Excellent collaboration has led to the development of a culture
of meaningful change that positively impacts the achievement of
students attending Bozeman Public Schools. This report is intended to
give the reader both an overview and detailed information of the
progress accomplished in year 3 of the Long Range Strategic Plan (LRSP).
This report contains:
- Executive Summary of 2010-11 Progress
- Background
- LRSP Overview of Development and Progress
- Implementation Framework for 2010-11
- Acknowledgements
I hope the reader finds this report an illustration of how the
work of our education team aligns with the purpose of our schools: "Bozeman
Public Schools exist to provide an outstanding education that inspires
and ensures high achievement so every student can succeed and make a
difference in a rapidly changing world community."
Enjoy!
Kirk. J. Miller, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Executive Summary of 2010-11 Progress
Establishing the Long Range Strategic Plan (LRSP)
has created energy and enthusiasm in our schools focused on performance
and a culture of meaningful change. The LRSP is new and bold and will
require time to become meaningful and embraced by all, i.e., becoming
the culture of our school district. In year 3 of LRSP implementation we
are focused on continued effort having long lasting positive
ramifications on our children and community! Thank you to all who have
committed their knowledge, time, energy and heart to this process.
A glossary of terms for the Long Range Strategic Plan (LRSP) is available if the reader clicks on any text that is green. Text with red underline are links to web pages allowing the reader to drill down to information they want to review deeper.
Impact of the Plan 2010-11
2010-11 was a year of substantial achievement and success in
academics, activities and volunteerism for Bozeman Public Schools.
Reviewing the Balanced Scorecard,
an overview of progress on 27 key indicators, provides the reader with a
sense of the climate of our schools. A brief list of successes
includes:
- Academic achievement increases across multiple measures
- State Criterion Reference Tests (CRT) results are the measures used to determine Adequate Yearly Progress under the Federal No Child Left Behind
laws. State targets are 83% proficient or advanced in reading, and 68%
proficient or advanced in math. In grades 3-8, 92% of all BPS students
achieved proficient or advanced in reading and 81% in math. In grade
10, 94% of all BPS students achieved proficient or advanced in reading
and 76% in math. BPS scores are well above state averages and continue
to increase each year.
- ACT – 217 students took ACT in 2010. Bozeman students scored composite 23.9 and the state average composite is 22.0.
- SAT
– 204 students took the SAT in 2010. BPS students scored 570 in
Critical Reading (state mean 538, national mean 501), Math 567 (state
mean 538, national mean 516), Writing 549 (state mean 517, national mean
492).
- Advanced Placement (AP).
In 2010, Bozeman High School was recognized on Newsweek’s list of the
Best High Schools in America for our student performance on AP exams as a
ratio of the graduating seniors. BHS was 712 out of 1500 (total
27,000) high schools in America. In 2011, 755 AP exams were taken by
418 BHS students, 83% scored 3 or higher (national average is
approximately 65%). Bozeman High School has a total of 111 AP Scholars.
- Nine students were named National Merit Scholar Finalists.
- All-State
selected musicians from BHS totaled 18 in Band, 22 in Orchestra and 5
in Choir, the largest number of participants in each select group from
any school in Montana.
- Athletes won five State Championships this
school year, the most in history of any school in Montana.
Student-athletes in Boys (3rd straight title) and Girls (4th straight
title) Cross Country, Football (1st in 93 years), Boys Basketball and
Wrestling (1st ever AA title and 1st title in 39 years) were state
champions. BHS won the 2010-11 Gt. Falls Tribune All-Sports Trophy
awarded to the Montana school with the greatest athletic achievement.
- Paul Andersen, BHS science teacher, was
selected as 2011 Montana Teacher of the Year and was one of four
finalists for National Teacher of the year. This is the 2nd year in a
row that Bozeman Public Schools is the home of the Montana Teacher of
the Year as Anne Keith, SMS math teacher, received this recognition in
2010.
- The Montana School Boards Association
selected the Bozeman School Board of Trustees as the 2011 Montana School
Board of the Year for its excellent vision and governance.
- The graduating class of 2011 provided over 4600 hours of community service and volunteerism.
