent and thorough assessment throughout the year in order to determine if said improvement plans have worked as well as understanding which portions of the plan need to be adjusted in order to reach the optimal level of success. Assessments will be given in order to measure student progress, the reaching of benchmarks, success of teams, quality of data, etc. Assessments will also be made as to the expected improvements in the subject areas of reading, math, science and writing as well as the overarching goal of increased parental involvement.

Each goal is broken down in order to view the areas in need of improvement, as well as the action plans that will be necessary in order to set these improvements in motion. However, above all, these actions are depicted in a manner that will yield success even with budgetary constrictions, asserting that each goal has the capacity to be fully achieved and carried out should the format for improvement be followed accordingly throughout the school year.

Weaker Aspects of Content and Process

In understanding why the proposed plan may not go into effect as seamlessly as the staff at the school had hoped, one must take into account the turnaround that will take place in the following year with the retirement of the school's current principal and the implementation of a new one. Not only will this respective person be expected to make the change as seamless as possible for the staff and students, he or she will be expected to oversee the implementation of the strategic plan at hand, which may prove a far more daunting task than one would imagine at first glance. Additionally, the plan makes consistent mention to abbreviated and jargon-based programs and standards that some individuals, particularly parents and teachers at a lower level of superiority may have trouble understanding and following through with. While this is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things, it does prove problematic in maintaining seamless and standard implementation of the plan across the board.

More noticeably, a weakness in the plan comes immediately into view in noting the massive lack of funding that the school has in place to set forth its academic improvement goals. While this facet of the plan is likely one that is universal across the state of Florida, and across the country for that matter, the plan itself does little to spell out the budgetary plans of the school, focusing not clearly enough on how funds will be utilized and distributed, but too much on the fact that funding is lacking and budgetary cuts must be made in many areas of the school system.

Recommendations for Modification

Currently, the Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor K-8 Center ranks 191/1943 in Florida Elementary School rankings in FCAT Reading and FCAT Math scores, which proves that the school has found a solid base in maintaining continual success and high educational standards (FDOE, 2011, p.1). However, improvements can always stand to be made. In beginning the modification of the current plan in hopes of revamping its basis and pushing for future success, certain areas of function should be focused on: school culture; academic success for all students; technology, facility management and planning; and staff and faculty. In developing a strategic plan for improvement that is both comprehensive and inclusive, and in developing this plan with consistent input from administrators, faculty, staff, and parents, the development of the future plan has the capacity to fully satisfy each individual who will come in contact with its respective use.

In Florida, the existence of Student Advisory Councils (SACs), which are purposed to assist in the preparation and monitoring of the School Improvement Plan (SIP), are set in place to guide the school's action toward improving student achievement (Greenlee, 2009, p. 230). To accomplish that objective, councils decide how school improvement funds are spent, decide jointly with how faculty how school recognition funds are spend, assist principals with the school budget and perform functions as prescribed by regulations of their local boards (Fege, 2000, p. 44). In understanding this facet, along with the requirement in Florida that elected parent and community members exceed the number of school employees involved in these SACs, much more focus and specifics in the school's improvement plan surrounding parental involvement, the role of the SAC and budgetary limitations must be included in order to ensure that any of the proposed improvements have a real chance at full implementation and success (Leithwood and Menzes, 2008, p. 329).

Additionally, as federal policies have mandated the reporting of state and institutional date on teacher candidates and that all teachers meet state requirements for being high qualified in the subjects they teach, in addition the student assessments, teacher performance testing in the areas of content, knowledge, teaching knowledge, and actual teaching assessments can be set in place within the standards of the strategic improvement plan in a manner that ensures that not only students are held accountable for the improvements or lack thereof that stem from the initiative and its implementation (Luster, 2010, p.14). In including this provision, faculty will better understand what is expected of them throughout the implementation process of the plan rather than exist in a state of uncertainty as previously mentioned in the section focusing on plan weaknesses. While such a standard does not exist within Florida at a state-mandated level, the implementation of such a standard within the Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor K-8 Center can serve as a standard of excellence in this area, ensuring parents and onlookers that no rock has been left unturned in ensuring the success of such programs.

Finally, as technology has proven to serve as the basis for many school improvements, the plan at hand must incorporate standards for implementation, utilization, and improvements that are more expansive than those included in the current plan. While the improvement plan at hand makes consistent mention of the utilization of technology within many facets and areas of daily school functions, the improvement plan lacks an expansive and comprehensive description of the ways in which the school's technology will be improved within the school-year at hand. While again, it must be noted that budgetary implications may be the cause for the plan's lacking focus on technology improvements, certain tactics can be implemented within the plan to ensure that the school's technology features remain utilized and up-to-date regardless of budgetary restrictions.

With innumerable technology grants available to schools across the United States, the utilization of such grants as well as their standards for full-utilization of resources would allow the school to move forward in terms of success and technological-knowledge despite lacking resources. The ability to move forward in terms of technological knowledge cannot be hindered by budgetary constraints, and in developing a plan to not only acquire new resources but fully utilize those that already exist within the school, a more well-developed plan for improvement can be facilitated.