Natalie Hannah

Last Friday, Sept. 1, all District 303 students had a day off of school because of a School Improvement Plan (SIP) day. However, many students are unaware of what goes on during those days while they aren’t at school.

These SIP days are used for a variety of purposes, including resolving issues and creating assessments. They are also focused on improving the district as a whole, as well as North specifically.

Throughout the day, teachers use data from their classes to improve the way they instruct classes. They also collaborate with fellow teachers in groups called Professional Learning Communities. 

These Communities, or PLCs, are part of a new district-wide plan from Superintendent Dr. Paul Gordon to help improve students’ school experience.

“Something that will be a theme this entire school year is we’re working on kind of a PLC process, which [are] the course teams that we’ve worked with, to analyze our data and find ways we can improve those courses and improve student learning,” said Grant Jacobsen, Instructional Support Coach (ISC). “Our new superintendent, Dr. Gordon, last year, brought in kind of this refocused PLC vision, and this year is about trying to implement that.”

This plan is accomplished throughout each SIP day, with a day occurring around once a month. Each SIP day focuses on a different aspect of Gordon’s vision to improve students’ educational experience. These days are planned by the districts, with assistance from ISCs, who help run them at a school-by-school level. This allows the schools to focus on issues specific to their building, allowing the days to be more tailored to certain schools’ situations. 

“We did a lot of…working with teachers to anticipate challenges and build our building environment and building culture,” said Jacobsen. 

 SIP days also cause a lot of changes to be made regarding students’ learning, though some may be less apparent than others. 

 “The point of that is for these PLCs to really focus on what is it that we want students to learn? How do we know if they’re learning it? And then how do we respond if they’re doing well or if they’re falling behind?” said Jacobsen.

Ultimately, SIP days are relevant to improving the educational experience all D303 students receive at school by allowing teachers to communicate with one another, reflect and improve their teaching.