Sioux City Community School District Strategic Plan – 2016-2022
The mission of the Sioux City Community School District is to educate students to believe in their talents and skills, achieve academic excellence and succeed in reaching their potential. We are making this mission a reality – every day, in every classroom throughout the District.
The Sioux City Community School District Board of Directors spent time developing, with the input of multiple stakeholder groups, the “Definition of the Well-Educated Student”. The definition is the foundation for the Focus 2022 Strategic Plan. The definition identifies what students within the educational system will be able to do upon graduating from our District.
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Students will be able to create solutions to complex problems through inquiry and investigations. Students will be able to access, analyze and use key information as they develop solutions to complex problems.
Communication Skills
Communication skills will be the successful sharing of information through multiple means that include visual, digital, verbal and nonverbal interactions. Communication is purposeful, clear and concise, and leads to an accurate exchange of information and ideas. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening will be incorporated into learning opportunities in all content areas and at all grade levels.
Self-Sufficient and Autonomous Lifelong Learners and Citizens
Students will be able to respond and adjust to situational needs, change to meet the challenges of new roles, paradigms and environments, and create quality results in an ever-changing environment through the nurturing of lifelong learning.
Through community forums, focus groups, listening sessions, and more, we have engaged our stakeholders, refined our objectives, honed our procedures, and formulated a robust, highly-structured yet agile and adaptive strategic plan. We are excited about the future – of our District, our community, and, most importantly, the 15,000 students who daily bring to us their limitless potential.
The District has created performance measures, strategies, and initiatives to ensure success in each goal area. A monitoring and data collection process has been developed, and rigorous progress check procedures are implemented. Programmatic reviews were utilized to develop the targets and initiatives and will continue to be used in the evaluation process. At the local level, on-going training sessions are offered to all principals in order to support the work of aligning, refining, monitoring, and evaluating the continuous improvement efforts of each individual school.
As a community of learners, we are committed to excellence in everything we do – within the classroom and throughout the District. This continuous improvement process permeates each aspect of our Focus 2022 Strategic Plan, and we are honored to partner with you to make it a reality for all.
Continuous Improvement
As a District, the Sioux City Community Schools focus on increasing student achievement. Increasing student achievement is the primary goal of the District. In an effort to increase student achievement and ensure that all students are proficient, the curriculum has been revised, assessments have been revised, interventions have been incorporated into the instructional day, professional development has focused on research-based instructional strategies, and professional learning communities have been developed and strengthened. Student achievement has shown positive trends in the past five years, however, more needs to be done to eliminate the achievement gaps between subgroups of students, to ensure that all students are proficient, and to engage all students in rigorous academics. The goal areas that we have strategically formed plans around will have an impact on student achievement. The goal areas are:
Goal 1: Provide Relevant, Rigorous, and Innovative Academics
Goal 2: Provide Safe, Healthy, and Supportive Learning Environments
Goal 3: Attract and Support Highly Effective Teachers, Leaders, and Staff
Goal 4: Practice Effective, Efficient, and Sustainable Business Practices
Goal 5: Strengthen School, Family, and Community Engagement