To: Lowndes County School System Employees Personal Enhancement Plan Purpose : To improve staff effectiveness through greater accountability with the result of increased student achievement Justification : We all should realize that the mandates from the No Child Left Behind Act on the federal level and the A+ Education Reform Act (HB 1187) on a state level have increased demands on educator accountability and the academic achievement of our students. With this has come even more rigorous accountability for the school system including the board, the superintendent, the administration, the teachers and even the students and their parents. Taking this into consideration, I feel the urgency to make sure that the instructional processes are more closely aligned with student achievement. Everything we do should be aligned with our Long Range Strategic Plan, the SACS School Improvement Plan, and the classroom teacher's lesson plan. In other words, we should have alignment and focus from the boardroom to the classroom. As part of our SACS accreditation, each school has developed a School Improvement Plan and it must be implemented and reviewed annually. Furthermore, it is crucial that each teacher's individual classroom improvement plan be aligned with the school's improvement plan. For this reason and to insure a closer relationship between classroom instruction and school improvement, I feel a strong need for us to utilize a Personal Enhancement Plan for each employee in the Lowndes County School System. It requires a team effort whether you are a teacher, administrator, secretary or the superintendent. Failing to develop a plan is in effect planning to fail. It is imperative that we all have a plan because everything we do must relate to student achievement through the School Improvement Plan and subsequently the Long-Range Strategic Plan. As I have stated on numerous occasions, we need to become more focused on student achievement if this is our main target goal, and it is. Description : The Personal Enhancement Plan is based on the premise that we all have room for improvement. Often we get so busy that we lose sight of our intended goals and struggle to simply survive. In many cases the Long-Range Strategic Plan and the SACS School Improvement Plan are documents that occupy a space on a bookshelf. This is not an exemplary or best practice. The Personal Enhancement Plan is designed to enable each employee to re-direct his/her focus to make certain that they are moving in the intended direction. In this case it will be the SACS School Improvement Plan. Using an example of a teacher they will identify through self-assessment, three personal goals that relate directly to the School Improvement Plan. At least two of these goals must relate to student achievement and professional learning. These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, results-centered, and time bound . Strategies for achieving these goals will be an essential part of the Personal Enhancement Plan. The plan will be recorded on one sheet of paper and require very little time to complete. Of course, more time would be required for the self-assessment and planning of strategies but this should be done over the course of the summer or during pre-planning. This is what accountability is; focusing on your plan to achieve the desired results. Comments: The Personal Enhancement Plan will not replace the current evaluation instrument, the Georgia Teacher Evaluation Instrument (GTOI). It will enhance the GTOI by increasing our focus on student achievement. It may serve as the foundation for a new and improved evaluation instrument called the Teacher Evaluation Instrument (TEI). We currently have a team of teachers and administrators working on the design of this new instrument. The state is also designing an instrument. We will select the instrument we feel best suits the needs of the Lowndes County School System. Timeline/Process:
Summer --- Self-assessment, formulates goals, plan strategies, and record first draft of Personal Enhancement Plan. |
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11.22.09
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