Mission

The Jefferson County Public School District is committed to education and the well being of students. This commitment is evidenced by our focus upon student success, family/guardian and community collaboration, and employee efficacy, and by the infusion of each into every aspect of the District's programs and activities.

Core Beliefs

• We believe that each student must graduate prepared to succeed in college, career, and life choices and to be a productive, contributing citizen.
• We believe that students learn best when they:
  • Know that the adults in their lives expect much of them and believe they can succeed.
  • Value the importance of education by demonstrating effort, perseverance, and caring for others.
  • Engage in curricula that are rigorous and with instruction that is personalized and differentiated.
  • Make connections to their learning experiences, their school community, and the world at large.
  • Interact in a caring, safe, secure, respectful, diverse, and inclusive learning environment.
  • Reflect on the results of their assessments, and make conscious choices to improve their learning.
• We believe that student success depends upon high-performance learning environments that:
  • Value each student equally.
  • Inspire and empower students to be successful, lifelong learners.
  • Use formative, diagnostic learning assessments to motivate students, and to tailor and improve instruction.
  • Enable students to demonstrate in-depth understanding through meaningful and relevant learning experiences.
  • Model the ideals of exemplary citizenship.
  • Promote teamwork, problem solving, collaboration, and a culture of inquiry.
  • Develop student leadership through character development and service learning.
  • Encourage parent/community support and involvement.
• We believe that leadership is the most effective catalyst for maximizing student performance through a positive school culture that:
  • Expects and promotes quality teaching.
  • Provides employees with the resources necessary for students to achieve at high academic and social levels.
  • Strategically places staff members in positions, and provides them with powerful professional growth experiences.
  • Encourages staff to explore new strategies and pursue innovation to enhance organizational effectiveness.
  • Expects staff to collaboratively design, plan, implement, and review effective programs and practices.
• We believe that public education provides the best learning environment for building, preserving, and strengthening our democratic society.

2009-10 District Goals And Strategies

Goal 1: Enhance Effective Teaching

We will enhance teaching by engaging teachers in reflective practice that in turn engages students in challenging, rewarding, and authentic academic work. Effective teaching and high expectations will enable each student to attain high levels of performance and will facilitate the closing of achievement gaps. Effective teaching is personalized and inquiry-based, fosters student understanding, and requires students to extend their conceptual thinking individually and with other students.

Strategy 1: Strengthen Literacy Development Pre-K Through Grade 12

We will continue our literacy initiative to strengthen reading and writing instruction through classroom-based assessment, the implementation of a balanced-literacy approach, and embedded intervention strategies. We will focus specific attention on integrating writing across all curricular areas, identify and develop curriculum materials to support literacy learning, and provide professional development to deepen teachers’ understanding of effective literacy practices.

Strategy 2: Improve Math and Science Instruction

We will strengthen mathematics and science instruction by deepening the implementation of the K–12 math and science curricula: Investigations 2, Connected Mathematics 2 (CMP2), Science Modules, Integrated Science 1A and 1B, and Biology—A Human Approach. We will implement and provide professional development for grade-nine and grade-ten teachers of the newly selected College Preparatory Mathematics Program. Interested classroom teachers will participate in professional learning communities supported by Resource Teachers (RTs) with a focus on instruction and assessment for learning. RTs will receive professional development in cognitive coaching, assessment for learning, facilitation of learning communities, and discourse in an inquiry-based classroom. We will evaluate the levels of classroom implementation of the high school mathematics and science programs designed by Accountability, Research, and Planning.

Strategy 3: Apply a Diagnostic Approach to Teaching and Learning

We will improve instruction by fostering a diagnostic approach to teaching and learning and by providing professional development in the diagnostic use of assessment tools. We will promote daily classroom practice by teachers and students to examine work and to adjust instruction and interventions in order to accomplish intended instructional outcomes. The district’s assessment landscape will reflect a balanced system that provides formative, interim, and summative student performance information to teachers, administrators, and instructional personnel for collegial reflection, collaboration, and the differentiation of instruction.

Strategy 4: Advance Instruction Through Technology

We will strengthen and expand our technology infrastructure and support services to students, parents, staff, and the community by improving instructional tools through research of best practices, by providing technology resources that increase efficiency and effectiveness, and by enhancing communication capabilities through the provision of timely information for decision making. We will improve principals’ instructional leadership through a professional-development program focused on using digital resources to engage students and increase achievement. We will demonstrate the use of technology to accommodate learner differences through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). We will ensure that the elementary technology magnet school provides a model for technology resources and instructional practices. We will increase teachers’ ability to integrate technology with inquiry-based instruction through a Lesson Study professional-development program that targets fifth-grade math teachers.

Strategy 5: Strengthen the Early Childhood Instructional Program

We will strengthen and enhance our Early Childhood Program to promote a high-quality learning experience that addresses the whole child. We will promote positive social interactions through Adventures in Peacemaking and Songs of Resilience. We will increase staff learning opportunities to effectively implement our developmental literacy and inquiry-based math programs and thereby prepare each child for successful transition to our district’s kindergarten classrooms.

