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DISCUSSION/ACTION5.0Office of the Superintendent of SchoolsMONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLSRockville, MarylandJune 22, 2009MEMORANDUMTo: Members of the Board of EducationFrom: Jerry D. Weast, Superintendent of SchoolsSubject: Strategic Plan—
Our Call To Action: Pursuit of Excellence
 
Executive Summary
 
Our Call to Action: Pursuit of Excellence,
the strategic plan for Montgomery County PublicSchools (MCPS), has been revised to support our ongoing commitment to equity and excellencefor all students. The revision of the Board of Education’s core values and the addition of theFramework for Equity and Excellence further strengthen our mission to provide a high quality,world-class education that ensures success for every student through excellence in teaching andlearning. The revised plan brings greater alignment among the milestones, data points, strategies,initiatives, and measurement system that monitor the continuous improvement of students, staff,and schools (Attachment A).The plan’s Guiding Tenets include the Board of Education’s goals and academic priorities; thevision, mission, and core values of the school system; and the critical questions that guide ourwork. The plan reinforces the initiatives that have been implemented since the Board of Educationadopted
Our Call to Action
in November 1999 to raise the bar for student achievement and closethe gap in student performance by race and ethnicity and among students impacted by disabilities,limited English proficiency, and poverty. The Seven Keys to College Readiness, a trajectory of high standards, guide school staff and parents to ensure that all students achieve at high levels.With goals set at advanced rather than proficient standards, the Seven Keys help ensure thatstudent achievement is not predictable by race or for any other group.The revision of 
Our 
 
Call to Action: Pursuit of Excellence
reflects ongoing stakeholderinvolvement and feedback during FY 2009, as prescribed by the recently adopted Policy AEB,
Strategic Planning for Continuous Improvement 
. Final Board of Education action on theFY 2010 Operating Budget also is incorporated into the revised plan. The Board of EducationStrategic Planning Committee met on March 13, April 21, and May 20, 2009, and reviewed therecommended revisions to
Our Call to Action: Pursuit of Excellence
, formulated changes to theplan, and recommended approval of the revised plan by the full Board of Education.
 
Members of the Board of Education 2 June 22, 2009
Background
Our Call to Action: Pursuit of Excellence
describes the strategic course for the school system’soverall operation, including the operating budget. It reflects a sophisticated planning andaccountability process that was recognized when MCPS won the United States SenateProductivity and Maryland Quality Award in 2006 and three years ago when MCPS was afinalist for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Additionally, through the ProcessImprovement and Innovation in Education project, administered by the Houston-based AmericanProductivity and Quality Center, MCPS has been cited as a benchmark district fordata-driven decision making, English for Speakers of Other Languages programs and services,professional development, mathematics and science, and support of professional learningcommunities.The strategic plan lays the foundation to improve the instructional program in each school.Annually, schools develop and implement school improvement plans based on the district’sstrategic plan, using the Baldrige-guided school improvement planning process. Office anddepartment strategic plans also are aligned with
Our Call to Action
:
Pursuit of Excellence
. Thisstrategic planning process guides staff throughout the school system in their work with schools,parents, and the community. The strategic plan also addresses the requirements of the Maryland
 Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act 
and the achievement goals of the federal
 No Child  Left Behind Act of 2001
(NCLB).
Our Call to Action: Pursuit of Excellence
is the MCPS accountability document, guiding howthe Board of Education monitors the results of the work of the superintendent of schools andschool system staff to attain the Board’s goals. Under each of the five goals—ensure success forevery student, provide an effective instructional program, strengthen productive partnerships foreducation, create a positive work environment in a self-renewing organization, and providehigh-quality business services that are essential to the educational success of students—there arerelated milestones and data points. Reports provided throughout the year to the Board of Education and the public address these data points and the progress that has been made. Thestrategic plan is the basis of the annual accountability report to the community. The 2008 AnnualReport on
Our Call to Action,
presented to the Board on December 9, 2008, reported the progresstoward achieving established targets for students and the district. Individual schools monitorprogress on achieving their targets with their community superintendent and director of schoolperformance.
 Establishing Targets
In 2006, MCPS established academic targets. The challenge was
 
to establish realistic targets thatraise our expectations and standards for student achievement and reinforce our commitment toclosing the gap in student performance by race and ethnicity, as well as other student groups. TheOffice of Shared Accountability led the development of system and school targets by analyzing thebaseline data for MCPS and every school. Targets were established through 2010 by consideringwhere MCPS wanted to be in five years with regard to student achievement. These targets have
 
Members of the Board of Education 3 June 22, 2009remained unchanged through this time period. Work currently is under way to extend the district’stargets to 2014, to be aligned with the timeline established by the
 No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
.
 Alignment of the Budget and Strategic Planning Process
The Board of Education aligned the budget and strategic planning processes in February 2004 byadopting a set of recommendations from the Board of Education’s Research and EvaluationCommittee to change the process for public involvement in the development of the MCPSstrategic plan and operating budget. The Board’s goals included encouraging greater publicinvolvement in discussion of long-range strategic issues and emphasizing public involvement inthe development phase of the strategic plan and the operating budget, instead of primarily in thecritique phase following the superintendent of school’s presentation of the operating budget. Themost recent revision to Board Policy AEB,
Strategic Planning for Continuous Improvement,
adopted on May 12, 2009, further reinforces the Board’s commitment to ensuring that the budgetprocess and strategic planning process are aligned and that a broad range of stakeholders activelyparticipate in these processes.The revised policy states that the strategic plan will —
•
 
describe the goals of MCPS and methods to reach those goals;
•
 
guide the development and improvement of new and existing processes, strategies, andinitiatives;
•
 
engage the community to improve student performance and close the performance gapby race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, English proficiency, and disability; and
•
 
align the system’s work and guide how resources and personnel are allocated to schoolsso that all students receive a high-quality education.In addition, the policy identifies how the Board will regularly review at its business meetings,“progress on the implementation of priorities, initiatives, and strategies to determine progresstoward milestones, discuss whether any new efforts are needed, and to review major issues,including those that may have a budgetary impact for the next year.”
Stakeholder Involvement in Strategic Planning Process
The Board of Education sponsored community forums on the strategic planning process occurredon September 18 and October 16, 2008, at Watkins Mill and Albert Einstein high schools,respectively, with approximately 225 individuals attending. Simultaneous translation equipmentwas made available in Spanish, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean, and materials wereprovided in the five languages in addition to English. Fifty-six individuals testified at the forumsand each was allotted three minutes to speak. This format was used as a result of feedback receivedfrom the community forums that individuals wanted an opportunity to provide testimony directly tomembers of the Board of Education. The forums were cablecast on MCPS instructional televisionChannel 34 and web cast on the MCPS website.
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