Further, we continue to make great progress on many important
issues that will continue a bright future for the students in our
schools. Some examples are:
- The Bozeman Board has effectively created and organized the regional 4 Rivers Optimization Group
to look at optimizing resources while promoting high student
achievement. Many state-wide groups have followed this work with
interest. This led to legislation that ultimately passed the 2011
Legislative Session. SB 329 will provide $2 million in funding for
development of multi-district education cooperatives across Montana
using the template of the work lead by the Bozeman Trustees.
- College and Career
planning has become a major focus at BHS. A job shadow program for
teachers to help them understand the workplace of the 21st century was
implemented. Our bio-medical program completed its 2nd year with
significant student interest in the program and an addition of the 3rd
year next year. An engineering career pathway is being developed and the
1st course will be offered next fall. Dual credit
opportunities in Math and English have been created for our students
through Gallatin College Programs. The dual credit is targeted towards
those students who may be entering a 2-year post secondary program.
- Instructional Coaching
is supporting great progress in student learning in our elementary
schools. Seventy-eight percent of K-5 teachers (110/141) have had high
impact instructional coaching. Several schools have 100% participation
in the instructional coaching model. The research, collaboration,
modeling, and sharing of effective teaching strategies are making a
difference in the achievement of our students. The instructional
coaching model will be expanded to the middle schools and high school
next year as a result of this demonstrated success.
- The district solidified its partnerships with
MSU by strongly supporting the effort to have the Montana Board of
Regents establish 2 year post secondary education opportunities for
students in the Gallatin Valley. Gallatin College Program became a
reality in the fall of 2010 with strong support from Bozeman Public
Schools, as a part of MSU-Bozeman. A dual credit opportunity for high school students was offered (MA 145/Advanced Math at BHS), with many more opportunities on the horizon.
Our entire community contributed a great deal to the success of
our students in 2010-11 and we are thankful for the outstanding
support.
Action Plans 2010-11
The LRSP has four goals, Strategic Objectives under each goal, and Action Plans
for Strategic Objectives that were developed by school or department
teams. Action Plan teams generally have a leader responsible for
monitoring and reporting performance on the Action Plan. Each Strategic
Objective has one or more Action Plans depending on the work of the
school/department team in choosing a given Strategic Objective as
meaningful work aligned to the Core Ideology.
An Action Plan Matrix with Strategic Objectives listed horizontally
and school/department listed vertically gives the reader easy access to
the Action Plan as created by the teams. The Action Plan Matrix can be
found in Appendix B or on our district website by clicking LRSP Action Plan Matrix 2010-11. You can look at any Action Plan by clicking the X in the cell on the matrix.
Status Reports on School/Department Action Plans 2010-11
In order to grasp the depth of what has been accomplished with
our LRSP this school year, Action Plan team leaders, with input from
each school/department team, used Status Reports to indicate progress on
the 157 Action Plans. The Status Reports are organized by
school/department in a standard format that includes:
- Strategic Objective
- Department/School
- Leader and Team Members
- The progress expected by the end of the year for the Strategic Objective
- Progress Summary
The short-hand name for the files tells you a lot about the report; an example is 1.01 C&I P+ Communications SR 2011.
This stands for: Strategic Objective 1.01 (Goal 1, Objective 1) in
the Curriculum and Instruction Department (C&I), Strategic Objective
short title is P+ (Proficient Plus) Communications, Status Report (SR)
2011. Each Status Report is concise (about a page long) but when
reviewed as a compilation will certainly give the reader a feel for the
breadth and depth of the LRSP and the impact it is having on our
organization.
A Status Report Matrix, organized by Strategic Objective and
school/department, gives the reader easy access to the Status Reports.
The Status Report Matrix can be found in Appendix C or on our district
website by clicking LRSP Status Report Matrix 2010-11. You can review any Status Report by clicking the X in the cell on the matrix.
