DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
LEA IMPLEMENTATION/ STRATEGIC PLANNING GUIDANCE
Contents
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Objective
Definitions
Sample Success Plan entry
Exemplary Success Plan characteristics
Sample LEA planning procedure
Objective
The Implementation/ Strategic Plan provides DDOE with a snapshot (or summary) of the LEA’s major initiatives to
address student achievement, tailored to LEA-specific needs and DDOE priorities.
Definitions
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Action Step: The step(s) taken by the LEA to implement the Strategy/ Activity.
Activity Owner: A single person that is accountable for the implementation of the Strategy/ Activity.
Deliverables: A concrete, verifiable product created by completing an Action Step.
Duration Dates: The time in calendar units (month/day) between the start and finish for implementing a
Strategy/ Activity.
Funding Source: Specific grant name or other source of funding.
Funding Amount: The LEA-approved budget estimate for completing the Strategy/ Activity.
Root Cause(s): A factor(s) affecting student achievement/ performance in a given area.
Strategy/ Activity: An initiative, plan of action or policy designed to improve student outcomes.
Sample Implementation Plan Entry
Strategy/
Activity
Implement
LEA
curriculum
aligned to
state
standards
at the
district,
school and
classroom
level.
Action Steps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Establish implementation teams consisting of an
instructional coach, content expert, a SWD lead
and the principal from each building to provide
classroom-embedded support for LEA trainings.
Include a practice period deadline for full
implementation for all PD. Fall PD will focus on
content-based Tier I CCSS instruction and Spring
PD will focus on daily formative assessment.
University of Delaware math coaches will provide
classroom-based support after PD in Title I schools
Special Education expert will support co-teaching
model in Tier I math/ reading at Blake High School
Principal and Curriculum leads conduct
walkthroughs using tool aligned to CCSS and PD
Implementation teams and Office of Curriculum
analyze walkthrough and PLC data monthly
Conduct peer learning walks in all schools,
including cross-building walkthroughs for Blake,
Stilton, and Quincy Title I schools
Last Updated: 03/06/15
Activity
Owner
Director of
Curriculum
Duration
Dates
7/14-1/15
Deliverable(s)
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Lesson plans aligned
to curriculum and
incorporating
strategies from PD
Walkthrough data
showing effective
implementation of
CCSS and PD
strategies
Goals and next steps
logs from coaching
Monitoring and next
steps reports from
implementation
teams
Co-teaching plans,
with strategies
integrated in lesson
plans
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Funding
Source(s)
Title I
Title II
Title III
Funding
Amount(s)
120,000
130,000
45,000
DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
LEA IMPLEMENTATION/ STRATEGIC PLANNING GUIDANCE
Exemplary Plan Characteristics
Note: To create an exemplary plan, LEA leadership must collaborate to analyze student data, root causes and strategies
most likely to remediate performance issues, then consider how to innovate with traditional funding sources to
implement these strategies.
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All Strategies/ Activities address root causes of the District’s urgent performance trends, including those
identified through the DOE/ LEA Performance Management Routines. Strategies/ Activities:
o Increase the scale and/ or fidelity of strategies that have demonstrated success;
o Address systemic root causes of low performance, such as curriculum and assessment quality;
implementation fidelity, and/ or professional development quality and transfer;
o Build institutional knowledge and leadership capacity, especially to support strategies; and,
o Address low-performing subgroups and schools.
Resources are focused on a limited number of prioritized strategies that can be implemented with quality
during the specified duration.
o Strategies/ Activities are likely to result in a high return on investment.
o Strategies/ Activities introducing new initiatives or purchases are non-redundant, and include plans for
training, support and monitoring to ensure implementation fidelity.
Action Steps articulate clear and specific commitments.
o Action Steps are written at a high-level but are specific enough to communicate the major tasks to be
undertaken.
o Specific terms are used. For example, instead of “engage teachers in planning,” specify what planning
the teachers will do, and how they will be engaged and supported through the planning.
Deliverables are concrete, verifiable products created by completing Action Steps.
o Deliverables are aligned to strategies, and provide insight to the quality of implementation. For example,
common formative assessments are a strong deliverable for a PLC initiative, but “sign in” sheets are not.
o Deliverable dates are staggered to demonstrate how the Strategy/ Activity is implemented across
duration.
All Strategy/ Activities have a single owner who is ultimately responsible for implementation.
Federal funding sources and specific amounts are included.
Sample Planning Procedure
1) Identify the District’s most compelling performance trends.1
a. What are the most relevant data and information sources to use?
