The International Center's Whole School Reform process supports a school's efforts to raise student achievement through a multi-step process for reaching the school's continuous improvement goals. In order to ensure sustained improvement for all students, the process focuses on the following areas:

• Use of the International Center's Whole School Reform process to create a guided needs assessment led by an International Center consultant.
• Creation of a strategic plan for the school aimed at raising student achievement and addressing the challenges identified in the needs assessment.
• Provide targeted professional development workshops with a focus on the areas identified in the needs assessment.
• Provide access to best practice and model programs through attendance at the Model Schools Conference.
• Ongoing coaching support for school leadership teams.

Needs Assessment
The Whole School Reform process begins with a needs assessment. Using resources and rubrics developed by the International Center, the needs assessment compares the educational practices and programs of your school with education research and best practices of successful schools identified by the International Center. The purpose of the needs assessment is to inform decisions on a comprehensive plan to improve student performance.

The needs assessment consists of a review of school data, site visits by International Center consultants, and the development of an individualized action plan describing strengths, challenges, and recommended strategies for the next steps in school improvement. The site visits consist of on-site collaboration with school leaders, faculty, students, and community partners to identify assets, potential barriers to greatness, and opportunities for significant school improvement. Items of focus include:

• Use of Learning Criteria to Support 21st Century Learners™ to assess and plan
• Use of the Components of School Excellence rubric
• Application of national best practices and cutting-edge research
• Keeping individual school plans focused on a limited number of priority goals
• Strengths, challenges, and a prioritized list of actions to move the initiative forward

Strategic Planning
Based on the needs assessment, the International Center assists in the development of a comprehensive strategic plan for your school. An International Center consultant facilitates the strategic planning process to:

• Create consensus around priority goals
• Develop strategic action plans for each priority goal
• Align priority goals to the school performance goals of your state

The strategic planning process empowers school leadership teams to build broad-based support for priority goals and to develop an Individualized Action Plan (IAP) for continuous school improvement. The process also helps school leadership teams understand the Learning Criteria to Support 21st Century Learners and the Components of School Excellence as methods to measure school success and to build the capacity to implement whole school reform.

Coaching Support
To ensure continued progress through the Whole School Reform process, it is critical to continue to partner with the International Center over time to ensure that the necessary supports are provided to leadership to reach the desired outcomes. A Whole School Reform Coach will provide this support, working with your school leadership team on implementation of the action plan developed during the strategic planning stage. This work includes the following activities:

• Executive coaching for the principal and leadership team on instructional leadership and the action steps involved in leading school improvement efforts.
• Focused attention on appropriate supports for specific student subgroups.
• Presentations to administration and faculty as needed to ensure that the entire school is focused on literacy, high levels of academic achievement, and high expectations for student learning.
• Ongoing review of progress.
• Ongoing review of data and benchmarks.
• Targeted introduction of research and best practices in order to ensure continued improvement.

To see an example please read this case study. For additional information, please fill out the Information Request Form. You can also contact Todd@LeaderEd.com or call us at 518-723-2060.