District presents academic strategic plan goals and data-monitoring approach to the board

District staff and a board training presenter reviewed East St Louis SD 189's academic strategic plan and the board's role in monitoring student-achievement goals during the May 20 meeting.

Patrick Allen, introduced as a board training presenter, told board members that "monitoring is one of the foundational principles" for boards and urged members to focus questions at a high level rather than asking for day-to-day administrative details. "You want to be more at the kind of the high level saying what are we seeing in math overall? What are the trends that we're seeing?" Allen said in the recorded presentation.

Jennifer, a district staff presenter responsible for curriculum and strategic-plan reporting, walked the board through the academic excellence goal and the plan's measurable targets. She said the strategic-plan targets include: 30% of students meeting or exceeding expectations on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), 15% meeting on SAT measures, and 55% meeting growth on national, state and local assessments. Jennifer noted the district uses the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) assessment three times a year as a growth benchmark and uses the NWEA to estimate readiness for the IAR because the IAR is administered once annually.

Jennifer described how the strategic-plan objectives were developed: "They came to us by a self evaluation. They came to us by research a best practice, and also things that we knew that we wanted to accomplish," and said packet pages break those objectives into activities, start/end dates, responsible parties and key measures. The presentation materials, as described in the record, use color coding (green/dark red and shades in between) to highlight progress and draw attention to trends and to compare district performance with state averages and peer districts referenced in the consent decree.

Allen and district staff emphasized the board's role in setting goals, aligning resources, and asking guiding questions rather than performing administrative-level work. The presenters recommended that board members ask "what are we comparing ourselves to?" and "what's our target?" when reviewing data, and that staff provide narratives and context alongside charts and color-coded tables.

Board members asked few questions during the recorded presentation. The transcript shows the district's presentation covered historical and comparative IAR math performance, ninth-grade-on-track data, graduation rate and other indicators the district monitors for academic excellence. The presenters said narratives and notes accompany the color-coded charts when the district briefs ISBE and the board.

The board did not take action on the strategic plan itself during the recorded session; the portion of the meeting captured is a training and information presentation on monitoring and the district's existing strategic-plan targets and data processes.