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Findings show most plans yield only minor score gains and remain generic, failing to create visible instructional change. Rather than focusing on student failure, improvement should prioritize local criteria: students, curriculum, and highly effective teachers, with teacher agency integrated into planning.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/playing-charades-failures-fads-and-follies-of-school-improvement-plans/602154/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/playing-charades-failures-fads-and-follies-of-school-improvement-plans/602154.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"acoobca","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What methods were used to study school improvement plans?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The study used a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach: quantitative modeling across 1,316 schools in two states over three years, followed by a longitudinal thematic analysis of plans within one district over the same period.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What did the study find about how school improvement plans affect test scores and instructional change?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Most plans produced minor improvements in test scores and most schools developed generic, non-descript plans that did not generate substantive, visible changes in teaching practices.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What local focus does the study recommend for effective school improvement planning?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"A simple view of improvement emphasizes three local criteria—students, curriculum, and highly effective teachers—moving beyond a narrow focus on student failure to improve all students.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},602154,1792094127,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":41,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":143},3985747870733,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Playing Charades: Failures, Fads, and Follies of School Improvement  \nPlans  \nDavid C. Coker  \nFort Hays State University  \nMost public K-12 schools in the United States enact a school improvement plan each year based upon the state testing results from the previous year. Despite the many frameworks, research, and recommendations, few scholars tackled what the plans contain and the results. Using a sequential explanatory mixed methods model, two stages examined school improvement plans for language arts tests over three years: a general linear model for 1316 schools in two states anda longitudinal thematic analysis of plans within one district. Most plans produced minor improvements in test scores, and most schools developed generic, nondescript plans to improve teaching practices. The school improvement plans failed to create substantive, visible change inmost schools. Instead of the usual recommendations, a simple view of improvement finds schools need to focus on three criteria at the local level: students, curriculum, and highly effective teachers. Each criterion has several subvariables, but school improvement plans should move beyond a focus on student failure and seek to improve all students.  \nKeywords: school improvement, strategic leadership, educational administration, thematic analysis, mixed methods  \nEducation Leadership Review, Volume 23, Number 1, Fall 2022 75  \nEach Spring, most public K-12 schools in the United States partake in a familiar dance: A principal, with an advanced degree and often decades of experience, convenes a small group of staff members termed stakeholders to develop a school improvement plan (SIP) for the following year. State test results dictate the initiatives, with thousands of books, consultants, and a large bureaucratic framework guiding the would-be leaders. The cycle repeats year after year. Billions of dollars, many surefire plans, and even more in work hours tackle a problem which persists despite the best-laid plans (Backstrom, 2019) .  \nFads and fancies pushed much of the school improvement process since the 1980s (Alvy, 2017; Crandall et al., 1986). Over $7 billion dollars alone was spent on school improvement grants which produced little gains and even less direct connection with the boondoggle (American Enterprise Institute, 2017) . Lofty goals and feel-good sentiments guided much of the advice and studies, but the gap was few empirical studies demonstrated the efficacy or sustained rigor of school improvement plans (Fernandez, 2011; Harris, 2001; Strunk et al., 2016) . There remains a lack of agreement in what comprises an effective school improvement plan, with teacher agency—the boots on the ground—often missing from the discussion (Datnow, 2020; Thompson, 2018) .  \nThe literature review examined school improvement plans and three popular approaches. A sequential explanatory mixed methods investigation starts with quantitative analysis to examine the longitudinal results of school improvement plans over three years in two states. Then a longitudinal thematic analysis dissects the nature and focus of school improvement plans for one district over the same time period. A discussion and recommendations converge the results of the studies.  \nLiterature Review  \nThere is a cottage industry in school improvement, with recommendations on every aspect of how to fix what ails schools, from frameworks to curriculum to leadership and practically everything in between (Duignan, 1986; Leithwood et al., 2020; Murphy, 2013; Sebring et al., 2006) . For most schools, after the many processes and initiatives, repressive desublimation defined the process, with little changes and results bearing more resemblance to what existed before the regular order of school improvement plans (Coker, 2021a; Rowan, 2002) . Three major issues permeated school improvement plans: turnaround initiatives, systems thinking, and research trends.  \nA more extreme form of school improvement plans focused on turnaro","cbCaiiJUI9fzR9vr","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiJUI9fzR9vr","pdf",348118,"English","# Introduction\n## Research Design and Methods\n# Literature Review\n## Issues in School Improvement Plans\n## Turnaround and Systems Thinking\n## Persistent Cycles and Missing Evidence","[{\"question\":\"What methods were used to study school improvement plans?\",\"answer\":\"The study used a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach: quantitative modeling across 1,316 schools in two states over three years, followed by a longitudinal thematic analysis of plans within one district over the same period.\"},{\"question\":\"What did the study find about how school improvement plans affect test scores and instructional change?\",\"answer\":\"Most plans produced minor improvements in test scores and most schools developed generic, non-descript plans that did not generate substantive, visible changes in teaching practices.\"},{\"question\":\"What local focus does the study recommend for effective school improvement planning?\",\"answer\":\"A simple view of improvement emphasizes three local criteria—students, curriculum, and highly effective teachers—moving beyond a narrow focus on student failure to improve all students.\"}]","Playing Charades: Failures, Fads, and Follies of School Improvement Plans | PDF",76]