Strategy 6: Create a K–5 Social Studies Curriculum

We will develop a cohesive and innovative K–5 civics-based social studies curriculum that strengthens students’ sense of efficacy and gives them voice—both of which are key means of closing achievement gaps across the district. This curriculum will be inquiry-based, student-active, rigorous, and developmentally appropriate.

Goal 2: Enhance Effective Leadership

We will provide a leadership development system that recruits, selects, prepares, supports, and retains highly effective principals and leaders. We will equip these leaders with the knowledge and skills to be designers of high-performance schools, characterized by a positive, collaborative culture where quality teaching maximizes student learning, growth, and development.

Strategy 1: Nurture a Professional Culture

We will foster a culture of professional growth by supporting collaborative reflection, dialogue, and team building to enhance student understanding, connection, and meaning. We will support leaders in implementing a standard classroom instructional framework, structuring staff opportunities for reflection on instructional practice, strengthening the administrator and teacher evaluation process, and expanding staff leadership opportunities.

Strategy 2: Enrich the Quality of Leadership

We will improve the quality of leadership exhibited by principals and other administrators through focused leadership-development strategies based on the district’s Theory of Action and the Leadership Competencies and Core Practices and through professional development that emphasizes the use of collaborative strategies to enhance instructional quality and move our district vision forward.

Strategy 3: Enhance the Leadership Capacity of Instructional Leadership Teams 

We will support principals and Instructional Leadership Teams (ILTs), as they build communities of practice within a collaborative school culture where all learners succeed, by extending the Harvard WIDE World: Teaching for Understanding program to all district principals and ILTs. We will assist principals and ILTs with designing, implementing, and monitoring strategic action plans that have measurable goals and that align school and classroom culture, curriculum, instruction, assessment, resources, and professional development with the district’s Theory of Action and other elements of Our JCPS Culture.

Strategy 4: Improve the Quality of Aspiring Leadership Development

We will prepare aspiring leaders to be designers and implementers of high-performance schools by focusing on cultural leadership, instructional leadership, and managerial experiences embedded in the Theory of Action and Our JCPS Culture. We will prepare aspiring leaders to engage in collaborative strategies that create diverse, caring, and culturally responsive school communities by including CARE for Kids and Responsive Classroom components in their preparation module. We will strengthen programs that foster a leadership team reflective of diverse cultures by including a cultural responsiveness preparation module that will examine community service-learning opportunities.

Goal 3: Strengthen Organizational Culture

We will foster an organizational culture that builds community among families, businesses, organizations, and schools. We will stimulate the creation of caring, respectful, and culturally  responsive classroom communities that empower all students and employees to be successful and to have a voice and opportunities to practice leadership and civic engagement.

Strategy 1: Strengthen School Culture and the Character Development of Students

We will strengthen school culture, advance character development, and promote the social and emotional growth of students by creating inclusive, caring school communities that nurture respectful, supportive relationships among students, educators, support staff, and parents. We will embed opportunities for character development in the daily life of the school by implementing Adventures in Peacemaking in our prekindergarten classrooms; One Community, One Nation, an anticipated K–5 social studies curriculum; CARE for Kids in our elementary and middle schools; and Freshman Academies and Facing History and Ourselves in our high schools.

Strategy 2: Enhance Cultural Competency

 e will promote a district culture in which individual differences are respected and valued by offering professional development that supports and enhances the staff’s cultural competency and world view. We will provide opportunities for students to learn in heterogeneous groups and to study about people from backgrounds representing the cultural spectrum, by means of student cultural exchanges, both in person and electronically. We will work to close the engagement gap and the empowerment gap by using multiple strategies, including CARE for Kids/Developmental Design activities, personalized instruction, classroom support for teachers in the use of culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy, and the development of the new K–5 social studies curriculum One Community, One Nation. We will also enhance staff diversity.

Strategy 3: Provide Leadership Opportunities for Students

We will develop and enhance students’ leadership skills by engaging them in developmentally appropriate and personally relevant activities, such as service learning, peer mediation, conflict resolution, civic participation, and co-curricular/extracurricular activities.

Strategy 4: Strengthen Family Participation and Involvement

We will improve family involvement and parent education by expanding Parent University, implementing the parent component of CARE for Kids, extending outreach into the communities where our families reside, expanding the Parent Portal to all schools, and offering parent involvement activities via Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), Family Resource and Youth Services Centers (FRYSCs), schools, Title I, and community partners.

Strategy 5: Offer Highly Attractive Schools That Engage the Community

We will enhance the community’s perceptions of our school district as the best choice for all students in Pre-K through grade 12 by informing parents and the community of the district’s new programs. We will ensure that every school is highly attractive and provides academic rigor in personalized learning environments by implementing the CARE for Kids initiative and the I Am JCPS program. We will pursue community and business support for the optional programs and magnet programs and schools that are part of the new student assignment plan and for the high school career-theme implementation to ensure that these programs are attractive and effective. We will expand opportunities for individuals, businesses, and organizations to volunteer, tutor, mentor, fund, and support our schools and district through such initiatives as Every 1 Reads More, Add it up—Math+Science for All, the nurses in the schools project, job shadowing, school-business partnerships, and One Community, One Nation.

