School Improvement Plans: Models, Strategies, and Sustainability

Prepared by the researcher :  Dr. George Wah Williams Richard Riley – College of Education, Walden University

Democratic Arabic Center

Journal of Afro-Asian Studies : Eighteenth Issue – August 2023

A Periodical International Journal published by the “Democratic Arab Center” Germany – Berlin

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Abstract

Plans to improve schools – regardless of the level – rest on a combination of critically considered sets of actions targeting specific institutional outcomes. Whether or not a school is underperforming, administrators must consistently maintain improvement plans to guide managerial, instructional, and learning pursuits, institutionally. This article examines the developmental necessity for school improvement programs, highlights the importance of evaluative mechanisms to inform ongoing actions, and the role of institutional improvement plans in guiding performance-effectiveness programming. The article further examines several improvement models for consideration, along with implementation strategies, and the essentialness of sustainability policies and programs to maintain a culture of ongoing managerial, instructional, and learning improvement.

introduction:

Schools must continually grapple with the contexts of choices regarding what academic, operational, or required combinational reprogramming attention is necessary at any particular time. Across the developing world, there is often confusion over school improvement as a holistic venture and development with an (infra)structural focus. While, inarguably there will be overlaps between the two, school improvement according to Creemers and Reynolds, (2022) is often a function of users’ orientation. In general, the interchangeable utilization of these definitional variances does not negate the underlying reality of a need for bettering a climate or situation. However, it does not take away from the ultimate end goal, making schools sustainably more effective and determination of ways to maintain attained successes (Leithwood et al., 2006).

What is School Improvement?

Contrary to generally held notions suggesting that improvement is merely the focus on increasing student achievement, Gordon and Hart, (2022) note that school improvement is an integration of environmental, professional, and learning achievement efforts intended to engender growth in institutional delivery, performance, and learning. Though school improvement holistically rests on the pillars of the managerial environment, instructional professionalism, and learning achievement factors, schools are often left to determine, at any time, which of the pillars becomes the focus.

            Managerial environment points to the quality of school leadership combined with the efficacy of existing policies basket essential to administrative effectiveness.

This factor, in and of itself, speaks to the psychological culture driving school activities. Leadership psychology critically informs school culture. It is pretty difficult, if not impossible to separate school culture from the leadership mindset since the latter feeds the former. In the context of this article, school improvement must necessarily commence with a diagnosis of school leaders’ contributions to the problem needing attention.

• Instructional effectiveness measures up in how students perform. Performance on the other hand measures beyond just test scores, but in the display of actual learning beyond the classroom. Schools are distinguished beyond assessments and proficiency scores by the character distinctiveness portrayed and noticeable by society. That distinctiveness originates not only in how students are taught but importantly in the examples they see in their teachers. School character is essentially a reflection of the leadership including teachers as students are apt to emulate what they see. It goes without saying that the more qualified a teacher is, the more noticeable their disposition and the more likely students seek to adapt – in some measure – that dispositional professional component deemed attractive.
• Increased student learning and achievement pivots as the overarching goal of SIP programming across geographies (Dabesa & Cheramlak, 2021). Increasing learning, however, does not actualize in a vacuum. It importantly revolves around reforms in either or both of the other pillars depicted in the model and sets the basis for improvement in learning and achievement (Whittaker & Montgomery, 2022). With the generally regarded understanding that student learning and achievement is more effectively a function of the administrative and instructional quality of schools.

Accordingly, the model above illustrates the interdependence of increased student learning on achievement through the combination of the quality of the managerial

environment and instructional effectiveness. As Jenkins and Allen, (2017) suggest, the interrelatedness of the factors ensures that attaining improvements in learning and achievement is impossible without preceding alterations in both the managerial and instructional landscape (Spillane, 2017).

School improvement, though ultimately aimed at spurring growth in learning and achievement, can focus on either pillar or a combination of pillars on the model. Focus becomes a function of the quality of the diagnostics evaluation undertaken for the defined purpose of improving schools (Bashir et al., 2018).

