ASSESSMENT 5

Systemic Change Proposal and Plan

INST 524 Technology Leadership

Description of the Assessment

Candidates develop a proposal and a plan for systemic change based on an issue that needs to be addressed within their school or district. The proposal includes a problem statement, proposed solution, and components to be included in a systemic change plan. Candidates then develop a plan to address the problem described in the proposal. Please note that assessment of this assignment focuses on the criteria for the strategic plan, which integrates and is grounded on the accepted proposal.

Alignment to ISTE Standards

Assessment Instrument

Systemic Change Proposal and Plan

The final project in INST 524 is the development of a proposal and a plan for systemic change based on an issue that needs to be addressed within your school or district. The proposal will include a problem statement, proposed solution, and components to be included in a systemic change plan. An outline will be provided and you will receive feedback with suggestions as needed for focus or redirection. Based on your proposal, you will then develop a plan to address the problem described in the proposal. An outline will be provided.

Your project will be designed to meet the following ISTE 2012 standards:

Standard 1.1. Visionary Leadership: Shared Vision

Candidates contribute to the development, communication, and implementation of a shared vision for the comprehensive use of technology to support a digital-age education for all students.  What is the “shared vision” of your school or district as that relates to the role of technology in student learning? How does your proposal and plan contribute to the educational mission and vision of your school or district, including the role of technology as part of the means to achieve that vision? 

Standard 1.2. Visionary Leadership: Strategic Planning

Candidates contribute to the planning, development, communication, implementation, and evaluation of technology-infused strategic plans at the district and school levels. Your plan must include basic strategies for development and implementation, communication to stakeholders, and evaluation processes.

Standard 1.3. Visionary Leadership: Advocacy

Candidates advocate for policies, procedures, programs, and funding strategies to support implementation of the shared vision represented in the school and district technology plans and guidelines. Why is your proposal important, and how will it benefit students? How can it be funded? Are there any current costs which will no longer be necessary, i.e. ways in which your plan will save money? Why is your plan worth the monetary and other resources required for its success?

Standard 1.4. Visionary Leadership: Innovation and Change

Candidates implement strategies for initiating and sustaining technology innovations and manage the change process in schools and classrooms. Your proposal and resultant plan should “push the envelope.” Although your plan should be feasible within the constraints of school or district budget and other funding opportunities, it should take into consideration any resistance, inertia, training needs, sharing information and ideas, and/or other challenges you may encounter.

Standard 2.8.  Teaching, Learning and Assessment: Data Analysis

Candidates coach teachers in and model effective uses of technology tools and resources to systematically collect and analyze student achievement data, interpret results, and communicate findings to improve instructional practice and maximize student learning.  Your proposal must be supported by an analysis of school, district and national student achievement data related to the topic of your project.

Standard 3.7 Digital Age Learning Environments: Communication and Collaboration

Candidates use digital communication and collaboration tools to communicate locally and globally with students, parents, peers, and the larger community.  What are the collaborative benefits of your strategies or strategy? Which stakeholders, as mentioned by the standard, will be the recipients of those benefits?

Standard 4.1. Professional Development and Program Evaluation: Needs Assessment

Candidates conduct needs assessments to inform the content and delivery of technology-related professional learning programs that result in a positive impact on student learning. Your proposal must be designed in response to data-derived evidence of a weak area of academic performance (by some or all students) that could be strengthened either directly or indirectly through the use of educational technology. It should also be supported by research that indicates the effectiveness of the strategies you propose as a means of improving student outcomes. 

Submission of the Assignment

PROPOSAL

Submit the proposal to your instructor using the Assignment Dropbox– do NOT post it on the Discussion Board. Note that your proposal must be approved by your instructor before you begin work on the actual plan.  The proposal should be 3-5 pages in length. Feel free to contact your instructor if you would like to discuss your proposed topic before submitting the proposal. The proposal should be organized as follows:

1. Title – name of the project

2. Author – your name

3. Project Location – name of school or district that is the focus of your project

4. Brief description of what your proposal entails and what problem or problems it addresses.

5. Timeframe – Indicate a proposed or suggested timeframe for the project, to include month and year of beginning and end of the project

6. Basic components of plan, to include:

a.      How the plan contributes to the shared vision of the school or district (1.1)

b.     Goals: list three high-level goals for the project. For each goal, define one or more objective, and the strategies you will use to implement the objectives.

c.      Stakeholders impacted by the change

d.     Participants who will be involved directly or indirectly in the project’s  implementation (reference participants by their roles and not by name)

e.      Needs assessment based on data analysis (4.1)

7. Outcomes – list your expected outcomes and measures you will use to evaluate them. (4.3)

STRATEGIC PLAN

Your plan will be submitted and evaluated in Moodle.

Your plan must include the following:

1. Title page (use items 1-3 of your accepted proposal)

2.  The accepted proposal (resubmit the proposal to incorporate any changes made at the recommendation of the course instructor). Your proposal should serve as background information for your plan, and its contents may be referenced as needed in your plan. Note that if the full development of the plan requires modifications to information presented in the proposal, either the proposal and/or plan should include a reference to the change made.  

3. Body of Strategic Plan

a.   Vision Statement

(1)   Describe how plan contributes to shared vision (ISTE 1.1)

(2)   Provide an argument for why the plan is important to school or district improvement (ISTE 1.3). 

(3)   Discuss the plan’s role as an agent of systemic change. How does it fit into, or respond to, previous or current school or district initiatives? What forms of resistance might you encounter, and from which groups? How will you counter that resistance? What efforts and leadership will be necessary to develop consensus for the adoption of your plan? (ISTE 1.4)      

b.   Goals.  Include in your discussion a list of three goals that your plan supports. 

(1)   Define one or more objective for each goal

(2)   Describe the strategies that you will use to implement them

(3)   Alignt with district or school goals, i.e. list the specific district or school goals your project supports. (ISTE 1.2)

c.   Stakeholders Impacted.  List the groups that will be impacted by this change and describe how that will be addressed in the plan.  (ISTE 3.7)

d.   Needs Assessment. Conduct qualitative or quantitative data gathering to justify the need for this project. This can be in the form of a chart or diagram (ISTE 2.8)

e.   Project participants. List those who will be part of this project and their role. Reference individuals by role (e.g., assistant principal, teacher), not by name.

f.    Project plan

(1) Detailed description of how the plan will be developed (who will take the lead, how will it be funded, initiated, built into the curriculum, what students will be impacted etc.), implemented (personnel, training, facilities), communicated (sharing info, holding meetings, involving all stakeholders)  (ISTE 1.2)

(2) Timeline: Provide a month-to-month timeline for the plan, to include activities taking place each month (should be consistent with timeline in the proposal)

(3) Budget: create a budget for the resources needed to complete the project, including hardware, software, staff, and reallocation of resources. If applicable, provide information on external funding opportunities that may be tapped to support the project.
 

(4) Outcomes and evaluation: List measures you will use to evaluate achievement of plan outcomes (included in the proposal) (ISTE 4.3)

Attachments: Include any documents that you will need to complete the project. Include hardware, software, staff, other (depending on the nature of the project).

Scoring Guide (see attachment)