ABSTRACT

It’s been a tough year for you and your school. You’ve seen a steady decline in your school’s test scores. You’ve noticed that for the past 3 years, your students’ achievement for those who have English as a Second Language (ESL) has been flat. It’s been that way even though you’ve exhorted teachers to focus on these students to help them achieve more. In addition, your highest achieving students have suffered from “achievement flat lining.” The only growth has been with students who qualify for free and reduced lunch and those children who are, as one teacher noted “just good plain kids.” The fact that over 20% of your teachers can retire at the end of this year is also of concern. Fully half of those teachers are in critical teaching areas. This data creates a potential issue in terms of staffing for the upcoming year. It also creates a potential source of anxiety for your PTSA and other community members. As you prepare to log off your computer for the week, you receive a high priority e-mail from the superintendent’s executive assistant. The superintendent wants you to present your annual school improvement plan to the superintendent’s cabinet and the board of education in 2 weeks. You sigh, record the due date on your calendar, create a task item, insert it in your 43 file folders, and set an appointment with yourself to start working on this next week.