Holding Ourselves Accountable

Critical Success Indicators

Strategic planning helps PGCPS achieve organizational alignment, connects our stakeholders to a shared purpose and addresses areas for improvement; however, to implement a successful strategic plan, a process to effectively operationalize goals and strategies and take clear steps to monitor performance and success is required.

For this Equity Strategic Plan, Critical Success Indicators (CSIs) have been established to monitor progress toward achieving the outcome goals established in this plan. At the start of our Strategic Planning process, Hanover Research (Hanover), in partnership with PGCPS, completed an Equity KPI Benchmarking project. This benchmarking effort provided PGCPS with a preview of various types of indicators, insights and approaches to measuring equity-based strategic plans in similar school districts across the country.

This earlier benchmarking study was re-examined in the context of the new PGCPS Strategic Framework and informed the CSIs initially drafted by PGCPS as foundational indicators for this plan. Further leveraging Hanover’s experience with K-12 strategic planning and research of common and best practices for plan monitoring indicator selection, an expanded list of CSIs was developed and organized based on PGCPS’ Outcome Goals and Strategic Imperatives. Final CSIs were selected based on the following best practice criteria:

PGCPS CSIs should be…

• Aligned with strategic plan core themes and goals.
• Realistic & optimized based on best practices and current baseline.
• Easily measurable and analyzed with quantifiable data.
• Clear and easily understandable by stakeholders.
• Able to show change over time toward benchmark goal.
• Comparable with previous metrics, as possible and relevant.

Source: Hanover Research

Each of the four outcome goals in the PGCPS Strategic Framework is comprised of multiple components – making the identification and selection of only a few measures to track progress comprehensively and accurately nearly impossible. In examining the complex combination of factors, through an equity lens that must be systemically addressed to achieve the desired outcome goals, the planning process yielded over 100 measures. In light of this vast number of discrete measures, a multi-layered or tiered approach to structuring and managing PGCPS CSIs is proposed. Tiered CSIs allow for progress monitoring at various levels of tracking granularity – ranging from high-level systemic indicators to detailed measures that address specific and targeted areas of improvement.

Chart A (page 20) presents an illustrative example of how the proposed CSI tiered structure will be implemented. Each outcome goal is defined in terms of the primary components of improvement. For each component, Tier 1 CSIs (high-level) are defined and are prioritized as key indicators of outcome-related success for the Goal over the course of this Strategic Plan. If appropriate, Tier 1 CSIs may expand into a series of lower-level measures. Tier 2 and Tier 3 level CSIs may measure a specific student population or be monitored and acted upon more frequently at milestone intervals to gauge interim progress toward the higher-level Tier 1 outcome-oriented indicators.

This structure forms a transparent and comprehensive progress monitoring system of indicators for this PGCPS five-year Equity Strategic Plan. This CSI structure will be developed and managed using a centralized system (e.g., a data dashboard) to house Year 1 baseline CSIs, targets and updates on a scheduled basis for ongoing monitoring toward targets. The tiered structure further enables users to explore and analyze progress indicators at various levels of detail that best meet their inquiry need.

Details of Tier 1 indicators and descriptions are presented here by Outcome Goal. The full list of CSIs (nested by Tiers 1, 2 and 3) are included in the Appendix. Annual and milestones targets for each CSI are under development by a collaborative team of performance management staff and data analysts.

CHART A: Example of CSI Tier Structure

Outcome Goal 1: Educational Excellence

Provide every PGCPS student with a premier education characterized by innovative, relevant, and accessible learning and development opportunities that build 21st century competencies.

Achievement of this outcome goal hinges on the district’s focus on four components, namely:

1. Aligning Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment with Standards
2. Improving Educational Outcomes
3. Narrowing Achievement Gaps
4. Improving College and Career Readiness

Tier 1 CSIs for outcome Goal 1 by each goal component are:

Outcome Goal 2: Excellence in Equity

Our learning and work environments demonstrate an inclusive, authentic and culturally responsive community that attracts, supports, develops, retains and celebrates a diverse masterpiece of students, families and education professionals.

Achievement of this outcome goal hinges on the district’s focus on three components, namely:

1. Creating Inclusive, Culturally Responsive Learning Environments
2. Creating Inclusive, Culturally Responsive Work Environments
3. Creating Inclusive, Culturally Responsive Culture and Climate

Tier 1 CSIs for outcome Goal #2 by each goal component are:

Outcome Goal 3: Workforce/Operational Excellence

Harness the power of organizational learning for improved creativity, enriched collaboration, systemic knowledge sharing and operational efficiency.

Achievement of this outcome goal hinges on the district’s focus on four components, namely:

1. Improving Operational Efficiency
2. Realizing Operational Excellence
3. Improving Creativity, Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
4. Realizing Workforce Excellence

Tier 1 CSIs for outcome Goal #3 by each goal component are:

Outcome Goal 4: Mental Health & Wellness

Increase awareness of mental health and wellness linkages to learning by eliminating stigmas, increasing access to supports and decreasing the number of avoidable adverse educational outcomes.

Achievement of this outcome goal hinges on the district’s focus on four components, namely:

• Increasing Awareness of Mental Health and Wellness Linkages to Learning
• Eliminating Stigmas
• Increasing Access to Supports
• Decreasing Adverse Outcomes

Tier 1 CSIs for outcome Goal #4 by each goal component are:

Implementation and Progress Monitoring

This five-year strategic plan serves as the primary roadmap toward transformation for PGCPS. Outcome goals defined in this plan will be realized by our execution of annual specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (S.M.A.R.T.) goals aligned to the strategic imperatives. Individual schools and office performance plans are developed annually, which support transformational improvement via the prioritized strategies. Deliberate progress monitoring practices, led by the Division of Accountability, are in place at every school, office, department and division level. In addition, the CEO conducts quarterly progress reviews of key strategic goals to monitor progress at the systemic level.

Operational execution and management of the Strategic Plan implementation is grounded in the PGCPS Coherence Framework. The Coherence Framework is a model that depicts the interrelationships of various dimensions of the school system’s formula for transformation and serves as a blueprint for systems thinking, analysis, decision-making, prioritization and continuous improvement. By applying a performance management discipline toward transformative change, the school district is on course to realize its vision.

Tying It All Together

Having clear outcome goals, measurable critical success indicators, targets and agile strategies are essential to the success of this plan. In addition, focused implementation of the plan to realize transformation at every level of the organization requires a disciplined and cohesive approach to execution and progress monitoring. Annual goals, objectives, performance plans for every school and office, a disciplined process, accessible tools to measure and track progress, and an accountability system of monitoring are crucial elements for strategic implementation management.

Figure 4 illustrates the linkage and feedback loop of the key plans and reporting structures that guide, monitor and communicate our progress. This structured approach to planning, execution, progress monitoring and continuous improvement at every level of the organization provides a threefold benefit. First, it ensures that all students, regardless of their identify or their circumstances, have the opportunity to successfully matriculate in a culturally responsive and rigorous learning environment that leads every high school graduate to success in college, career, and/or their choice of life paths. Second, it empowers staff to be creative in their approach to demonstrating and achieving excellence. Third, it provides for a focused and cohesive approach to organizational learning and improvement that demonstrates sustained excellence, innovation and agility in an ever-changing environment.

FIGURE 4: PGCPS Planning & Monitoring Structure