Strategy 6: Address Disparities in Student Outcomes

We will strengthen our implementation of differentiated instructional practices and strategic interventions. We will apply a systemic assessment process that includes balanced assessment, paired with the Response to Intervention (RtI) process, as a framework to reduce academic and social/cultural gaps. We will assist students in understanding their strengths and challenges so they can self-advocate and take charge of their own learning experiences. For students identified via ongoing analysis of data as being at risk, we will intentionally intervene to reduce suspensions and retentions and to increase attendance. We will reinforce these efforts through high expectations paired with individualized and personalized instruction and support.

Goal 4: Improve Organizational Effectiveness

We will improve organizational effectiveness by aligning district resources (e.g., human, fiscal, time, physical space) in ways that bring coherence and clarity to our efforts to improve instruction and school culture, particularly for schools not meeting all of their goals.

Strategy 1: Promote Student Diversity Across the District

We will continue to refine and improve the implementation of the elementary student assignment plan and prepare for the implementation of the middle and high school student assignment plan, as approved by the Jefferson County Board of Education. We will support all schools so that they may meet the diversity guideline, enhance diversity, support student success, improve instructional quality, and provide family choice within a system that supports stability, predictability, and equity, as described in the guiding principles for student assignment.

Strategy 2: Drive Curricular Reform

We will ensure that the district has the capacity to embrace curricular and instructional innovation by providing strong pedagogical support to classroom teachers and principals. This support for the implementation of inquiry-based curricula, formative assessments, and related instructional practices will be provided by content-area resource teachers, specialists, and directors of the JCPS Gheens Academy. These efforts are designed to build capacity at the school and classroom levels through support for emerging professional learning communities.

Strategy 3: Reduce Class Size

We will develop a plan that gives schools an opportunity—and a financial incentive—to partner with central office to progressively reduce average class size, initially at the Primary and middle school levels. We will bolster class-size reduction by providing professional development in differentiation of instruction to ensure that students receive the individual attention necessary to improve their academic performance, enhance their sense of connection to adults in the school, and personalize their learning environment.

Strategy 4: Redesign the High School Structure

We will support a common class schedule that provides access to both required courses and high-interest electives, time for in-depth learning, and flexibility for a variety of learning styles. We will also promote freshman academies and schools of study to develop well-articulated, career-interest themes; increase student personalization; and improve matriculation toward graduation, especially for underrepresented groups of students. Finally, we will significantly increase college access by providing a four-year continuum of precollege experiences, enhancing preparation for college entrance exams, and developing an advisory structure for guidance and support.

Strategy 5: Enhance Student and Employee Health and Increase Attendance

We will implement and promote a comprehensive program of school health services and health education by expanding the provision of nursing services within schools, assessing student health risk factors, and appropriately intervening to reduce students’ medical barriers to education. We will develop a plan that gives schools an opportunity—and a financial incentive—to partner with central office to add nurses to their staffs. We will provide students and staff with access to wellness and health education programs to promote better attendance and health.

Strategy 6: Enhance the Capacity for Innovation and Instructional Improvement

We will continue to build the capacity of the Gheens Institute for Innovation to promote and test new and creative ideas that will strengthen collaborative professional culture; effective instructional practice; and student understanding, meaning, and connection. We will encourage a culture of innovation through district awards for teams of teachers and individuals. We will collaborate in seeking grants opportunities, conducting research and professional-development activities, and promoting innovative practices.

Strategy 7: Enhance Employee Expertise

We will promote higher levels of professional expertise in all areas of the organization, focusing especially on the needs of schools not meeting all of their goals and other priority areas. We will strengthen programs that recruit and support a diverse workforce throughout the district by continuing the Multicultural Teacher Recruitment Program, scholarship programs for JCPS minority high school graduates, and tuition-assistance programs for classified employees as well as by exploring an alternative certification program for leaders. We will provide a new-teacher induction program that offers professional development in the content areas of literacy, math, science, and social studies and in such instructional processes as CARE for Kids, inquiry-based instruction, formative assessment, and teaching in collaborative school cultures. We will incorporate a major component into our professional-development program to prepare principals to work effectively in urban settings and in schools not meeting all of their goals.

Strategy 8: Enhance Organizational Effectiveness Through Technology

We will enhance organizational effectiveness through improved data management and user-friendly dashboards. We will increase administrative efficiency through interoperability among all administrative systems to reduce redundant data entry. We will continue to improve technology infrastructure in order to increase access to resources and reliability of all systems and to reduce costs. We will continue to enhance communication among staff, students, families, and the community through technology innovations by providing timely information in a variety of formats to assist in data-driven decision making.

Strategy 9: Redesign the Early Childhood Program

We will strengthen and enhance the Early Childhood Program by focusing the professional practice of all stakeholders on deep understanding and coherent work in support of the district’s vision. We will review and refine the organizational chart to enhance service to our stakeholders by clearly articulating roles and responsibilities. We will refine our operational systems to provide more effective and efficient systems for recruitment, enrollment, placement, transportation of students, and the allocation of classroom space in district schools. We will continue to streamline systems to use fiscal and personnel resources effectively.

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