PHILADELPHIA. — During tonight’s Board of Education Action Meeting, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington, Sr., Ed.D.’s Transition Team Facilitator Elizabeth (Betty) Molina Morgan, Ed.D. and Transition Team Co-Chairs Andrea Custis, Former Executive for Verizon and Urban League of Philadelphia and Donald Guy Generals, Ed.D, President of the Community College of Philadelphia, presented the Transition Team Report. This report marks the end of phase two of Dr. Watlington’s three-phase approach to laying a strong foundation to improve outcomes for all students and achieve the Board’s Goals and Guardrails. Phase one Listening and Learning sessions together with the output from the Transition Team will inform phase three, the development of a new strategic plan for the School District of Philadelphia.
“We are honored to share the findings of the Transition Team, which is a reflection of more than 100 Philadelphians and national education experts who share Dr. Watlington’s goal of accelerating progress for the School District of Philadelphia and ensuring all students thrive, succeed, and lead in a global society,” said Custis. “These thoughtful short- and long–term recommendations will help Dr. Watlington seek new pathways into the future of the District, which will impact what is on the horizon for our city – the fastest improving, large urban school district in the country.”
The report evaluated the strengths and challenges of the current operation of the District and provided 91 recommendations. Three major themes surfaced:
- A need for improved communication/customer service strategies with both internal and external audiences and two-way communication engagement with staff, students, parents and families and the community, to build trust. Example recommendations include:
- Launch a two-way communications and discussion management tool to support in-person ongoing community-based conversations throughout the year.
- Develop a customer service training program and standards, emphasizing responsiveness and timeliness.
- Establish a process for communicating District priorities, and the decisions made to support attaining the goals of the District.
- Greater coordination/collaboration inter-departmentally in order to conduct operations and address issues more efficiently. Example recommendations include:
- Maintain cross-functional (inter-departmental) workgroups that regularly solve problems efficiently across the District.
- Create multiple opportunities for teachers to collaborate.
- Create a development team and strategy to involve the national philanthropic and private sectors to partner with the District as it implements the Strategic Plan.
- Shared accountability/evaluation for student success, more strategic data collection, and regular monitoring of academic areas, schools, programs, and operations, and the ability to track and report progress toward specific, strategic, District goals. Example recommendations include:
- Develop monitoring tools (dashboards, infographics, etc.) that can be used easily by all staff, families and students.
- Launch more frequent collection of data in non-academic areas, especially to be able to examine and monitor equity.
- Increase daily monitoring of academic areas, schools, and operations, in order to track and report progress toward adopted, strategic, District goals.
“A strong K-12 education lays the foundation for students to be college and career ready. So I’m proud to support this collaborative work that will help shape Dr. Watlington’s vision for the School District of Philadelphia,” said Dr. Generals. “We believe this will help support students on their pathway for success, which will ultimately strengthen the city of Philadelphia.”
The last and final step of Dr. Watlington’s transition plan, phase three, includes developing a strategic plan in partnership with a cross-functional project team of students, teachers, school leaders and education experts that focuses on safety, literacy and preparing students for post-secondary pathways to achieve the Board’s Goals and Guardrails. Dr. Watlington will share this plan, which will outline the District’s priorities and goals for the next five years, in the spring.
For the final report or more information, please visit philasd.org/100days.