AREAS OF FOCUS 2020-21
STRATEGIC PLAN IMPLEMENTATION
EXPECTATIONS AND DELIVERABLES • Alignment: In the first year, primary driving documents and processes will be aligned and explicitly connected to the strategic plan. • Professional Learning: In the first year, all staff will understand the mission, vision, core values, and goals of the 2025 plan with racial equity at the heart of our work. • Communication & Engagement: All stakeholders will know that racial equity is the core of ACPS’ work and have an awareness of ACPS’ vision, mission and core values. • Monitoring & Reporting: In the first year, the measurement plan will be developed for all KPIs and measures within each goal. A revised, formative reporting cycle will begin with the School Board and an equity dashboard will be introduced as the primary reporting mechanisms. • Responsive Planning: In the first year, a strategic plan review process, including a multiple stakeholder steering committee, will be developed and implemented to make necessary revisions to the strategic plan to ensure the plan remains responsive to emergent needs throughout its five year implementation cycle.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS • Alignment: School Board Budget Priorities, ACPS Areas of Focus, Superintendent Evaluation, and School and Department planning documents all aligned directly to the new strategic plan. • Professional Learning: Seven Equity for All training modules delivered to leadership and then all school staff focused on racial equity dialogues, awareness and self-reflection, and becoming an anti-racist school division. • Communication & Engagement: Unified Planning Process allowed three major city planning efforts across schools, city government, and health care to engage together in a collaborative manner with racial equity at the heart of the work. • Monitoring & Reporting: A new formative strategic plan monitoring process was developed and implemented including the launch of the Equity Dashboard focused on formative and summative Key Performance Indicators and Areas of Focus Updates provided formatively to the School Board. Development and the administration of the first Equity for All Climate Survey for staff, students and parents. • Responsive Planning: A diverse stakeholder Strategic Planning Annual Review Committee (SPARC) was formed along with Goal Leaders and Strategy Managers to go through a newly created review process and recommend necessary adjustments to the strategic plan.
KEY MILESTONES • August 2020: Alignment of School Board Budget Priorities and ACPS Areas of Focus to Equity for All strategic plan. • September 2020: Launch of new Equity for All staff learning modules focused on racial equity at the heart of our work and the anti-racist behaviors of “call it out,” “reflect then respond” and “comfortable being uncomfortable.” • February 2021: Creation of five-year implementation timeline by strategy to inform division work and priorities across the life of the plan. • March 2021: Equity Dashboard launched to publicly report and monitor inequities formatively within the Equity for All Key Performance Indicators. • April-June 2021: SPARC, Goal Leaders, Strategy Managers, and School Board engage in the first annual review and revision process of the Equity for All strategic plan. • May-June 2021: Administration of first annual Equity for All Climate Survey for staff, students and parents.
ALIGNMENT TO RACIAL EQUITY AT THE HEART • Equity Dashboard designed specifically to transparently display inequities across groups within KPI data formatively and summatively to support and inform systems work targeting equity for all. • School Board Budget Priorities, Areas of Focus, and Improvement Plans all developed and facilitated to illuminate inequities and to necessitate differentiated responses and resource allocation based on unique needs.