LEA performance routine memos for SY13/14 - SY14/15 should be reviewed; other examples include
walkthrough, assessment, behavioral and/or attendance data.
b. What are the District’s most promising and most concerning performance trends?
c. In what ways are these trends connected?
2) Identify root causes:
a. What factors contribute to promising and concerning performance trends?
b. Of the root causes identified, which can we control?
1
Note steps 1 and 8 are not a part of the actual Implementation/ Strategic Plan document, but support effective planning and strategy implementation.
Last Updated: 03/06/15
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DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
LEA IMPLEMENTATION/ STRATEGIC PLANNING GUIDANCE
c. Which root causes can we eliminate because they are “symptoms” of deeper/ systemic root causes?
i. What underlying factors contribute to the systemic root causes?
ii. Can we identify a systemic root cause that contributes to multiple performance trends?
Example: District A has identified student misbehavior, rigor and content delivery as root causes.
Noting that the District has trained teachers in PBS and LFS and participated in Common Ground,
leadership identified professional development (PD) implementation as the underlying root cause
for all three trends.
iii. For systemic root causes, where does the specific breakdown occur?
Example: Since District A already has a complete PD cycle in place, it analyzed implementation
effectiveness at the district, building and classroom level. Using walkthrough data, the District
identified a breakdown occurring with teachers that had 4 or more years’ experience
approximately 2 weeks after training. In contrast, the District concluded that its induction
program, which contained classroom embedded supports for newer teachers, was increasing PD
implementation, and lack of these supports for more experienced teachers was the breakdown/
root cause to target.
iv. Note that there may be non-systematic root causes that must be addressed as well.
3)
Prioritize the Strategies/ Activities most likely to impact root causes.
a. What Strategies/ Activities will spread and/ or systematize root causes of positive performance?
b. What Strategies/ Activities will remediate root causes of concerning performance trends?
c. Have we analyzed the effectiveness of Strategies/ Activities including the cost-benefit analyses?
d. Do these Strategies/ Activities target the root cause? For example, if a District’s root cause of low SWD
performance is a classroom-level breakdown of co-teaching, purchasing new RTI programs or
contracting training for SWD teachers would not likely provide a good return on investment.
e. Which of these remaining Strategies/ Activities can we implement simultaneously with fidelity?
4) Define Action Steps to implement the prioritized Strategies/ Activities. For each Strategy/ Activity:
a. What knowledge, capacity, systems and resources already exist to support the strategy, and what is still
needed in each of these categories? Consider each level of implementation (district, subject, grade-band,
school, classroom) when planning for high-level Action Steps.
b. How will we create structures and build capacity at each level to ensure success? This may include
contracting with experts, providing coaches to targeted schools, strategically partnering high and low
performing schools, etc.
c. While Strategy/ Activity has only one owner, the District should consider who will lead implementation
at each level, what knowledge and capacity do they have, and what additional support will they need.
d. How will we regularly monitor implementation effectiveness and course-correct if needed?
e. What risks and obstacles exist, and how will we proactively address them?
5) Determine deliverables – see Exemplary Plan Characteristics
6) Schedule Strategies/ Activities.
a. Considering the workflow of the school year and the strategies to be implemented, what is the best time
to start and end each Strategy/ Activity? (Aggregate the duration of Action Steps.)
b. Have we taken into account staff capacity, instructional cycles, etc.?
c. Which existing initiatives can be retired or streamlined to create resources for prioritized strategies?
Last Updated: 03/06/15
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DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
LEA IMPLEMENTATION/ STRATEGIC PLANNING GUIDANCE
7) Associate funding to strategies, innovating wherever possible.
a. How much funding is necessary to implement each strategy with high quality, considering the identified
needs for knowledge, capacity, etc.?
b. Are there initiatives currently being funded that do not provide sufficient return on investment that can
be retired? (For example, they’re redundant with other activities, haven’t demonstrated effectiveness,
have low implementation fidelity, require staff time that can be better directed elsewhere, etc.)
c. Which funding sources can be applied, using least-flexible funding sources first?
d. New federal funding guidance documents will be available prior to the May Consolidated Grant
trainings.
8) To develop effective plans, districts should identify success metrics and leading indicators, progress monitoring
systems and feedback loops to ensure effective implementation.1
a. Success metrics are the lag indicators that measure strategy effectiveness.
b. What indicators will show that meaningful progress is being made? A few examples of leading indicators
include: student engagement (walkthrough data), attendance, benchmark scores, etc.
c. How will we know if adequate progress is being made at each step and level of implementation?
d. How will we gain stakeholder buy-in at each level (district, building leadership, teachers, etc.)?
e. How will we create ownership for strategy implementation and results?
Last Updated: 03/06/15
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