What’s on the Horizon for Arcola School . . .
At the September School Board meeting, the Arcola School District Board of Education approved the district improvement plan for the next 12 months. This plan will run from September 2023 through September 2024.
Long-Term Planning
The Arcola School Board and Staff engaged the entire learning community in a long-term planning process in 2017. This long-term planning process resulted in the school district vision statement and strategic goals. The vision statement and strategic goals are intended to drive the direction of the school district for a period of 5 to 7 years.
The current vision statement for the district is as follows:
The Arcola School District is to be an “innovative leader” in providing an educational experience that creates an individualized plan for each and every student.
The vision also includes three Pillars of Excellence that support the vision statement. Those pillars include excellence in “Learning, Culture and Opportunities.” All district improvement plans are aligned to the district vision statement and pillars of excellence.
Focus of the District Improvement Plan
The following outlines the 8 district strategic goals and a brief summary for each goal on the focus for the district improvement plan.
Goal 1 - Arcola students in Grades 8-12 will have an individualized learning plan that includes resources for making decisions on careers and postsecondary education/training; a course plan; information on financial aid; and a written post-secondary plan.
- Align Arcola College and Career Readiness Framework to include a comprehensive system of data with grade level benchmarks and to ensure compliance with and alignment to the state requirements for College and Career Readiness Indicators
- Research and implement culminating College and Career Readiness presentation for all seniors.
- Align course offerings/programs to lead to the opportunity for students to gain a College and Career Pathway Endorsement.
Goal 2 - There will be an increase in the number of students in Grades 3-11 that meet state expectations in reading and math.
Goal 3 - There will be an increase in the number of students at the end of grade 3 that will be reading at or above grade level.
- Implement the new process for reading and math interventions at the Elementary (Rider Groups) along with the new system for regular and on-going data analysis by all staff.
- Implement student driven goal setting and progress monitoring.
- Monitor and evaluate the new elementary schedule to ensure it supports fidelity of implementation on literacy and bilingual programming.
- Continue to monitor and improve upon newly implemented ESL/Bilingual programming.
- Develop a plan to provide support for classroom teachers for supporting EL learners in the general education classroom.
- Expand data analysis at Grade 7-12 with a focus on IAR, MAP, PSAT/SAT through school improvement days and at department meetings.
- Continue to implement standards based instruction in the elementary in math and recommend instructional resources to be used in 2024-2025 and beyond.
Goal 4 - The certified staff retention rate for the Arcola School District will be above 85% annually.
- Implement the changes to the district mentoring program to ensure effective teacher support.
- Implement revised systematic structure for school improvement (including time, process and staff involvement), evaluate and make recommendations for improvement for 24-25.
- Implement a clear vision throughout all key work systems and increase the focus on staff requirements. Targeted approach for collecting and measuring reality with stakeholder expectations.
Goal 5 - Arcola teachers will display high quality instruction identified in the Pillar of Excellence including standards driven, data driven, engaging, critical thinking, digital literacy, collaboration, relevancy, and rigor.
- Implement Department/Curriculum Meetings at 7-12 and finalize the curriculum alignment model.
- Develop plan for creating building-wide (7-12) writing rubrics to be used in all courses.
- Focus on K-3 Literacy Implementing with Fidelity – focused on Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, Guided Reading, etc.
- Focus on Grades 3-6 on developing a plan for word work and writing.
- Implement use of sonic board in classrooms, evaluate and recommend expansion.
Goal 6 - Arcola school district stakeholders will display a positive perception of the school climate in the Arcola School District
- Continue staff to work to cultivate strong community partnerships to support the growth and strength of the community.
- Implement strategies through BPAC to further connect to the Hispanic portion of the school community.
- Implement specific strategies to ensure all stakeholders are included and working together towards the whole child
- Implement a more systematic social media/communication plan to outreach to all stakeholder groups.
- Expand the early childhood partnership with the community.
Goal 7 - Arcola high school will maintain a high graduation rate.
- Revise high school social emotional response to intervention (RTI) process to include expanded teacher involvement in the referral process.
- Revise high school social emotional RTI process to make it a more data driven model.
- Implement the revised elementary school social emotional model.
- Work with Douglas County Partnership on JH-HS Mental Health student coaching and plan for implementing in our school.
- Explore a potential partnership with the City of Arcola on the launch of a school resource officer program to assist with school safety and student social emotional support.
Goal 8 - The district will maintain financial stability in order to provide a variety of high quality opportunities for students.
- Superintendent will make on-going recommendations to the Board on expenditures that align to accomplishing district strategic objectives.
- Superintendent will make recommendations personnel, programs and instructional materials for the 2024-2025 school year that best allows the district to accomplish the district strategic objectives.