Approve "Guidelines for School Improvement 2007/2008" (School Improvement and Accountability)

Florida Statues require the School Board to annually review and approve its accountability procedures. We are requesting approval of the attached “Guidelines for School Improvement 2007/2008” document which has been updated. The majority of the modifications made to the 2007/2008 edition clarify the School Improvement Process for principals and School Advisory Councils in areas that schools have requested further explanation.

There are only two changes to this document. Both changes are in the area of Monitoring the School Improvement Plan (see pages 10-11). Each school will fill out an annual “Accountability Report” which will provide the Office of School Improvement and the School Board outcome data on schools’ objectives from the previous year. The Accountability Report will be an online template attached to the School Improvement Plan. On the Accountability Report, each school will have their objectives from the previous year. Beside each objective, they will click one of the following: 1) Not Met, 2) Improved, or 3) Met/Exceeded. The data collection process for this report will not require any additional work for teachers and administrators, as it will be completed on August 13, 2007, when schools across the district examine their data from the previous year.

Currently all Title 1 schools (125) are required to submit a “Mid-Year Report” to the Florida Department of Education. The purpose of the Mid-Year Report is for schools to examine if they are on track for meeting their current objectives on their School Improvement Plan. The non-Title 1 schools will now submit a district-level Mid-Year Report to the Office of School Improvement. The district-level report will not be a comprehensive document as required by the state. Instead it will be similar in nature to the Accountability Report. The data collection process for this report will not require additional work for teachers, but will be the responsibility of the principal.

The "Guidelines for School Improvement 2007/2008" document has been updated and approved by the Central Facilitating Team for Accountability, appropriate district staff, and a committee of widespread representation from all stakeholders.

All District Goals and Critical Success Factors

This document will be placed on the district website at no cost.

Review of the guidelines is an ongoing process through the principals' councils, school advisory councils, and member groups represented on the Central Facilitating Team.