VISION 2018 - Howard County Public Schools

After broad stakeholder input was gathered from the community through the focus groups, sevenStrategic Planning Design Teams synthesized the input and priorities and identified themes across multipleoperational areas. The common themes included excellence, equity, access, engagement, personalizedlearning, well-being, global connections, trust and collaboration.Design Thinking methodology was applied to enhance creativity in processing the input. Design Thinkingis a structured approach to generating and developing ideas that was developed by IDEO, a leadinginnovation and design organization. This methodology has proven particularly effective for involving a broadrange of stakeholders in the process of developing creative solutions to difficult challenges. Design Thinkinginvolves five phases: Discovery, Interpretation, Ideation, Experimentation, and Evolution. The leaders ofeach Design Team included two or more staff members who have been trained in and/or have previouslyused the Design Thinking methodology. Each Design Team focused on one of the seven operational areaslisted on the previous page and brought in additional members as needed to accomplish their work.The process I 23Each Design Team developed answers to three guiding questions: What should the HCPSS look like in June2018? What is already in place? What would be needed to get there? Their answers informed the plan’sdevelopment.Crafting our DirectionThe strategic plan was crafted between April and June 2013 by a Strategic Planning Lead Team incollaboration with a broader Strategic Planning Core Team that included representatives from each of theseven Design Teams.The team first developed an overarching structure for the strategic plan that included guiding principles, amission statement, and a vision for 2018. The vision was then articulated into goals and aligned outcomes,strategies, and performance measures in four broad operational areas: Students, Staff, Families and theCommunity, and the Organization.All stakeholders were invited to provide feedback on the draft guiding principles, vision, mission, andgoals through a publicly available survey during the month of May. Throughout the development phase,the Superintendent’s Cabinet and Executive Team were briefed on the progress of the plan and providedguidance and input. An update on the planning process was presented to the Board of Education during itsApril 25, 2013 meeting, at which Board members provided feedback and additional direction.