The State Board of Education approved an accountability plan for the Normandy Schools Collaborative during Tuesday’s State Board meeting.

The plan builds on the assets of Normandy students, parents, educators and other community members to help ensure students achieve continued academic growth.

“The Department and the Normandy Schools Collaborative have worked together to develop a solid plan designed to improve student achievement,” said Deputy Commissioner Margie Vandeven. “The focus is now on effective execution of the plan.”

The plan focuses on key areas of leadership, collaborative cultures, curriculum and assessments and effective instruction with a plan for improvement that includes:

• A rigorous and relevant instruction program
• Ongoing, high-quality, job embedded professional development
• Increased instructional time
• Social-emotional and community-oriented service and supports
• Use of data to inform instruction
• Continuous focus on results

The plan also calls for a Regional School Improvement Team to conduct monthly progress meetings that focus on immediate progress in the district, as opposed to waiting on end-of-year test results. The team will also reduce competing priorities and keep the district focused on the improvement goals.

Ensuring all students are college and career ready is one of the primary goals of Missouri’s Top 10 by 20 initiative, which calls for Missouri to be among the top 10 states nationally in education by the year 2020.