Using Vision and Mission to Focus School Improvement

The school improvement plan (SIP) is the tool that will help you get the most out of your vision, mission,
and goals. It is a more detailed document than the mission and vision statements. Like the mission
statement, it falls within the scope of the vision.
The SIP is a blueprint for the school's progress toward its goals. It helps propel grade-level teams,
curriculum teams, and departments toward meaningful improvement. It provides detailed expectations for
administrators, teachers, counselors, and other stakeholders and includes specific plans that guide
improvement efforts throughout the year. Although the majority of school improvement plans focus on
improving student achievement through such measures as high-stakes tests, advanced placement
exams, and the SAT, we recommend enriching the document to include several areas outside the realm
of assessment. For example, you might add a section about improving student attendance or reducing the
number of disciplinary infractions. You could seek to increase participation in extracurricular activities and
athletics and improve the delivery of student services offered by the guidance department, the career
center, and the library. Use your SIP as an opportunity to develop goals, plans, and actions to improve all
facets of your school's life.

If we ask students to create a plan for their improvement, we should be open to doing the same for
ourselves.

Keep in mind the following points as you develop your school improvement plan:
 Make sure the plan includes a proposal for staff development. If teachers aren't learning and
growing, it is not likely that students are either.
 An improvement plan is only useful when it is doable. All goals that are developed by each
department in the school should fall under the umbrella of the school system's goals and objectives; if not,
you could be trying to do too much or go in too many directions and will end up accomplishing very little.
 The SIP should help you not only look forward but also evaluate what has been done in the past.
Without such reflection, your efforts will be random, unfocused, and unsupported.
Building the School Improvement Plan
A high-quality school improvement plan is essential for establishing and maintaining a healthy culture.
Because of its importance, the shaping of and responsibility for the SIP must not rest in the hands of a
select few. In successful schools we have worked in, a group of representative staff members referred to
as the SIP team is assigned to work with school staff to identify areas of need and develop action plans,
which are the specific steps and tasks articulated to achieve the stated goals. The SIP team typically
consists of department chairs, team leaders, administrators, a parent representative, and at least one
 support staff member, such as a secretary or an instructional assistant. However, we recommend
involving potential teacher leaders in the development of the SIP as well. You should conduct the
selection process for the SIP team each year to allow everyone the opportunity to participate. In some
schools where we have worked, these positions were highly sought after because they offered
opportunities for professional growth.
We recommend that the team include stakeholders who will be affected by the content of the SIP. At the
very least, the team should include a representative from each department, whether it's the department
chair or another staff member (although we do not suggest recruiting a novice teacher). The
representative does not hold sole responsibility for developing his or her department's portion of the SIP;
rather, he or she facilitates the collection of the information that the department will include. The
representative is expected to conduct meetings with department members to discuss what should be
included in the SIP, establish deadlines for submitting this information, polish the information, and return it
to his or her departmental colleagues for final approval before submitting it for inclusion in the school's
master SIP document.

Formatting the School Improvement Plan

The best way to identify the essential details for your school's SIP is to consult school staff during the SIP
development process. If your school does not already have a prescribed format, you can use the following
list as a starting point. These are all items that will add value to your SIP. Note that we are not suggesting
you include everything in the list below in your SIP, nor do we claim that the list is a complete list of
everything your school or school system needs to consider when developing its improvement plan:

