Unleashing the Full Power Of Strategic Planning

Written by Nicholas P. Morgan and Keith Macleod

For most school districts, strategic plans are lofty documents that capture aspirational “mission,” “vision,” and “goals.” Articulating these categories is an important step in setting a direction for the district and helps galvanize many stakeholders.

et, defining the expansive areas of agreement does not in and of itself constitute strategic planning. For one, generally the only way to assure widespread buy-in is to create a laundry list of goals that satisfies each segment of stakeholders. All of these goals are desirable, but not all are likely attainable within the period of the strategic plan. Moreover, the goals are almost always expressed solely in terms of student achievement. Measures of student achievement certainly capture the outcome of district performance. But, they reveal little about the daily activities and processes that will ultimately enhance student performance. The non-academic arms of the district may feel especially isolated from strategic plans that do not mention how finance and operations contribute to the district’s overall mission. Finally, broad strategic statements unaccompanied by specific action plans are likely to be neglected during times of economic distress. Indeed, strategic initiatives are often the first casualties in the face of budget cuts.

Expressing a strategy by establishing mission, vision, and goals is only the first step in the broader strategic planning process. Strategic planning recognizes the futility of strategy that is not linked to execution and revision. Using the articulation of a strategic direction as the foundation, strategic planning should be a systemic process that:

• creates a clear and actionable strategy for the district;
• executes this strategy by translating it into the everyday work of all functions of the district; and
• uses the results as a learning mechanism to maintain, or, if necessary, adjust the strategy.

Strategic Planning Process For School Districts

Naturally, not all the aspects of “strategy,” as it is conceived in the corporate world, transfer to the school district. Indeed, the field of corporate strategic analysis tends to presume that a company can devise its strategy from scratch. Using the now prevalent “Five Forces” framework conceived by pioneering strategy scholar Michael Porter, a company can study an industry, assess the existing competitors within it, consider the probability that new competitors will arise, evaluate the strength of suppliers and of customers, and question whether a substitute product could emerge. Based on this analysis, a company can then choose a desirable industry, or, at least, an attractive segment of an industry.

School districts do not have the latitude to operate with such a blank slate. As public mandates, they cannot pick the students and parents who are their market. And, all public schools must have the same general goal of an education that meets and exceeds state and federal standards and provides each student the necessary educational tools to reach his or her full potential.

Student achievement is certainly the school districts’ ultimate mission. But, the specific priorities that must be carried out to attain this will diverge widely across districts. Moreover, districts must compete for the human capital and financial resources that align with their specific priorities. And, increasingly, districts must compete with charter and independent school options that force public schools to define their “value proposition”— the activities that differentiate an organization and make it able to sustain high-level performance.¹