Schools

Improvement a District-Wide Goal

District 115 school leaders are meshing their school improvement plans with the district's strategic plan.

Now that growth has started to slow down in , officials are able to focus more on aligning the curriculum than building buildings.

“We really have to focus on why we’re here,” said Superintendent Scott Wakeley. “And we’re here because of student achievement and learning. Now we can take a breath from building schools every year to focusing on what we are doing within the walls of the schools that really makes a difference.”

While annually every school in the district creates a school improvement plan outlining their unique goals to address student achievement needs, for the first time this year, each of schools’ plans tie back to the district’s strategic plan.

“That’s important because as a superintendent I need to know that while every school is moving forward based on their individual needs, they’re also meeting the district’s goals,” he said.

For example, the district is aligning its math curriculum with the Common Core Standards.

“So a lot of the activities will be focused on not only supporting that area as a district but in each building,” Wakeley said.

The differences in teaching at each of the district’s elementary schools are made more apparent when students end up at .

“If you have four feeder sixth-grade buildings and they all come together, you’re taking 400-plus kids and making a math class out of that,” Wakeley said. “Well, did they all cover the same material (previously)? We want some common instructional strategies that all kids are exposed to.”

The district's strategic plan has indicators to let each of the schools know if they're aligning with the district's goals.

"So everybody's rowing the boat in the same direction so we're not going in circles," Wakeley said.

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He is glad the schools are aligning their goals to the goals of the district.

"A lot of good things are happening in the district but not necessarily the same good things. Buildings take on a life of their own from time to time," he said.

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And the bigger the school district, "the more buildings you have and the harder it is."

"It's harder for us than Plano or Sandwich, but it's more difficult in Oswego than it is for us," Wakeley said. “People see buildings going up so they think we must be making progress. But we really need to be making progress inside those walls.”

The District 115 strategic plan can be found here


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