The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.
~Vince Lombardi
Over the course of the last month, I have used my blog to communicate the foundation and three goal areas of our district’s Strategic Blueprint. While setting goals is an important part of the the improvement process, it is equally important to ensure there is a system in place to measure progress. As such, we have added specific measures to our plan that will let us know we are making an impact on student learning and district management.
The measures we created fall into three categories and will allow us to perform periodic progress checks. Our three measures categories are:
- Academic Measures of Progress
- Culture/Climate Measures of Progress
- Financial Measures of Progress
The goal in this first year is to use measurement tools currently in place to gauge our progress. When considering these tools to measure progress, we recognized that some of the tools have not yet yielded useable data. In those areas, we will collect baseline data which will allow us to set improvement measures in the future. As you can see from the table below, we have created rigorous measures that will help measure our success.
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Pleasantdale SD 107 Measures of Progress |
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|
Measurement Tool |
Goal Statement | Specific Measures |
|
Academic Measures of Progress |
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| NWEA-MAP Test | Set baseline measures for student growth in both reading and math for all grade levels. | Baseline |
| PARCC Exam | Improve attainment scores in reading and math. | Improve by 5% district composite scores in reading and math. |
| Elementary School Measures (AIMSWEB/Fountas & Pinnell) | Improve the early literacy skills of our emerging readers. | Reduce by 2% the percentage of students identified to participate in tiered interventions based on Aimsweb and Fountas & Pinnell measures. |
|
Culture/Climate Measures of Progress |
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| School Perceptions Community Survey | Improve our overall teacher and parent satisfaction with district services. | Improve results for the following groups in the following areas:
Students: 5% improvement in measures of school perception Parents: 5% improvement in measures of communication Staff: 10% improvement in measures of overall satisfaction |
| Illinois 5Essentials Survey of Learning Conditions | Set baseline measures for all respondent groups (teachers, parents, and students in grade 6-8). | Baseline |
| Freshman Preparedness Survey | Set baseline measures in all subject areas for graduate preparedness. | Baseline |
| Professional Development Survey | Improve teacher satisfaction with and effectiveness of our district delivered professional development. | 85% of staff will rate district delivered professional development as a 4 (useful) or a 5 (very useful) on a five point scale. |
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Financial Measures of Progress |
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| Annual Financial Report | Individual fund expenditure containment | Expenditures in each major fund will be contained to the below increases:
Education Fund: 3% Operations and Maintenance: 3% Transportation: 4% Capital Projects: 4% |
| Annual Financial Report | Overall budget expenditure containment | Overall budget expenditures will be contained to no more than 3.5% increase. |
| Bond Rating | Improvement of Bond Rating | The district will take measures to improve the bond rating from Aa2 to Aa1. |
It is our belief that the work we are doing in our three goal areas will have a positive impact on students and allow us to see improvements in our selected measures. We are excited about what the future holds, and we know that our Strategic Blueprint will continue to move our district from great to greater.
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