Short-Cycle School Improvement Planning: Authentic or Satisficing?

• In Event: Park Central Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: A Focus on School Improvement

Abstract

Principals of low-performing schools typically develop school improvement plans (SIPs) that set the trajectory for improvement over an entire academic year. Although those plans are usually well intended, often they are excessively long and seldom leveraged as a living document. Moreover, many SIP processes tend to be externally driven, which creates incentives to devise plans that lack authenticity and simply satisfice. In this descriptive study, we review 125 short-cycle (i.e., 90-day) SIPs—developed primarily by school principals leading turnaround initiatives in 45 schools in the United States—to assess the degree to which the SIP is authentic, satisficing, or a mixture. Our results suggest that despite principals’ desires to develop authentic plans, elements of satisficing continue to exist and persist.

Authors

• Coby Meyers, University of Virginia

• Bryan A. VanGronigen, University of Virginia