District leaders outline DCIP and school comprehensive education plans, stress equity and district‑school alignment

Albany City School District instructional leaders presented the district comprehensive improvement plan and school comprehensive education plans at a Board of Education meeting, describing the state‑required planning steps for identified schools and how the district aims to align resources and supports across buildings.

Jennifer Houlihan and Jasmine Brown outlined the district’s theory of action: strengthen the collective student experience, use equity as a guiding principle, implement research‑based instructional strategies and continuously monitor progress through collaborative inquiry. Brown said the district required activities for schools identified by the state as CSI (comprehensive school improvement), ATSI and TSI include envisioning, data analysis, surveys and focus groups, and a plan with instructional strategies.

The presenters described changes to templates and the option the district used this year to adopt a systems‑level DCIP that first supports schools in identifying key instructional strategies and assigns a district liaison to each building as a thought partner. “One thing we implemented this year across the elementary and middle level is to assign a district liaison to each building as a thought partner,” Houlihan said.

Board members welcomed the clearer format and asked about parent and student engagement and funding ties. Trustee questions noted not every building reported student interviews or parent representation in plan development; the administration said the state requires the full process for identified schools and that the district will encourage broader parent participation. The presenters said identified schools that receive school‑improvement funds must connect planned strategies to expenditures; they also noted district funds have some flexibility to support initiatives (for instance summer programming) that may benefit LSI schools that do not receive targeted improvement dollars.

Trustees asked the administration to return with progress reporting that links each school’s stated targets to measured outcomes at the appropriate point in the year. Houlihan said SEP closeout meetings and other monitoring structures already occur and the district will consider including target‑vs‑outcome summaries when each school presents later in the cycle.

Presenters said the district has a common instructional framework, a multi‑tiered system of supports (MTSS) for monitoring and an expectation of 2–5 non‑instructional strategies (optional) and at least one instructional strategy per school plan. The district contracted outside support for family and student focus groups in elementary buildings and said coaches, administrators and district liaisons will support professional development and classroom implementation.