Department of Defense Education Activity

Goal 2: School Excellence

Teacher pointing to smart board

School Excellence

DoDEA is dedicated to developing and sustaining high-performing schools with innovative, collaborative, and caring cultures. DoDEA will pursue School Excellence through two Strategic Initiatives:

Instructional Improvement and College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS). DoDEA is committed to guiding educators as they grow their practices by providing high-quality standards and curriculum accompanied by the tools to continuously improve instruction

Instructional Improvement

Focused Collaboration is a structured form of collaboration that empowers educators to make data-driven and input driven decisions while working together to improve teaching effectiveness. It relies on the support of its participants to create an environment that improves adult and student learning. During Focused Collaboration, educators work together to solve problems and determine how to weave together the intricate pattern of curriculum, standards, and assessments coupled with the interpersonal feedback that drives excellence.

This process is critical to school success and the ability to maintain an agile and supportive environment.

DoDEA is committed to supporting Focused Collaboration to support educators’ instructional practice. This initiative requires sustained attention, resources, and leadership to maximize its potential for increasing both adult and student learning.

College and Career Ready Standards

DoDEA continues to monitor and continuously improve its College and Career Ready Standards. DoDEA has aligned standards, instructional resources, professional learning, and assessments to support the full implementation of College and Career Ready Standards in all subjects and grade levels. DoDEA will continue to support educators and students through College and Career Ready Standards with a focus on ensuring alignment system-wide while relying on research-based practices.

DoDEA is committed to implementing a systemic Multi- Tiered System of Support (MTSS) framework that will support students by increasing access and removing barriers to student achievement through social and emotional supports. The intersections between the Multi-Tiered System of Support efforts in Strategic Initiative 1.2 and the focus on data driven instruction in Strategic Initiative 1.1 will help DoDEA help ensure that the connection between data and student-centered actions to equitably support student learning is strengthened throughout the system.

DoDEA is dedicated to developing and sustaining high-performing schools.

Goal 2- Strategic Initiative 2.1: 

Instructional Improvement — Develop, monitor, and continuously improve data-driven practices to foster excellence in student learning experiences.

Critical Success Factors:

  1. Continuous Improvement of Focused Collaboration: To assess progress towards a shared understanding and high-quality implementation of Focused Collaboration, we will use data from monitoring the established observation tool and use the results to strengthen a culture of collaboration. By providing targeted feedback, resources, tools, and information to support Focused Collaboration, we will help teachers effectively use student learning results to inform instructional decisions.
Goal 2- Strategic Initiative 2.2: 

College and Career Ready Standards — Provide leadership and support for the continuous improvement of College and Career Ready Standards.

Critical Success Factors:

  1. Aligned Standards-Based Instruction System: As we promote student learning through the implementation of College and Career Ready Standards and provide support for educators, we will align all components of a standards-based instruction system including standards, curriculum, instructional practices, assessment, and interventions.
  2. Leverage Innovative Research-based Practices to Enhance Instruction: We will leverage researched based practices and professional learning to provide rigorous and tiered instruction.