With the end of school year around the corner, preparations for the 2019-20 school year are under way for the Achieve 180 program and will continue with principals and administration conducting planning sessions over the summer. 

One of the major events that will assist school leaders is the district’s annual Professional Learning Series (PLS), which is scheduled for June 17-19 at Kingdom Builders’ Center. The event is an opportunity for district leadership and principals to begin drafting their school improvement plans, also known as SIPS.  

At the latest Achieve 180 meeting recently, principals received a preliminary coaching session from district administration to conduct what is called PLS pre-work as an added layer of district support in which principals are encouraged to begin the planning process prior to June.  

During the meeting, Senior Manager of Leadership Development Lauren Ford discussed the importance of principals building a campus improvement team and conducting much needed data-diving to find solutions for their current and expected challenges. 

“It’s important that you get into your solution rooms and work with your campus improvement teams to begin working on how you will evolve last year’s challenges into next year’s celebrations,” Ford said. “This is a great opportunity to be able to evaluate your achievement gaps and collaborate with your peers from across the district that are performing well in those specific content areas and create a plan that’s unique to your campus. 

Other agenda items discussed at Achieve 180’s monthly principal meeting was proposed changes to the turnaround program for the 2019-20 school year, which included re-evaluating the current program’s tier levels.  

As of now, nearly 50 campuses are organized into three tiers—Tier 1, Tier2 and Tier 3. The proposed amendment would still include those tiers and two additional named feeder and lighter support. The newly named levels would support campuses that feed into identified Achieve 180 campuses and those that have graduated from the program, but still need district support to remain out of Improvement Required.