Why an Improvement Plan?      

Inarguably, improvement plans are pursued against the backdrop of some recognized failing or desired institutional advancement. Meyers and VanGronigen, (2020) note in their exploratory study conducted to examine the quality of root cause analysis informing improvement plans alludes to the truism that school improvements are generally stimulated by either the need to attain a desired outcome or underpinned by a desire to remedy a failing. Either way, the study highlights a fundamental shortfall regarding the formulation of remedial policies and actions aimed at improving school environments but informed by poor-quality data. The team points out the necessity of avoiding distortions in the quality of root causes generated from an analysis ensuring the reliability of causes informs the proper solutions.

Against this backdrop, improvement plans are a necessary platform upon which school leaders must rely. Improvement plans become an important yardstick by which to measure leadership achievements (Gordon & Hart, 2022). Continuous and consistent monitoring of improvement programming to determine quality and level of achievement on a rolling basis. Improvement plans serve a variety of purposes including:

• SIP as a learning opportunity for school leaders – school leaders are afforded ample important learning opportunities about school, personnel, culture, and programs. SIP enables leaders to identify and gauge internal and external resources, mobilizing the same toward the attainment of collective school goals.
• SIP as a mechanism for tracking milestones – Essentially, the development and administration of a SIP importantly serve as a tracking mechanism for institutional milestones. SIP more often than not, establishes and incorporates benchmarks around which celebrations are tracked. SIP becomes an important framework where strategic gains are tracked, and participation and ownership are audited for effectiveness (Anderson-Butcher et al., 2022). It provides the platform for the convergence of personnel, resources, and policies with a target goal.
• SIP as a conduit for channeling institutional outcomes – SIPs help administrators programmatically align and channel institutional outcomes through a series of actions aimed at attaining a number of outcomes(Böse & Brauckmann-Sajkiewicz, 2021).
• SIPs can serve as strategic platforms for staff, teachers, students, and the external community to rally around common goals aimed at mutually accentuating the image of both the school and the community. Writing for the Chicago Community Trust, Avirmed, (2017) list four ways in which strong schools impact their local communities: families and businesses gravitate towards good schools, stronger schools spillover to stronger community relation; and inarguably become the centers of opportunities for community members who support health community interactions.
• School administrators are encouraged to strategically view and employ SIPs as a blueprint for the larger purposes of improving the school’s climate and academic performance, as well as strengthening community relations and trust (Daly, 2022).

School Improvement planning Models;

There are a plethora of models across academia, and rightly so, as academics are expected to continually search for what works best for each situation faced by schools. (Feldhoff et al., 2022) state it better when emphasizing in their study investigation that regardless of how similar problems might look, each requires a solution unique to it. The reality of this prognosis could not be more than the truth. Each situation comes with its unique set of factors and attributes, necessitating the need to avoid the much-heralded plague of the “one size fits all” syndrome in development practice (Mehtar et al., 2020).

To that end, and considering the model figure above, the following can be gleaned:

Schools can focus on any individual aspect of the diagram, whether it is just instructional effectiveness, student learning, and achievement, improving the managerial climate, or a prudent combination of two or more of these improvement pillars. Ultimately, deciding what and how to tackle the improvement process will rest on two critical factors: institutional capacity and abilities. It goes generally without saying that many countries, especially across the developing world, still need to grapple with institutional capacity and ability issues (Guo et al., 2019). Integrating capacity building and skills development as a component or basis of undertaking school improvement programming has implications for goal attainment and sustainability.

Effective SIPs tend to target a component of the main school improvement pillars, represented in figure 1, such as professional development focused on strengthening departmental common learning teams’ (CLTS) ability to utilize assessment scores to inform instructional practice and remediation programs, or introducing a standardized writing format to the school to improve students writing skills, or enhancing administration – teacher collaboration, or increasing engagement with the external school community, these programs ideas or their complements could greatly institutional choices and enhance the sense of improvement if effectively assessed and found to be peculiarly unique to an institution (Lee & Louis, 2019).

