School Improvement Plan Template - Setting Goals and Creating Strategies for School Improvement

Aug 30, 2026

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School Improvement Plan Template provides a structured approach for developing and implementing a school improvement plan. It guides teams through selecting SMART goals driven by prioritized root causes, designing multiple evidence-based strategies aligned to OSSE’s Accelerate DC Framework domains, and defining milestones for the next three years. It also outlines progress monitoring and course-correction routines, required approval steps across school and LEA leadership, and OSSE submission instructions for different school categories.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatDOCX

Pages17

Reading Time6 min

AccessFree to download

School & Team Information

Step 1: Setting SMART Goals to Address Prioritized Root Causes

Step 2: Developing Evidence-Based Strategies to Achieve Goals

Step 3: Sustaining Progress

Step 4: Approvals

Step 5: Submission Instructions

School Improvement Plan Template Setting Goals and Creating Strategies for School Improvement TOC \o "1-1" \h \z \u HYPERLINK \l "_Toc184230264" \h School & Team Information PAGEREF _Toc184230264 \h 3 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc184230265" \h Step 1: Setting SMART Goals to Address Prioritized Root Causes PAGEREF _Toc184230265 \h 4 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc184230266" \h Step 2: Developing Evidence-Based Strategies to Achieve Goals PAGEREF _Toc184230266 \h 8 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc184230267" \h Step 3: Sustaining Progress PAGEREF _Toc184230267 \h 14 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc184230268" \h Step 4: Approvals PAGEREF _Toc184230268 \h 15 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc184230269" \h Step 5: Submission Instructions PAGEREF _Toc184230269 \h 16 Contents School & Team Information *The STAP and LTAP should be the same team as identified in Step 1 (Deliverable A) of the Needs Assessment. Transparency: SIPs should be available to the LEA, parents and the public, and the information contained in the plan must be in an understandable and uniform format. To the extent practicable and/or required by DC law, it should also be provided in a language that the parents can understand. Documents submitted to OSSE will be made available to the public via request and/or the OSSE website. Step 1: Setting SMART Goals to Address Prioritized Root Causes Objective: Identify two to four (2-4) goals that will drive school improvement based on the three (3) most significant root causes prioritized in Step 5 of the Needs Assessment. Needs Assessment Summary: Prioritized Root Causes The STAP prioritized and identified up to three (3) most significant root causes to address in the School Improvement Plan in Step 5 (Deliverable F) of the Needs Assessment document. Please insert your Deliverable F from the Needs Assessment here: Resource Allocation Review Summary Goal Development Based on the key challenges, root causes, and resource inequities named above, the STAP should identify at least two (2), but no more than four (4), specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals0F to drive their School Improvement Plan (SIP). This template provides sections for two goals; please add more tables as needed. Directions: Write your SMART goal statement in the first box SMART goals must focus on student outcomes, not adult actions, and should connect clearly to the underlying root causes identified. Charter schools should ensure that their goals align with their charter goals for PCSB. DCPS schools should ensure their goals align with those in DCPS’s annual school improvement planning process. Identify the metric(s) that the school will use to determine success Share the FY24 Baseline and years one through three (YR1 – YR3) targets for the identified metric. Explain the theory of action behind this goal. Why does your school believe that addressing the identified root causes will enable you to realize the goal? Step 2: Developing Evidence-Based Strategies to Achieve Goals Objective: Identify multiple evidence-based strategies to accomplish each of the SMART goals developed in Step 1. In writing a SIP, each goal should include multiple evidence-based strategies (A, B, C, or more) that will be implemented to help achieve the stated goal. This template provides sections for strategies for two goals; please add more if needed. Directions: Copy your SMART goal statements from the previous step into the below template (one goal per table). For each goal: Identify the evidence-based strategies that will help achieve the goal, ensuring at least one strategy is new or substantially different than previous strategies. For each strategy: Describe the evidence-based strategy. To ensure alignment in the work to OSSE’s Accelerate DC Framework, identify which of the five Domains your strategy aligns with. There may be more than one Domain per goal, as they are overlapping and cross cutting. Identify possible funding sources that could provide resource

FAQs

What should the school team identify in School & Team Information before writing the plan?

The template specifies that the STAP and LTAP should be the same team identified in Step 1 of the Needs Assessment.

How do SMART goals need to be written in Step 1?

Goals should be based on prioritized root causes and focus on student outcomes rather than adult actions, with measurable metrics including FY24 baseline and YR1–YR3 targets.

What elements must each evidence-based strategy include in Step 2?

Each strategy should describe the approach, align to one or more OSSE Accelerate DC Framework domains, identify potential funding sources, and list major three-year implementation milestones with owners.

Aug 30, 2026

Upload by Noah