DCHS Strategic Plan

Decatur Central High School strives to provide innovative and engaging learning opportunities for all students. Our goal is that all students who graduate from Decatur Central High School are college and career ready.

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Decatur Central High School

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Strategic Plan - Spring 2017

Mission of DCHS

DCHS will Produce College and Career Ready graduates, prepared for the 21st Century global economy, by being student-invested and community-connected.

Mission of MSD Decatur Township

The MSD of Decatur Township is Student Invested, Community Connected. We prioritize Student Learning, Safety, and Customer Service, fostering a support system for our families.

Introduction to DCHS Strategic Plan - Spring 2017

To better fulfill our mission at Decatur Central High school of preparing students for their post-secondary options, we want to target our energies on those high impact areas that will most benefit them in the 21st Century economy. Providing adequate skill development, exposure to a rigorous curriculum, access to a rich, expansive digital tool kit, chances to take college-level coursework, and fostering strong, healthy relationships-these are the types of opportunities we want to provide every student.

In order to facilitate this type of opportunity-rich environment, we have developed a streamlined Strategic Plan to focus on specific areas that we will target for improvement and/or development in the coming year.

Overview

Providing the community with a Strategic Plan for Decatur Central is our way of communicating with all stakeholders about our professional goals and how those will be obtained. This process is an attempt to provide some transparency and invite input from our community. We are dedicated to serving the students of Decatur Township: our Strategic Plan gives some details on what that dedication looks like in action.

Focus Areas/Goals/Action Steps

Quick Clarifiers:

Focus Area (Area we are targeting) →

Goal (what we hope to see in that area) →

Action Steps (what steps we will implement to reach our goal)

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Focus Areas

Student Achievement

Culture (Safety and Customer Service)

21st Century Curriculum

Goals for Each Focus Area

  • + ISTEP growth
  • + Grad rate
  • + AP/DC success rate
  • increased NAVIANCE usage
  • increased ECA participation
  • add PBIS/Safety Committee programs
  • CANVAS/Digital Trans
  • + Ivy Tech/CTE enrollment
  • Literacy across the curriculum

Focus Area #1: Student Achievement

Targeted Goal: Increase first-time ISTEP+ passing rates by 5% annually, in both English and Math
Action Steps:
  1. Review test-taking strategies and sample questions, weekly, in every Math and English class
  2. Offer after-school review sessions, twice a week, for 4 weeks prior to the computer portion of ISTEP+
Targeted Goal: Increase Graduation rate by .5% annually, always maintaining >90%.
Action Steps:
  1. Enroll all students in a CCR course; monitor 4-year plans annually with CCR teachers in designated lessons
  2. Each SLC will develop a process of monitoring student matriculation and build intervention support systems
Targeted Goal: Increase AP Exam/Dual Credit acquisition passing rate by 3% annually
Action Steps:
  1. Introduce Smeckens in every classroom literacy strategies to develop student reading/writing skills
  2. AP teachers will identify best pedagogical practices and implement in classroom; annual opportunity for 1-day PD

Focus Area #2: Student Culture/Environment

Targeted Goal: Increase Naviance college application participation by 10% annually; maintain 100% 4-Year Plan review
Action Steps:
  1. Counselors and teachers will develop processes that ensure all students successfully complete CCR tasks
  2. Counselors will collaborate w Directors and parents to support identified struggling students and provide interventions
Targeted Goal: Increase student participation in clubs, athletics, and performance programs by 5% annually
Action Steps:
  1. Provide detailed descriptions and marketing materials for activities on our DCHS website
  2. Include/Institute participation drives/events of all programs at DCHS in Summer Registration dates
Targeted Goal: Implement Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies (PBIS) and programming from the School Safety Committee to maintain the overall order and professionalism of the school climate and lower referred discipline incidents by 5% annually
Action Steps:
  1. The PBIS Committee will review Skyward/SWIS data and implement strategies to reward good attendance and behavior
  2. The School Safety Committee will review the California Healthy Kids Survey annually to target needed areas

Focus Area #3: 21st Century Curriculum and Instruction (Digital Transformation)

Targeted Goal: Most academic communication with students and parents will happen through a Learning Management System (Canvas) to model 21st Century post-secondary trends in both education and the workplace.
Action Steps:
  1. All daily agendas, for every class, as well as relevant grade, assignment, and contact info, will be on Canvas for review
  2. Every teacher will use Canvas to plan their academic calendar, for parent preview, including a syllabus and grading policies
Targeted Goal: The number of students enrolled in Dual credit and CTE (Career/Technical Education) courses will increase by 10% annually
Action Steps:
  1. Add one new Professor on loan course and/or section, annually
  2. Send one teacher to AP institute for new certification and/or facilitate teacher certification by Ivy Tech as adjunct, annually
Targeted Goal: Students will use literacy strategies to improve reading comprehension and written communication in all content areas
Action Steps:
  1. PLC development in Content meetings and SLC meetings will include reading/writing strategies each semester
  2. Teachers will receive one hour each semester of new training/introduction of new strategies from Smeckens trainers

SLC Strategic Planning

Each Small Learning Community at DCHS has undergone the same process of developing a Strategic Plan specific to their program. Each SLC plan has elements of the DCHS Focus Areas imbedded in them to maintain a consistent mission, but the action steps and goals may be more specific to that communities theme and programming. I encourage you to read both the DCHS Strategic Plan and your students SLC Strategic Plan as multiple pathways, converging together, to reach the same destination-College and Career Ready Graduates.