Make It Work: Strategies for Successful Schoolwide Plan Implementation

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Strategic plans. Student engagement initiatives. Academic success goals. Whatever a plan is called, it usually starts full of hope and promise. But, despite all of the time and resources spent creating them, plans often fail. During the edLeader Panel “Beyond the Plan: Measuring, Adjusting, and Realigning Strategies for Success,” experts from The Center for Model Schools discussed the keys to successful plan implementation.

Involve the whole community

A Model School isn’t about one individual person—it’s about a community that has deeply felt trust for each other and is willing to have conversations about what’s working and what’s not. So, when a plan is developed, it’s done so that each part of the school feels ownership of the plan, which will translate into their investment in the implementation. In other words, people will support and champion the initiatives when they feel ownership of them.

Ensure everyone knows what they are organizing for

Another issue created by top-down planning is a lack of understanding of the goals. Yes, there may be communication from the administration that contains a stated goal, but the teachers and other community members won’t know where the goal came from, why they are working towards that goal, why specific methods were chosen, etc. While everyone in the community can’t serve on the planning committee, there should be several moments during the development process where they can provide input.

Understand what success means for your school

There are many external goals from the district, county, state, and beyond putting pressure on your teachers and students. However, setting goals and allocating resources for school improvement should be based on the specific needs of the building and that population. For example, perhaps one school in the district has an issue with tardiness. After working with staff and families to identify the causes of the attendance problem, the building leaders should work with constituents to address a plan for that school and base their metrics on their students’ progress.

Match implementation with strategic execution

Just as developing the plan shouldn’t happen in silos, the implementation should be a team effort. Rather than one person being in charge of the plan, using a distributed leadership approach allows for staff to take ownership of different aspects of it. Let staff collaborate on the implementation, oversight, and measurement of the progress; share their suggestions for improvement; and overall feel like they are a part of building the solution rather than just being told that they have a new list of things to accomplish.

Gather the right data and take action on it

Schools might be a “data-rich environment,” but it’s easy to become data overwhelmed if you try to look at every piece. Teams that plan well cut through that noise and prioritize the metrics that mean the most to their staff and students’ success. More important, they don’t let the data just sit in spreadsheets. Implementation teams and school leaders will discuss the data and their observations, get feedback from constituents, and make adjustments (and tout successes) as needed.

The majority of schools have an overall goal of creating a culture where students and staff feel loved, valued, and respected. By involving all stakeholders in the planning process from development to implementation, you are telling them that their voices matter, which can increase their investment in the school exponentially.


Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, Beyond the Plan: Measuring, Adjusting, and Realigning Strategies for Success, sponsored by The Center for Model Schools.

Watch the RecordingListen to the Podcast

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Article by Stacey Pusey, based on this edLeader Panel