Summary of "Plan Site-Based Initiatives"

Video Transcription

Thank you for joining me in this unit, Plan Site-based Initiatives. The learning objectives in this unit included, analyzing the theory of site-based management and professional learning communities, analyzing and developing a mission, vision, goals, and norms for the site-based team, evaluating strategies to develop action plans and SMART goals, developing an action plan and SMART goals with appropriate site-based team, and reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of your plan and revising accordingly.

We began the unit with a learning objective that asked us to analyze the theory of site-based management and professional learning communities. We began with just the basics of site-based management, what does site-based management entail, and what might it look like in your school or district? With an understanding of what site-based management is, we were ready to discuss the possible impacts of site-based management on issues like teacher self-efficacy and implementing and sustaining continuous improvement efforts at the school and district level.

Finally, we examined the alignment of PLCs and site-based management. Notably, your site-based management team may follow the PLC structure for its organization and the guidelines for how that team functions. After analyzing the features of PLCs and site-based management teams, we were ready to begin analyzing and then developing a mission, a vision, a set of goals, and a set of norms for your site-based team.

We reviewed the different types of PLC teams that might be used in different schools and districts, and we also spoke about the purposes of those different PLC teams. It's important to realize that the structure of a PLC team is going to be very dependent on what purpose that team is intended to serve. We also discussed the non-negotiable features of PLCs. So no matter who is involved on the PLC, and no matter what its structure is, all PLCs are going to have some of those same non-negotiable features that ensure that the team is going to be effective in meeting its goals.

Finally, we looked at the necessary alignment of the mission, vision, goals, and norms, not just aligning the mission, vision, goals, and norms of the team to each other, but also making sure that all of these elements are aligned to the mission, vision, goals, and norms of the school and of the district as well. With all of those pieces in place, the next step was to work on some action planning and action research, and to develop some specific SMART goals that are aligned to those larger overarching goals.

So we first compared the ideas of action planning and action research. Those two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but the truth is that there are some differences, and so I outlined those for you. I underscored the importance of aligning your SMART goals to the action plans that you would be developing, and we also spoke about the role that reflection can play in the action planning process.

And after we had talked about action planning and SMART goals in theory, you were ready to actually begin developing your action plans and your SMART goals with your site-based team. As part of this process, I walked you through finding, or perhaps even developing, your own action plan template. I explained some features that you should look for when you are trying to locate an action plan template, and I had mentioned that if your team does not find a template that fits your needs, you may find it necessary either to modify an existing template or to create your own.

We also examined a SMART goal template that can be used to write goals that are aligned to the action plan. And finally, we reflected on the alignment of our action plans with the SMART goals and with the mission and vision of the team, and we also reflected on the implementation of the plan. It's important to implement an action plan with the understanding that there will be regular opportunities for reflection, and possibly adjustments or revisions. So at any time if the action plan is not functioning well, if it is not an effective plan to move you forward towards your goals, you can stop and make adjustments to that action plan in order to make it more effective, in order to move you more efficiently along the path to the goals that you've set.

So after you had created this wide variety of pieces here in this unit, the mission, vision, goals, and norms for your PLC or your site-based management team, and then an assortment of SMART goals and action plans aligned with those elements, it was important to finish up the unit by reflecting on both the strengths and weaknesses of your plan, and then to revise any of those elements accordingly. So a key idea here was evaluating alignment. It can't be stated enough that all of those various pieces need to be aligned to one another, the mission and vision and goals and norms of your team level plan, and then the action plans and the SMART goals that are aligned with those all need to be also aligned with the school level and even district level pieces so that there is alignment all across the boards.

We also talked about monitoring continuous improvement efforts. What that might look like in the long term. And finally, we discussed the power of reflection. Why is it so important that we spend time reflecting? Unfortunately, all too often that's a step that we skip, because we focus on planning and on implementation, and then we move right along to the next item on our list without actually taking that time to stop and reflect when it really is so important that we do take that time to reflect on what has happened so that we can make better and more effective choices in the future.

So to recap, the learning objectives in this unit included, analyzing the theory of site-based management and professional learning communities, analyzing and developing a mission, vision, goals, and norms for the site-based team, evaluating strategies to develop action plans and SMART goals, developing an action plan and SMART goals with appropriate site-based team, and reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of your plan and revising accordingly. So here is one last chance in this unit for you to stop and reflect. Have the learning objectives in this unit given you a deeper understanding of the functioning of your PLC or your site-based management team?

To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the additional resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material. Thanks for joining me throughout this entire unit. Have a great day.