Each year, PSD is required by state law to create a Unified Improvement Plan that details how the school district is going to improve student achievement. This plan addresses state and federal requirements in Colorado's Accountability Act and the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Three task forces, that were created in the wake of the Comprehensive Assessment for District Improvement (full report) or (summary), continue to work to address the original academic improvement strategies approved by the Board of Education in January 2011.
The heart of the Unified Improvement Plan is the strategic actions the district will perform in order to educate students and reduce achievement gaps.
PSD's three task forces are:
1) Initiative Management (Task Force 1): Design and implement a collaborative process to prioritize, deploy, and monitor district initiatives. This Task Force concluded its work with the resurrection of the Site Based Decision Making Council in 2011. The council was disbanded with changes to the Site Based Decision Making policy in 2013.
2) Teaching and Learning Framework (Task Force 2): Establish a collaborative process for defining and adopting non-negotiable learning outcomes for all students based on new state standards in core content areas. Members from this Task Force are part of Strategy #1 for the 2013 UIP.
3) Best Practices (Task Force 3): Establish a process for identifying and implementing specific evidence-based strategies and resources to effectively address student achievement gaps and align intervention and support materials with universal expectations. Members from this Task Force now comprise the Strategy #2 team.
Unified Improvement Plan process began spring 2010
The process for developing the PSD Unified Improvement Plan begins each summer when the district receives the first wave of test results from the state. The District Accountability Committee (DAC) is a staff and community committee that represents the various stakeholders in the district improvement planning process. The DAC reviews and makes recommendations to the Unified Improvement Plan. The Board of Education approves the Unified improvement plan in January of each year.
Schools submit school improvement plans
Each winter, each building's School Accountability Committee works on a school improvement plan for their specific school. These plans are reviewed by the PSD assistant superintendents of elementary and secondary schools and then uploaded to the state each spring. The DAC helps review the school improvement plans to gain a deeper understanding of the performance trends of the schools.