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Date: 11/16/2023
AGAWAM — A team of community stakeholders, consisting of parents, teachers, administrators and students, began meeting in October to revise and update the Agawam School Department’s current strategic plan.
The team — assisted by a five-member steering committee headed by school Superintendent Sheila Hoffman — is looking at a variety of data their effort to “rebuild” the strategic plan. They are studying results of student surveys about school culture or environment, discipline and school suspension data, attendance rates, SAT and MCAS scores as well as reading and math data over multiple years from each of the district’s schools.
“The role of the steering committee is to coordinate all the moving parts of developing a new plan,” said Hoffman. “Members compile data, manage communications with the stakeholder group and meet to discuss next steps.”
Compiling and analyzing data will help determine what objectives have been met, which ones are still in progress or not yet met. Additionally, objectives longer considered relevant will be eliminated.
Hoffman said the data will be useful to help stakeholders make informed decisions about what needs be revised in the current strategic plan. She also said because the district developed the current strategic plan about six years ago, it’s important to recognize some of the work that had been done previously. That work can be used as a foundation upon which to build a new strategic plan for Agawam’s schools.
“All of us on the steering committee were actually a part of developing the first strategic plan, so we’re able to recognize some things that aren’t relevant anymore and move past those when revising the plan,” said Hoffman.
The overall plan — which serves as the district’s vision for student learning — focuses on three main objectives: cognitive involvement, student supports and integrating technology.
Cognitive involvement supports a school environment that stimulates student learning; student supports build and maintain a safe and secure school community that promotes the social, emotional and physical well-being of all students and staff; integrating technology fosters an environment where students and staff can develop transferable literacy skills.
Each objective includes statements describing numerous priorities to be achieved. There are also details about specific actions needed, what evidence is required for that action item, who is responsible for carrying out the action item and what checkpoints will be used to assess progress.
At the Oct. 24 School Committee meeting, members of the steering committee presented a broad overview of the data compiled for stakeholders to review as they evaluate revisions to the strategic plan. The presentation was similar to one made to stakeholders at a meeting earlier in the month that gave them a background on the data used by to set priorities in the district.
Each steering committee member presented PowerPoint slides illustrated with charts and graphs to help explain different data sources. Data included results of student surveys about the environment or culture at district schools — including student safety — and discipline and attendance data, SAT and MCAS scores as well as reading and math data.
In addition to Hoffman, members of the steering committee include Assistant School Superintendent Cheryl Salomao, Business Manager Robert Clickstein, K-6 academic supervisor Sarah Hopson, and Collen DeGeorge, executive assistant to the superintendent.
Hoffman told the committee that administrators and school leaders look at these data almost daily, not just at the district level, but also at the school and classroom level: “While we dive really deep into different parts of this data, this presentation is just a basic overview.”
The superintendent said the district is increasing its use and understanding of the role and function of technology in instruction and assessment. Hoffman said that in some cases the district was forced to use more technology, but it created some positive effects.
“Technology was a huge part of our former plan, so we want you to recognize that we have come a long way.” Hoffman said.
Among the successes cited as having been achieved with the current strategic plan include: