Dear Madison Community,
I’m excited to bring you our second quarterly review of progress on our district’s strategic framework. Our framework is anchored to a simple but bold vision – that every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate from high school ready for college, career and community.
I hope that vision is starting to sound familiar to you. As you review our progress in the last quarter, you won’t see a new approach or a flashy new initiative. Instead, I hope you will see relentless consistency in our work. We believe that schools must be the driving force of change, and our district must be incredibly focused on the day to day work of great teaching and learning.
Our path to closing opportunity gaps and seeing the best results for all children is about keeping that focus and following through on implementation with determination.
We also continue to be committed to regularly reporting to the community on our progress. I hope you’ll review this report and let us know what you think. You are an essential partner in our work – we all play a role in making our students successful. Together, I know we will make our vision a reality.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Cheatham
Superintendent
Read the March 2014 Quarterly Review
Read the December 2013 Quarterly Review
Read the MMSD Strategic Framework
| Progress on Priority Area Launch Steps as of March 17, 2014 |  |
Priority Area 1: Coherent instruction
Provide every student with well-rounded, culturally responsive and coherent instruction that leads to college, career and community readiness.
We know that our students need a common foundation of good instruction that is standards-based, well-rounded and culturally responsive. This quarter, we’ve continued our learning around the Common Core State Standards at all levels of the system, and lead teacher teams are on their way to developing model units of study aligned to the standards that will serve teachers district-wide. We’ve also established a clear policy that defines our commitment to better serving advanced learners.
Create a CCSS district leadership team including teachers, principals and central office staff, informed by national experts to guide the development of model CCSS aligned units of study with authentic performance tasks. | Complete |
Provide ongoing professional development for central office leaders, principals, coaches and leadership teams on how to plan, teach and monitor instruction aligned to the CCSS. | On track |
Begin implementation of the Second Step in kindergarten through eighth grade. | On track |
Establish and implement clear board policies related to programs and services for English Language Learners that define the district’s values, beliefs and guiding principles for decision-making. | Complete |
Establish and implement clear board policies related to programs and services for talented and gifted students that define the district’s values, beliefs and guiding principles for decision-making. | Complete |
Begin the “Any Given Child” program with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to analyze opportunities to strengthen arts instruction and arts integration across the district. | Complete |
Conduct an external audit/feasibility study on services for English Language Learners/Language Development programs and special education. | On track |
Priority Area 2: Personalized Pathways
Engage students in charting personalized pathways to college, career and community readiness.
Our work on personalized pathways is picking up steam. This quarter, we launched our high school reform collaborative. The collaborative, made up of teachers, students, business leaders, higher education and key community leaders, will help us begin to develop a vision for our high school experience – ensuring that it is engaging and relevant for all students.
Establish a high school reform collaborative that is focused on the development of multiple pathways to graduation in partnership with local businesses. | On track |
Create and implement the Individual Learning Plan in the 2014-15 school year. | On track |
Begin vetting high school coursework in preparation for changes in the 2015-16 school year. | On track |
Provide professional development to AVID teachers, coordinators and school leaders in middle and high schools. | On track |
Priority Area 3: Family Engagement and Community Partnerships
Engage family and community members as partners.
Families and the community are essential partners in our students’ success. This quarter, we’ve worked hard to develop tools and resources to help schools ensure authentic engagement for all families. Those tools are being finalized and will be used to support schools in their school improvement plan development.
Convene representative groups of parents, guardians and community members to develop engagement standards across the district, identify culturally responsive strategies for communication, refine existing communication tools based on these standards and collaboratively develop a toolkit to help all families lead their child’s education. | Caution |
Begin the work of the new Family and Community Engagement Department with roles aligned with new engagement standards. | Complete |
Develop family engagement strategies for each school’s SIP. | On track |
Launch a campaign to help families learn about the Common Core State Standards, and how they can actively participate in implementation. | On track |
Examine and develop a new model for more effective parent conferences throughout the school year. | On track |
Identify and analyze existing partnerships, mapping their alignment with district priorities using the new partnerships policy as a guide. | On track |
Priority Area 4: Thriving Workforce
Cultivate a work environment that attracts, develops and retains top talent.
We believe that our students will not be successful if the adults in their school are not also thriving. We are working hard to continually improve our professional development and support to schools. In addition, we also completed an external review of our recruitment, hiring and induction practices and are hard at work putting the recommendations of that review into action, beginning with a new process for screening and selecting principals.
Conduct an audit of current recruitment, hiring and induction practices and strategies. This includes examining “grow our own” practices as well as the use of existing and possibly external programs and resources. | Complete |
Develop and establish a principal talent pipeline and improved induction process for new principals. | On track |
Establish district standards for high-quality professional learning that includes an approach to the evaluation of professional learning. | On track |
Incorporate a professional learning plan in the School Improvement Plan. This includes a strong focus on school-based coaches providing job-embedded coaching and professional learning. | Complete |
Recalibrate School Support Teams to provide ongoing differentiated support to schools. | Complete |
Engage a select group of principals and union representatives in the development of a protocol and process for collaborative problem-solving at the school level. | On track |
Priority Area 5: Accountability
Ensure accountability at every level.
We are already looking forward to the development of next year’s school improvement plans, refining and adding to our resources for schools. At the same time, our zero-based budgeting process is in full swing, in order to further align our resources to our strategic framework.
Develop and provide all school based leadership teams with the SIP framework and toolkit, support the development of the SIP and institute feedback and approval process. | Complete |
Institute a quarterly review of progress for SBLTs to build capacity to use data effectively and to monitor progress toward the goals outlined in their SIP. | Complete |
Support each central office department in completing a plan, with metrics for monitoring, that reflects the support it provides to building leadership and staff in meeting its goals. | Complete |
Institute a quarterly review of progress for central office departments to ensure progress toward the goals outlined in their department plans. | On track |
Conduct zero-based budgeting process for the 2014-15 school year to further align the organization and its resources to support schools. | On track |
