Who will be involved in the SCIP process? How will we engage stakeholders meaningfully?

It is important to have a team in place to lead and guide continuous improvement work along. A variety of perspectives and backgrounds should be represented on the team, including someone with decision-making authority. Clarity on how the team functions and operates is essential as well as an explicit understanding of its relationships with other teams. 

The resources in this section include:

1. Leadership Team Rubric

2. Leadership Team information One-pager

3. Leadership Team Rubric Resources 

A needs assessment/data analysis helps determine the needs, or gaps, between where we are and where we want to be. It is important to use a variety of data – not just student outcome data – to determine needs. As part of this, it is particularly important to consider data in the context of a standards-based educational system and multi-tiered systems of support as well as data that speaks to disparities between student groups and growth opportunities. A thorough and structured data analysis process will lead to identified root causes – or the “why” behind the data – and the prioritization of needs and learning.

The resources in this section include:

1. Needs Assessment (Data Analysis Tool)

2. Data Digs (Guide)

3. Root Cause Analysis (Process and Tools)

4. Theory of Action (Prompts)

Clearly-defined/operationalized practices/strategies that tie back to the prioritized needs help reach the articulated goals for student success. In the context of SPPS, our operationalized practices have been defined via practice profiles. Practice profiles describe high leverage, research and evidence-based strategies proven to positively impact student learning outcomes when implemented as intended. Practice profiles explicitly define what will be implemented and how so that it can be communicated and taught. Once a strategy is chosen, the team moves to identifying key drivers (competency, organizational and leadership) to create infrastructure and supports needed to best implement the chosen strategy. Having a clear plan for training, coaching, and monitoring of implementation is also critical to reaching desired outcomes.

The resources include:

1. What: SPPS Evidence-based Practices (EBPs) with Practice Profiles

2. Who: Drivers Overview (Source: National Implementation Research Network (NIRN))

A well-implemented plan takes perseverance and patience. It is important to follow through and stick to the plan. Active implementation takes repetition in collecting learning and implementation data, studying results, and making adjustments. It is an ongoing plan-do-study-adjust cycle. Success may not be evident immediately, but given time, the changes in adult behavior should impact student outcomes. Once this happens, the plan itself passes through learning or initial implementation stage and gradually evolves into a standard stage when the focus is on sustainability, effectiveness and efficiency.

The resources include examples of Strategic Activities/Roadmaps for EBPs:

1. Elementary SCIP SY22-23 Roadmap
2. Middle School SCIP SY22-23 Roadmap
3. High School SCIP SY22-23 Roadmap
4. SCIP Process Flowchart

Re-visiting the leadership team, needs, priorities, and strategies occurs when context changes. This could include changes in staff, shifts in student enrollment, turnover of leadership, lack of impact on student outcomes, or changes in policy or legislative requirements. This could temporarily move the team back to the Learning stage (Exploration - to rethink choices or the Installation - to build supports. The timeframe for re-assessing steps 1-3 will depend on the unique context of the work.