District 88 meets with parents/guardians to gather feedback during Strategic Plan process
Top: District 88 Superintendent Dr. Scott Helton welcomes participants to a Strategic Plan Focus Group on Sept. 18. The district is updating its Strategic Plan, and this meeting was an opportunity to gather feedback and suggestions from members of internal parent/guardian and community groups at Addison Trail and Willowbrook. Bottom left: Dr. Helton helps guide parents/guardians through a Strategic Plan exercise. Bottom right: Jeff Cohn (second from left) facilitated the Focus Group. He's pictured here assisting parents/guardians during an activity.
Members of internal parent/guardian and community groups at Addison Trail and Willowbrook participate in exercises during a Strategic Plan Focus Group on Sept. 18. District 88 is updating its Strategic Plan, and this meeting was an opportunity to gather feedback and suggestions from those groups.
On Sept. 18, I had the opportunity – along with members of our Board of Education and district and school administration – to meet with members of our internal parent/guardian and community groups at Addison Trail and Willowbrook to discuss our Strategic Plan process. We are updating our Strategic Plan to retool and enhance the district’s existing 2010 plan, and this Focus Group was a tremendous opportunity to speak with our parents/guardians about our future direction and hear their thoughts and suggestions.
About 60 parents/guardians attended the event at Addison Trail, representing our booster clubs, Citizen Advisory Councils, Padres Latinos en Acción and student service clubs throughout the district. We will use the feedback and data gathered to update our Strategic Plan, and we will continue to share information about that plan with our stakeholders.
We also will meet with a variety of stakeholder groups to gather their input as well, and details are below.
- We will host an external Strategic Plan Focus Group that is open to the community for all of our stakeholders from 9 a.m. to noon on Oct. 20 at Addison Trail.
- We will host an external Strategic Plan Focus Group that is open to the community for all of our stakeholders 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 (click to enlarge the image).
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. To view this information, go to www.dupage88.net/StrategicPlan2018.
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