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Continuous Improvement:

The Collaborative Planning Cycle

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Office of Community Schools (OCS)

August 2023

Content

This presentation covers the following:

• Principles guiding continuous improvement
• Introduction to and purpose of collaborative planning meetings
• What a full cycle of collaborative planning meetings looks like over the course of a year
• Components of the collaborative planning meetings
• Setting up for successful meetings

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Continuous Improvement

Three beliefs drive continuous improvement in NYC community schools:

• Real-time data guides decisions about student needs and the equitable allocation of resources.
• People and partnerships closest to the issue have the solution.
• Facilitation and a focus on results move groups from talk to action.

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Data Shines a Light

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OCS Collaborative Planning Meetings

One way NYC community schools engage in continuous improvement is by conducting three formal collaborative planning meetings over the school year. In these meetings, school leaders and CBO partners:

• Set goals for and/or monitor the progress of community school programming by reviewing varied sets of data
• Make data-driven decisions to ensure the equitable allocation of resources to meet timely student needs
• Engage in collaborative leadership and practice, a core feature of community schools

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Collaborative Leadership & Practice

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Source: https://communityschools.futureforlearning.org/

Collaborative Leadership & Practice

Collaborative leadership helps create:

• A common and aligned vision to support and grow supports for students, families, and communities
• Collaboration that helps get students individualized services when they need them
• An environment for family expertise to be leveraged and opportunities for family leadership development
• Rigorous and responsive supports to enhance student learning

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Who Attends Collaborative Planning Meetings?

• School staff: principal, assistant principal(s), teachers, parent coordinator, guidance counselors, among others
• Lead CBO staff: community school director (CSD), CBO supervisor, fiscal representative, among others
• Parent/family representative(s)
• Student representative (if applicable)
• Other CBO partner representatives
• School Mental Health Manager (if available)
• OCS Program Manager (if available)

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The CSD with support from the CBO supervisor prepares for and facilitates these meetings and coordinates the follow-up.

Collaborative Planning Cycle

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Budget Due

Budget Modification Due

Budget Modification Due

Refer to the OCS Fiscal & Operations Manual for budget-related deadline dates.

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Key Components of Collaborative Planning Meetings

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Effective collaborative planning meetings initiate and help monitor cycles of improvement of programs, services, and interventions.

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Summer or Fall Meeting

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Winter and Spring Meetings

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Setting Up for Success

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Before your team conducts the first collaborative planning meeting, review this checklist:

• Do we have SMART goals for the community school partnership? Refer to the community school section of the Comprehensive Education Plan (CEP).
• Have we identified the types of data we will use to assess the effectiveness of programs and services?
• Have we incorporated input from diverse stakeholders (students, families, school staff, community partners, etc.)?
• How are we incorporating findings from the Assets and Needs Assessment and previous year’s Community School Forum to ensure the needs of students and families are being met?
• Have we reviewed all available sources of school and CBO funding that can be leveraged for community school programming?

Meeting Materials

Preparation checklist for the meeting facilitator (CSD or CBO supervisor from the lead CBO):

• Meeting agenda
• Meeting sign-in sheet (use OCS-provided “Collaborative Partnership Agreement” document)
• A list of community school partnership goals
• Community school programming and services data
• Budget information
• For the summer or fall meeting, the lead CBO prepares a copy of the OCS-provided budget detail spreadsheet.
• For the winter and spring meetings, the lead CBO prepares a budget v. actual report.

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Post-Meeting

Materials that the lead CBO will need to submit to OCS after the meeting:

• Meeting agenda and any supplemental materials (e.g. data reports shared at the meeting)
• Meeting minutes with action commitments noted
• Budget detail spreadsheet (after the summer or fall meeting) or budget modification spreadsheet (after the winter and spring meetings), if modification to the budget is necessary
• Meeting sign-in sheet with participant signatures.

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Collaborative Planning Meeting Resources

• Meeting Agenda Template: Use this results-based meeting agenda provided by OCS and make additions as needed. It includes the Collaborative Partnership Agreement (signature sheet) you will need to submit to OCS.
• Plan-Do-Study-Act: An improvement cycle model that provides a structure for iterative testing of practices and processes. Read more about it on The Institute for Healthcare Improvement website. Utilize this PDSA worksheet.
• Data Wise: The Data Wise Project at Harvard University supports educators in using collaborative data inquiry to drive continuous improvement of teaching and learning for all students. Find resources on their website.

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