What Makes a Good SIP?

Researchers differ on the range of essential components rendering a SIP effective or good. Cheng (2021) highlights among other things the important aspect of knowledge creation and management.

Knowledge-generation Mechanism: SIPs are an invaluable outlay, utilization, and opportunity for the preservation of knowledge. Kianto et al., (2018) profoundly describe SIP as a relationship that brings together knowledge management and the knowledge worker. School actors engaged in the implementation of SIP become active knowledge creators or utilizers, as the case might be, and even more, create new knowledge – gained a sense of what works and what doesn’t – as a result of their participation. Cataloging acquired knowledge enables future actors the chance to replicate or avoid non-profitable school improvement routes (Abbas & Sağsan, 2019).

Context-sensitive design: An effective SIP is one that is context-specific and sensitive to institutional needs. According to Tamadoni et al., (2021), every environment exists in its context with peculiar attributes that are relevant for informing improvement plans and programs. Taking salient contextual factors into consideration improves the likelihood of SIP success, attracts the buy-in of key institutional actors, and bolsters learning and improvement prospects (Day et al., 2020).

School Improvement Capacity:

SIPs are conceived with the goal of improving all aspects of school programming, often to the exclusion of building institutional capacity to effectively administer SIPs. Some may argue that inherently incorporated in every improvement plan is the indirect upgrading of institutional capacity. Capacity can be viewed on two fronts: institutional readiness for change and estimation of their capacity to effect the change. These two questions by Doshmangir et al., (2020) require separate investigations to drive the overall determination for effecting change. Capacity readiness must primarily focus on manpower and resource availability to drive the logistical and policy components of the improvement process.

SIPs and Evaluation:

Evaluation is a key aspect of the program implementation process. At each level of the plan-development process, key benchmarks are inserted as guides toward the attainment of the larger goal. Otherwise called evaluation benchmarks, these are signposts along the progression of the plan that on one hand show the effectiveness of the implementation process, and measure the goal’s proximity at every stage of the process, on the other hand. Pont (2020) recognizes the importance of not treating evaluation as an afterthought, but as a critical feature in the construction of school improvement plans.

In this regard, the author suggests that implementers view evaluation as a mechanism for empirically assessing progress, learning, and sustaining improvements (Bradshaw et al., 2021). The imperative of data-reliant monitoring is critical for institutional learning and sustainability. It affords administrators and program managers the monitoring benchmarks essential to measuring progress on an ongoing basis (Mintrop, 2020). Mintop succinctly puts forth the adage that “we cannot improve at scale what we cannot measure.” This could not be more than the reality. Measuring improvement is made real when set against a set of identifiable benchmarks scaled to align with the nature and purpose of the undertaken. The sustainability of improvement actions, therefore, rests on the laurels of the identified progress indicators (Brown, 2018)(Brown, 2018).

SIPs and Evaluation:

Whether or not the “P” in SIP represents a plan or program, sustaining school improvements requires as many resources as in the development and implementation process. Sustainability entails either setting up dedicated structures in schools to capture progress and utilize the knowledge to preserve identified improvement programs and policies (Williamson & Blackburn, 2019).

Some appealing strategies include:

Establishment of common content teams(CCTs) for knowledge sharing and exchanges,

Developing context-specific Professional development activities;

Operationalizing Equity for community-building and purposing policy for greater buy-ins;

Utilization of annual school-wide data to inform, motivate and galvanize personnel, at various levels, around common goals – (non)academic.

Maintaining awareness of resources availability and institutional capacity

These are but a few generalized instituteable actions schools can take to preserve any gains attained from an improvement program. Irrespective of which misdirection a school decides to go, leadership, according to Naidoo (2019), from principals and staff leads become pivotal in the drive for improvement sustainability. Naidoo maintains the cyclical process of school improvement and the success thereof relies largely on the quality of school leadership managing the task. As the oneness rests intently on the principals’ vision of where to take a school, their job is to work with other functionaries in leading the envisioned changes informed by the details of the diagnostics and working within the framework of the available resources (Day et al., 2020).

