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District presents KISA-based needs assessment and professional learning plan for 2025–26
Summary
District staff described a needs-assessment aligned to the KISA framework, naming standards alignment as the district fundamental and professional learning and collaboration as priority structures, and said building-level blueprints will follow for board review.
Dr. DeSoto (presenter) briefed the board on the district’s needs assessment under the KISA framework and outlined district-level actions for the 2025–26 school year focused on standards alignment, professional learning and professional collaboration.
DeSoto said the district selected “structured literacy, standards alignment, balanced assessment, quality instruction” as the areas KISA emphasizes and that the district chose standards alignment as its primary fundamental while selecting professional learning and professional collaboration as the supporting structures. He said buildings will develop short blueprints that outline initiatives, measured actions and resource requests.
Why it matters: the needs assessment is the basis for the district’s continuous improvement work and for meeting the KISA compliance requirement to develop and implement a plan this year.
DeSoto summarized district expectations: the district will provide “meaningful professional learning on standard and common assessments,” complete 40% of the planned work in six months and 100% by the end of the year for the compliance cycle. He said teachers prioritized topics through surveys and that the district will offer choice PD sessions in September, November and April and dedicate time during the Aug. 5 convocation to PLC collaboration and goal setting.
On professional collaboration, DeSoto said the district will provide common-assessment tools and instructional facilitator support so PLCs can “tell student learning stories with their data.” He emphasized different expectations for elementary and secondary PLCs and said each building will complete at least one PLC cycle with instructional facilitator support during the year.
DeSoto said building-level blueprints will be collected once school starts and brought to a later August board meeting for review and formal approval because they form part of the district’s needs assessment submission.
Ending: DeSoto said the district will present school blueprints and the data that informed them at a future board meeting and will report next steps for implementation.
