School Improvement: The Correlation Between Strategic Planning, Technical Soundness, and Results

• In Event: Schools and Improvement Reforms

Abstract

Research indicates that strategic planning is one of the most widely used organizational capacity-building tools (Allison, & Kaye, 2013) and often results in improved performance and outcomes (Awino & Oeba, 2012; Rigby & Bilodeau, 2013), however little has been studied in educational settings. This study analyzes five years of data gathered from LEAs across the U.S. to determine the effectiveness of strategic planning on school improvement efforts. The researchers were interested in determining if the quality of plans correlated with achieving school improvement goals. The technical soundness of plans was scored using a rubric that met high inter-rater reliability (K = 0.861). Preliminary results indicated a statistically significant correlation between technical soundness scores and achievement of goals (p = 0.0002).

Authors

• June Watters Gothberg, Western Michigan University

• Caitlyn Bukaty, University of Central Florida

• Paula D. Kohler, University of Central Florida

• Brian N Molina, Western Michigan University