Conclusion:

In summation, improving school climate, service delivery, and programming is in no small measure a menial task. It requires as much attention from various levels of school leaders as it does, line personnel and those above the pay grade of schools. Notwithstanding the arduous challenge of improving school, that process is made more manageable when school leaders identify, with the means of their schools’ capacity, the necessary tools and measurable targets upon which to focus. Schools are free to innovate as they go about the improvement process. Improvement decisions must be context-specific utilizing resources and personnel akin to the problem with a passion for change.

The improvement like the planning cycle is a combination of multiple phases with their unique demands. The expectations are that school leaders will treat each phase as a learning opportunity – seeking to create and manage the information evolving from the enterprise for future reference. The importance of data collection, utilization, and referencing is also crucial to the process and must be managed by qualified internal personnel, where possible. Finally, sustaining improvements can be as daunting a challenge as the implementation of an improvement plan. Here, the demands of that process rest on the shoulders of administrators and policymakers to develop responsive actions through policies and programs that are cost-effective, and less burdensome to sustain and manage.

References:

• Abbas, J., & Sağsan, M. (2019). Impact of knowledge management practices on green innovation and corporate sustainable development: A structural analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production, 229, 611–620.
• Anderson-Butcher, D., Bates, S., Lawson, H. A., Childs, T. M., & Iachini, A. L. (2022). The Community Collaboration Model for School Improvement: A Scoping Review. Education Sciences, 12(12), 918.
• Avirmed, S. (2017). Four Ways that Neighborhood Schools Strengthen Communities. The Chicago Community Trust; Chicago Community Trust. Available at the following link: https://www.cct.org/stories/four-ways-that-neighborhood-schools-strengthen-comm unities/
• Bashir, S., Lockheed, M., Ninan, E., & Tan, J.-P. (2018). Facing Forward: Schooling for Learning in Africa. World Bank Publications.
• Böse, S., & Brauckmann-Sajkiewicz, S. (2021). (In)effective leadership? Exploring the interplay of challenges, goals, and measures in the context of school improvement. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 59(4), 454–471.
• Bradshaw, C. P., Cohen, J., Espelage, D. L., & Nation, M. (2021). Addressing School Safety Through Comprehensive School Climate Approaches. School Psychology Review, 50(2-3), 221–236.
• Brown, B. (2018). Evaluations of School Policing Programs in the USA. In The Palgrave International Handbook of School Discipline, Surveillance, and Social Control (pp. 327–349). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71559-9_17
• Cheng, E. C. K. (2021). Knowledge management for improving school strategic planning. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 49(5), 824–840.
• Creemers, B., & Reynolds, D. (2022). The Future Development of School Effectiveness and School Improvement. In School Effectiveness and School Improvement (pp.379–383). Available at the following link:  https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203740156-33
• Dabesa, F., & Cheramlak, S. F. (2021). Practices, Opportunities, and Challenges Of SIP in Primary Schools of Ilu Gelan Woreda, West Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State. Middle Eastern Journal of Research in Education and Social Sciences, 2(2), 58–84.
• Daly, C. (2022, June 13). Promoting community involvement in schools.ThoughtExchange. Available at the following link: https://thoughtexchange.com/blog/community-involvement-in-schools/
• Day, C., Sammons, P., & Gorgen, K. (2020). Successful School Leadership. Education Development Trust. Available at the following link: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED614324
• Doshmangir, L., Moshiri, E., & Farzadfar, F. (2020). Seven Decades of Primary Healthcare during Various Development Plans in Iran: A Historical Review. Archives of Iranian Medicine, 23(5), 338–352.