Substantial progress has been made on all 157 Action Plans
during the 2010-11 school year. You can have an overview of 20 Status
Reports that would provide you with context for all Status Reports by
clicking LRSP Status Reports Top 20 2010-11. A quick review shows the following breakdown of Action Plan Status Reports under the four goals of the district.
| District Goal |
Action Plan Status Reports |
| Goal 1: Academic Performance |
107 |
| Goal 2: Operations and Capacity Building |
13 |
| Goal 3: Community Engagement |
16 |
| Goal 4: Student Success/Safety/Health/Welfare |
21 |
This is the work of the district intended to support and improve
student learning. The four goal areas encompass plans to make progress
on the 3-5 year planning horizon while aligned with 5-10 year planning
horizon, Envisioned Future, and the Core Ideology of the district. This
helps us to measure progress in incremental steps while keeping our eye
on the big audacious goal and our future in a thoughtful, cultural way.
Background
LRSP Overview of Development and Progress
Overview
Bozeman Public Schools launched a new strategic planning
process in the fall of 2007 to bring more rigor to the process of
setting goals; to ensure the wants, preferences, and needs of our
community are well understood; and to strategically focus our resources.
We initiated this process to build a stronger and more vital School
District that is widely recognized as delivering outstanding education
to our students.
The Board and Staff Leadership Team followed a knowledge-based
decision-making process. In so doing, we reviewed and updated existing
mission, vision and goal statements for the District. This type of
systematic review will be an ongoing element of our strategic planning
and evaluation process.
We also established an Envisioned Future
to guide us over the next 20 years. We then developed interim five-year
goals and identified trends and issues that are likely to have
significant impact on achieving those goals. The Board has committed
itself to studying and analyzing these issues in a proactive manner to
ensure the District is best positioned to accomplish its long term
vision. The Bozeman Board and Staff Leadership Team used "Above &
Beyond" (a community engagement process in 2006-07) and various other
input mechanisms to ensure this process reflected community needs and
desires.
Bozeman Public Schools’ Board and Staff Leadership Team view
strategic planning as an ongoing process within Bozeman Public Schools.
This is not a "strategic planning project" that is simply completed and
put on a shelf. Adoption of the plan is an affirmation of the general
intent and direction articulated by the Core Ideology, Envisioned Future, Goals, Strategic Objectives
and a guide to decision-making in the district. The Board and
Leadership Team will assess the strategic objectives annually in
collaboration with the community.
Progress 2008-09
In the fall of 2008-09 this work was shared with the entire
education team with the charge to begin LRSP implementation by
establishing Action Plans for the 46 Strategic Objectives.
This charge to the education team resulted in 161 Action Plans intended
to bring rigor and a culture accepting of change in the best interest
of students. Emphasis was placed on doing thoughtful, quality work in
developing the Action Plans while thinking about the long range nature
of the plans to align with the Goals, Envisioned Future and Core
Ideology of our district. Making this work available to our community in
a variety of formats (web-based, brochures and posters, presentations
and dialogue with organizations) was a big part of the effort throughout
the year.
LRSP Committee
The LRSP Committee was formed in 2008-09 (as part of the Implementation Framework
2008-09) to establish strategies for governance of the LRSP. The
original committee in 2008-09, made up of Trustees Sarah Glover, Martha
Collins, and Carson Taylor, and Leadership Team members Kirk Miller and
Marilyn King, met on December 11, 2008 to review and discuss the
Conceptual Framework, Goals, Action Plan Matrix, and Action Plans. The
meeting led to dialogue about governance of the plan, including using
assessments and other measures to focus on performance of students,
monitoring progress on the plan, and how to best simplify the
information in ways that will help the Board and community use the plan
to make decisions.
The 2009-10 LRSP Committee, made up of Trustees Denise Hayman,
Bruce Grubbs, Carson Taylor (until April), and Ed Churchill (started in
April), and Leadership Team members Kirk Miller and Marilyn King, met to
research strategic plan governance structures to provide information
about and accountability for the LRSP for the Board and public.
Committee meetings on August 8, 2009, September 24, 2009, November 5,
2009, and December 15, 2009 allowed review of tools called Data
Dashboards or Balanced Scorecards intended to determine and define key
indicators, establish baseline information and set targets 3-5 years
into the future. The Committee used the meetings to determine and
define the key indicators and set baseline and targets under the four
goals of the district. The Committee presented recommendations to the
Board at a retreat on January 21, 2010 and discussed the Balanced Scorecard
concept at the Board meeting on February 8, 2010. On February 9, 2010,
the Balanced Scorecard went live on the district website with
advertising in the community to make the public aware of this easy to
use governance tool.
