As District 88 embarks on Strategic Planning process, the district shares how its vision and goals are aligned with the Every Student Succeeds Act

On Sept. 11 and 13, I had the opportunity to meet with our staff members at Addison Trail (pictured below, top) and Willowbrook (pictured below, bottom) to discuss our Strategic Plan process. We are updating our Strategic Plan to retool and enhance the district’s existing 2010 plan, and this week was a tremendous opportunity to speak with our staff about our future direction and hear their thoughts and suggestions.

Through this process, we will meet with a variety of stakeholder groups to gather their input.

  • We will host a Strategic Plan Focus Group for our internal parent groups that support District 88 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 18 at Addison Trail.

  • We also will host two external Strategic Plan Focus Groups that are open to the community for all of our stakeholders. Those events will take place from 9 a.m. to noon on Oct. 20 at Addison Trail and from 9 a.m. to noon on Oct. 27 at Willowbrook.

This is an exciting time, and we look forward to working together to ensure our Strategic Plan continues to guide us in accomplishing our mission of working for the continuous improvement of student achievement.

DISTRICT 88 VISION AND GOALS ALIGNED TO STATE AND FEDERAL STANDARDS
In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was passed as a new education law that reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the U.S. national education law and longstanding commitment to equal opportunity for all students. The previous version of the law was the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which was enacted in 2002.

The ESSA will be implemented on the Illinois Report Card this October and will use multiple measures (referred to as indicators) to evaluate schools. Each individual school (rather than the overall district) will be rated on those indicators and then placed into one of four categories (referred to as designations). Those designations are:

  • Exemplary School
  • Commendable School
  • Underperforming School
  • Lowest-Performing School

For more information about the ESSA, view our presentation at www.dupage88.net/StrategicPlan2018. 

When looking at District 88’s current Strategic Plan from 2010, our Board of Education, administration and stakeholders knew the value of including multiple measures to ensure student growth and achievement. As a result, our vision and goals are very much aligned with the ESSA, as you can see by the image below.

During our Board of Education meetings, we will take a closer look at the indicators by which high schools will be measured. We also will share how our vision and goals are aligned to those indicators, as well as our successes in each area.

During the Sept. 10 meeting, we shared information about the “College and Career Readiness” indicator. Click the image below to watch the video about this indicator (or go to www.dupage88.net/StrategicPlan2018).

We will continue to provide updates related to the ESSA, including highlighting the indicators. If you have any questions about the information above, feel free to contact me at shelton@dupage88.net or 630-530-3980. Thank you for your continued support of District 88.


Respectfully,

Scott J. Helton, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools, DuPage High School District 88