• Feldhoff, T., Emmerich, M., Radisch, F., Wurster, S., & Bischof, L. M. (2022). UniqueProblems Require Unique Solutions—Models and Problems of Linking School Effectiveness and School Improvement. Education Sciences, 12(3), 158.
• Gordon, M. F., & Hart, H. (2022). How strong principals succeed: improving student achievement in high-poverty urban schools. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 60(3), 288–302.
• Guo, L., Huang, J., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Education Development in China: Education Return, Quality, and Equity. Sustainability: Science Practice and Policy, 11(13), 3750.
• Jenkins, D. M., & Allen, S. J. (2017). Aligning Instructional Strategies with Learning Outcomes and Leadership Competencies. In New Directions for Student Leadership (Vol. 2017, Issue 156, pp. 43–58). Available at the following link: https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20270
• Kianto, A., Shujahat, M., Hussain, S., Nawaz, F., & Ali, M. (2018). The impact of knowledge management on knowledge worker productivity. Baltic Journal of Management, 14(2), 178–197.
• Lee, M., & Louis, K. S. (2019). Mapping a strong school culture and linking it to sustainable school improvement. Teaching and Teacher Education, 81, 84–96.
• Leithwood, K., Jantzi, D., & McElheron-Hopkins, C. (2006). The development and testing of a school improvement model. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 17(4), 441–464.
• Mehtar, S., Preiser, W., Lakhe, N. A., Bousso, A., TamFum, J.-J. M., Kallay, O., Seydi, M., Zumla, A., & Nachega, J. B. (2020). Limiting the spread of COVID-19 in
• Africa: one size mitigation strategies do not fit all countries. The Lancet. Global Health, 8(7), e881–e883. Meyers, C. V., & VanGronigen, B. A. (2020). Planning for what? An analysis of root cause quality and content in school improvement plans. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 59(4), 437–453.
• Mintrop, R. (2020). Design-Based School Improvement: A Practical Guide for Education Leaders. Harvard Education Press.Pont, B. (2020). A literature review of school leadership policy reforms. European Journal of Education, 55(2), 154–168.
• Spillane, J. (2017). Leadership and Learning: Conceptualizing Relations Between School Administrative Practice and Instructional Practice. In How School Leaders Contribute to Student Success (pp. 49–67). Available at the following link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50980-8_4
• Tamadoni, A., Hosseingholizadeh, R., & Bellibaş, M. Ş. (2021). A systematic review of key contextual challenges facing school principals: Research-informed coping solutions. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 17411432211061439.
• Whittaker, J. A., & Montgomery, B. L. (2022). Advancing a cultural change agenda in higher education: issues and values related to reimagining academic leadership.Discover Sustainability, 3(1), 10.
• Williamson, R., & Blackburn, B. R. (2019). 7 Strategies for Improving Your School.Routledge.
• Abbas, J., & Sağsan, M. (2019). Impact of knowledge management practices on green innovation and corporate sustainable development: A structural analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production, 229, 611–620.
• Anderson-Butcher, D., Bates, S., Lawson, H. A., Childs, T. M., & Iachini, A. L. (2022). The Community Collaboration Model for School Improvement: A Scoping Review. Education Sciences, 12(12), 918.
• Avirmed, S. (2017). Four Ways that Neighborhood Schools Strengthen Communities. The Chicago Community Trust; Chicago Community Trust. https://www.cct.org/stories/four-ways-that-neighborhood-schools-strengthen-comm unities/
• Bashir, S., Lockheed, M., Ninan, E., & Tan, J.-P. (2018). Facing Forward: Schooling for Learning in Africa. World Bank Publications.
• Böse, S., & Brauckmann-Sajkiewicz, S. (2021). (In)effective leadership? Exploring the interplay of challenges, goals, and measures in the context of school improvement. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 59(4), 454–471.
• Bradshaw, C. P., Cohen, J., Espelage, D. L., & Nation, M. (2021). Addressing School Safety Through Comprehensive School Climate Approaches. School Psychology Review, 50(2-3), 221–236.
• Brown, B. (2018). Evaluations of School Policing Programs in the USA. In The Palgrave International Handbook of School Discipline, Surveillance, and Social Control (pp. 327–349). Available at the following link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71559-9_17