Progress 2009-10
In the fall of 2009-10, under the governance of the LRSP
Committee and Board of Trustees, an Implementation Framework to guide
the continued progress of the plan was developed. The entire district
education team has been involved in the dialogue about the importance of
the LRSP and participated in the development of Action Plans
for schools and departments for 2009-10. The Action Plans were posted
on the district website using a matrix to allow individuals easy access
to any Action Plan for any school or department. Status Reports
for 166 Action Plans for 2009-10 were developed by the school and
department teams. The district has made great strides in creating a
culture of meaningful change as a result of the Action Plan and Status
Report framework that allows every area of the school district to
consistently establish a plan and report on progress in the 3-5 year
planning horizon.
Progress 2010-11
The LRSP Balanced Scorecard was updated in the fall of 2010-11. An Implementation Framework
for 2010-11 guided the LRSP work for the school year. The Board of
Trustees at its meeting on July 12, 2010, approved the LRSP Annual Report 2009-10 (including the LRSP Implementation Framework
Report 2009-10) and went live on the district website and was
advertised to keep the public informed about the progress of the
district. Action Plans
for the 2010-11 school year were developed by school and department
teams during the student achievement related day in the fall and posted
on the district web site. Plans were monitored for progress throughout
the school year by the school and department teams. The Executive
Summary (see above) provides the reader with point and click access to Status Reports
for 157 Action Plans for 2010-11. The district has made great strides
in creating a culture of meaningful change as a result of the Action
Plan and Status Report framework that allows every area of the school
district to consistently establish a plan and report on progress in the
3-5 year planning horizon.
Implementation Framework for 2010-11
The Board of Trustees of Bozeman School District #7 endorsed this implementation framework for 2010-11 to continue progress on the Long Range Strategic Plan (LRSP). The following are components of the framework:
1. Continued development of a culture of meaningful change.
Looks Like…
- Attention to the next 3-5 year planning horizon by institutionalizing best practices and realigning and compacting Strategic Objectives to best support focused attention on Strategic Objectives for personalizing education, standards, Response to Intervention (RtI), and Technology.
- Align resources to advance progress on LRSP.
2. Professional Development for the Bozeman Public Schools Education Team.
Looks Like…
- Leadership training and expansion of
leadership opportunities at all levels to cultivate the District
philosophy that all members of our Education Team are responsible,
through their voice, vision, values, expertise, persistence and caring
to build programs that support children in meeting challenging
standards.
- Cultivate Professional Learning Communities (PLC) as a powerful professional development approach and a potent strategy for educational change and student achievement.
- Use Student Achievement Related Days to engage members of our Education Team in meaningful dialogue related to specific Strategic Objectives.
3. Seek and provide opportunities to build effective relationships.
Looks Like…
- Use consensus process to continue to reach solutions to challenges.
- Build stronger collaboration with Montana State University.
- Communicate effectively with all stakeholders important to Bozeman Public Schools.
The Bozeman Public Schools Team launched year 3 of the Plan and
energized our team to remain committed to long-term strategic change
that inspires and ensures high achievement so every student can succeed.
The report of progress on the Implementation Framework 2010-11 can be found in Appendix A or on our district website by clicking LRSP Implementation Framework Report 2010-11.
Acknowledgements
The Superintendent’s office and Board of Trustees of School
District #7 thank our education team and community for embracing the
Long Range Strategic Plan. A quality product is dependent on a quality
process. We know that lasting, exceptional progress takes time. We
appreciate the effort of all in the past and continued effort in the
future to provide the very best opportunities for our students. It is
not a race to the finish, but a journey to excellence! This report is
evidence of our commitment to move from "Great to Greater" in educating
the next generation of students in Bozeman Public Schools who will
become the bright future of our community, state, nation and world!
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Bozeman Public Schools Education Team, June 30, 2011, by
Kirk. J. Miller, Ed.D.
Superintendent, Bozeman Public Schools