1. Cover page. This should include the title, your school's name, and the date.
2. Committee member list. This should include the name and title of each member of the SIP team.
3. State department vision and mission statements. Most state departments of education have a
published vision and mission.
4. School system vision and mission statements. Most school systems have a published vision and
mission.
5. The school's vision and mission statements. The overarching components of the school's vision
and mission should fall within the parameters of the school system's vision and mission. If the school
system does not have vision and mission statements, we still recommend that your school develop its
own.
6. School details and demographics. This includes school statistics on ethnicity; gender; English
proficiency; economic status; educational designation (e.g., general education, gifted, special education,
and twice exceptional); graduation rates; percentage of last year's students who enrolled in a two-year
or four-year college or trade school; and enrollment in AP/IB courses.
7. NCLB AYP Report Card or High-Stakes Report (depending on the state). If provided by the state,
include a report of the most recent AYP results for your school by subject, grade, and subgroup status.
8. School system goals and objectives (if available). These are typically created by the school board
and/or the superintendent's office. They may be referred to as objectives or targets, among other
descriptors.
9. SIP calendar. The calendar should include the dates and times when the SIP team is expected to
meet and when it is expected to deliver content and evidence of efforts and completion.
10. Departmental goals. These goals focus on improving student achievement or delivery of services
(for example, from the guidance department, the main office, and so on) specific to each department or
team.
11. Indicators of achievement. These are specific indicators or results that will be reviewed to
determine effectiveness.
12. Areas of focus. These include specific content areas, skills, standards, anchors, populations, and
services that are targeted in the SIP.
13. Action plans for each department or grade-level team. Each department's specific action plan
includes data sources, point of contact, potential costs, staff development efforts, required materials,
activities, and time line to put the action plan in place and measure its effect.
The sections of the school improvement plan that are specific to individual departments and grade-level
teams should provide focus for each of the areas with regard to content delivery. For example, in our
version, items 10–13 would include any department in the building. In this case, we use the math
department as an example, which might have an overall goal such as "Student passing rates on the
Geometry Standards of Learning [Virginia's year-end high-stakes assessment] will improve from 81
percent to 86 percent in the following year." In some cases, the goal may target certain populations, such
as "The percentage of African American students successfully completing geometry will increase from 73
percent to 80 percent by the end of the following school year." Departments and grade-level teams should
measure their efforts and indicators of effectiveness against these goals on a monthly basis to obtain
objective information to fuel their discussions.
We purposely mention "areas of focus" in item 12 to hone efforts and add value to departmental
discussions about curriculum delivery. In this section of the SIP you would find statements such as
"During the 2008–2009 school year, the mathematics department will increase focus on (1) patterns,
functions, and algebra and (2) numbers and number sense." At least once a month, the department or
team should assess the extent to which its content delivery hit these specific areas of focus.

Reviewing the School Improvement Plan

When the SIP is finalized, it should become a public document, accessible to all staff. Posting the SIP
electronically will save paper and photocopying expenses, although you might want to divide the
document by department or team and print a hard copy of each section.
We encourage schools to conduct quarterly reviews of the SIP and periodically monitor their progress.
Item 13 of the SIP includes timelines for completion and evidence of attainment. These checkpoints are a
good time to assess the extent to which teams are following through on their action plans. Waiting until
 the end of the year to conduct reviews will prevent staff from making needed changes along the way, and
the following year may start with a stagnant, less-than-effective SIP.

Realizing Your Vision and Mission

Vision and mission statements provide schools with an essential overview of where they want to go and
what they want to be. Few thriving schools or companies attained their success without developing such
statements as elements of their school improvement plans or business plans. But merely drafting
statements is not enough. To realize your school's vision and mission, you must model your school's
beliefs, values, and collective commitments while demonstrating enthusiasm for what will come next.
Perhaps most important, your vision and mission establish clear expectations and standards for your
staff. We further discuss how to get the most out of your staff in the following chapter.

Getting Started
 Identify and train vision and mission oversight teams.
 If there are existing vision and mission statements, review them to determine their relevance and
accuracy.
 Devise a meaningful plan to involve the staff in either revising the existing vision and mission
statements or creating new ones.
 Ask probing questions to guide staff in developing their vision and mission.
 Use data to identify areas that need improvement and establish SMART goals.
 Recruit members for a school improvement plan team.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107042/chapters/developing-a-vision-and-a-
mission.aspx

School Improvement Plan

https://www.teacherph.com/school-improvement-plan-instructional-videos/

DO 44, S. 2015 – GUIDELINES ON THE ENHANCED SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

PLANNING (SIP) PROCESS AND THE SCHOOL REPORT CARD (SRC)

https://www.deped.gov.ph/2015/09/29/do-44-s-2015-guidelines-on-the-enhanced-school-
improvement-planning-sip-process-and-the-school-report-card-src/
https://www.teacherph.com/school-improvement-plan-guidebook/