• Cheng, E. C. K. (2021). Knowledge management for improving school strategic planning. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 49(5), 824–840.
• Creemers, B., & Reynolds, D. (2022). The Future Development of School Effectiveness and School Improvement. In School Effectiveness and School Improvement (pp.379–383). Available at the following link:  https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203740156-33
• Dabesa, F., & Cheramlak, S. F. (2021). Practices, Opportunities, and Challenges Of SIP in Primary Schools of Ilu Gelan Woreda, West Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State. Middle Eastern Journal of Research in Education and Social Sciences, 2(2), 58–84.
• Daly, C. (2022, June 13). Promoting community involvement in schools. ThoughtExchange. Available at the following link:https://thoughtexchange.com/blog/community-involvement-in-schools/
• Day, C., Sammons, P., & Gorgen, K. (2020). Successful School Leadership. Education Development Trust. Available at the following link: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED614324
• Doshmangir, L., Moshiri, E., & Farzadfar, F. (2020). Seven Decades of Primary Healthcare during Various Development Plans in Iran: A Historical Review. Archives of Iranian Medicine, 23(5), 338–352.
• Feldhoff, T., Emmerich, M., Radisch, F., Wurster, S., & Bischof, L. M. (2022). Unique Problems Require Unique Solutions—Models and Problems of Linking School Effectiveness and School Improvement. Education Sciences, 12(3), 158.
• Gordon, M. F., & Hart, H. (2022). How strong principals succeed: improving student achievement in high-poverty urban schools. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 60(3), 288–302.
• Guo, L., Huang, J., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Education Development in China: Education Return, Quality, and Equity. Sustainability: Science Practice and Policy, 11(13), 3750.
• Jenkins, D. M., & Allen, S. J. (2017). Aligning Instructional Strategies with Learning Outcomes and Leadership Competencies. In New Directions for Student Leadership (Vol. 2017, Issue 156, pp. 43–58). Available at the following link: https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20270
• Kianto, A., Shujahat, M., Hussain, S., Nawaz, F., & Ali, M. (2018). The impact of knowledge management on knowledge worker productivity. Baltic Journal of Management, 14(2), 178–197.
• Lee, M., & Louis, K. S. (2019). Mapping a strong school culture and linking it to sustainable school improvement. Teaching and Teacher Education, 81, 84–96.
• Leithwood, K., Jantzi, D., & McElheron-Hopkins, C. (2006). The development and testing of a school improvement model. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 17(4), 441–464.
• Mehtar, S., Preiser, W., Lakhe, N. A., Bousso, A., TamFum, J.-J. M., Kallay, O., Seydi, M., Zumla, A., & Nachega, J. B. (2020). Limiting the spread of COVID-19 in
• Africa: one size mitigation strategies do not fit all countries. The Lancet. Global Health, 8(7), e881–e883.
• Meyers, C. V., & VanGronigen, B. A. (2020). Planning for what? An analysis of root cause quality and content in school improvement plans. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 59(4), 437–453.
• Mintrop, R. (2020). Design-Based School Improvement: A Practical Guide for Education Leaders. Harvard Education Press.
• Pont, B. (2020). A literature review of school leadership policy reforms. European Journal of Education, 55(2), 154–168.
• Spillane, J. (2017). Leadership and Learning: Conceptualizing Relations Between School Administrative Practice and Instructional Practice. In How School Leaders Contribute to Student Success (pp. 49–67). Available at the following link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50980-8_4
• Tamadoni, A., Hosseingholizadeh, R., & Bellibaş, M. Ş. (2021). A systematic review of key contextual challenges facing school principals: Research-informed coping solutions. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 17411432211061439.
• Whittaker, J. A., & Montgomery, B. L. (2022). Advancing a cultural change agenda in higher education: issues and values related to reimagining academic leadership.Discover Sustainability, 3(1), 10.
• Williamson, R., & Blackburn, B. R. (2019). 7 Strategies for Improving Your School.Routledge