Guide To Strategic Planning For Educators

The industrial age is giving way to a new society, an information age first seen in the economic sector and now transforming U.S. social, political, organizational, and personal lives. Educational institutions must reorganize to meet the changing conditions of this new society. To help schools with strategic planning efforts, the three chapters of this publication explore the content, the process, and the leadership capabilities involved. The first chapter examines the forces affecting education, including economic restructuring factors: the nature of work, the power driving society (technology), the global economy, employment patterns, and work force composition. Demographic shifts (aging populations, racial and ethnic factors, family patterns, and sex roles) and organizational changes are also examined. Chapter 2 describes the strategic planning process and how it can address these conditions. Chapter 3 examines the leadership dimension of strategic planning, including four major elements that can significantly improve most districts' management systems: (1) information systems for decision-making, (2) a common sense of direction, (3) stakeholder participation, and (4) linkages among units. The chapter closes by listing characteristics of effective leaders. Included are several figures and 21 references. Appendices include an outline of probable directions for educational restructuring, external and internal scanning checklists, a pattern analysis of national planning assumptions, and an example of data analysis. (MLH)

Higher Education Strategy and Planning is an indispensable guide for academic leaders, scholars, strategic planners and postgraduate students, particularly aimed at those who work in strategy and planning roles and leaders who need to plan and work with planners. The book is produced with the support of HESPA (the Higher Education Strategic Planners Association) and draws together experts from across the sector. Split into five parts, it covers context and positioning, integrated planning, centrality, co-ordination and cnnection, analytical capacity and capability, and insight and information.

Provides a roadmap for making professional strategic plans based upon research, analyses, and careful consideration of alternative strategies. Strategic plans are essential to an organisation for all other plans, budgets, and goals are guided by the strategic plan.

Actions to increase effectiveness of schools in a rapidly changing world Schools, in order to be nimble and stay relevant and impactful, need to abandon the rigid structures designed for less dynamic times. The NEW School Rules expands cutting-edge organizational design and modern management techniques into an operating system for empowering schools with the same agility and responsiveness so vital in the business world. 6 simple rules create a unified vision of responsiveness among educators Real life case studies illustrate responsive techniques implemented in a variety of educational demographics 15 experiments guide school and district leaders toward increased responsiveness in their faculty and staff

Virtually everyone -- parents, teachers, administrators, school boards, and students -- believes that schools must change for the 21st century. But which changes should occur, and whose values should be reflected? Many change initiatives have foundered on questions like these. Values-Based Strategic Planning: A Dynamic Approach for Schools offers a complete guide to rethinking the purpose of schools, involving every constituency, achieving real consensus, and planning for change that really happens. The tools and techniques in this book work not only in schools, but in any organization that must change, but isn't sure how. Unlike other planning schemes, Values Based Strategic Planning involves everyone in the school, accounts for their fundamental beliefs about education, and is delightfully simple to operate. The entire process can be completed in one day, and the result is a strategic plan that reflects the school's priorities and has the wholehearted commitment of those who must put it into operation. You'll walk step-by-step through the process, start to finish. Learn how to solicit value statements and distill them into school-wide values that can be shared and acted upon; identify critical issues and draft a preliminary mission statement; discover the aspects of a school -- and each individual's role -- that should kept, changed, or innovated; prioritize the results, and build a plan specific enough to succeed. Values Based Strategic Planning has been used in schools and other organizations worldwide, and it works.

No school district becomes excellent without a strategic plan, but many remain mediocre with them. What makes the difference? This book has been written to describe what it means to engage in serious long-range or “strategic” planning and to provide solutions to the inadequacies and inconsistencies found in the way school districts approach this process. The book is intended to be as practical as possible, meaning that by understanding the design and following the suggested strategic planning team activities found in each chapter, you could facilitate this process in your district. All key components are described and multiple examples are used to help the reader understand the intent of each component and how the components fit together. In addition, questionnaires and surveys are included to simplify facilitation. The basic reference used to refine the Stakeholder-Driven Strategic Planning process is the Strategic Planning Category of the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence.

Leading teams in a rapidly changing world To achieve their ambitious goals, it is essential that education leaders build effective teams. Many leaders want to shift the way their teams collaborate, make decisions, and learn together, but struggle to make lasting change. Written for leaders who want to improve their teams, this guide is a follow-up to the best-seller, The NEW School Rules, a framework for transitioning to a more responsive, innovative organization. The NEW Team Habits goes further, providing battle-tested practices the authors have used with hundreds of leadership teams to build better team habits. Readers will find • a five step learning cycle for building team habits • videos, readings, and other resources to build knowledge • engaging team activities to drive learning With tools leaders and teams can use right away, this guide provides the inspiration, steps, tools, and activities you need to improving your team habits for learning, meetings, and projects.

This how-to resource provides leaders with a concrete framework for a strategic improvement plan, helping educators link the "principles" to "processes" of planning. Packed with key takeaways and additional resources, this book provides the concrete tools to design a strong strategy for improvement and enables educational leaders to think constructively about why we plan, what an effective strategic plan should contain, and how to create meaningful dialogue to support plan development, implementation, and monitoring for continuous improvement. The Strategy Playbook for Educational Leaders provides superintendents, central office staff, principals, and teacher leaders with the opportunity to reframe the process of their strategic planning and breathe new life into the activity.