project management

Click here for part I of the three-part series.

Last post, I shared three ideas to use in the year prior to your accreditation review.  The preparation work done the previous year should provide you with a thorough understanding of all the elements needed in your plan.  Today, I am sharing with you my thoughts on the best strategies for the actual year of the review.

1.  Create a shared workspace.

You will be creating many documents, generating lots of reports and data, that you will need to share with all members of the district team, as well as the facilitators of the school teams.  I created a folder in Google Drive and shared it with all members of my teams.  This was a straightforward method of collaboration for us.  Your district may have other digital collaboration tools that would work just as well.

 

2. Use project management strategies.

At the beginning of the school year, I build a project management schedule to keep track of the pieces that make up the accreditation continuous improvement process.  I develop the plan by working backward from the actual date of the review.  

I need to see the big picture, so I start with sticky notes placed on the wall of my office (work breakdown structure).  One row of sticky notes lists the months of the year; the row underneath lists the task(s) that needs to be completed during the corresponding month.  I like using the sticky note method initially because it allows me to easily rearrange the tasks.  Once I have a few days to ponder the timelines, taking into consideration other events and initiatives underway in the district, I make changes any needed changes.  The sticky notes allow me to do this with ease.  It also requires me to stand up and move around which improves my thinking (I think).

 

Once I am happy with my sticky notes,  I use them to create my work plan in a spreadsheet.  I color-code it and add in meeting dates and times.  This is often one of the first items that I place in a folder that I share with all members of the school teams.  

 

This work plan helps me to see all the trees in the forest, and it is a resource for my school teams, too.  My district follows the AdvancED process, which involves several steps and reports.  Schools and districts have to conduct surveys, analyze various data, create several  documents, and develop improvement and/or strategic plans.  

When developing your plan, it is important to allow enough time for each element.  For instance, surveying stakeholders – parents, students, and staff – takes time, especially the parent surveys.  Determine how much time you think it will take to administer the surveys, then add a week to it.  Trust me on this.

 

But even more than survey administration, the analysis of all the survey data requires a great deal of time.  The sheer amount of data gathered from the surveys is overwhelming.  You might want to double the amount of time that seems reasonable for data analysis.  Yeah, that’s how much data is truly generated.

 

The work plan contained all the dates that I needed to meet with my school facilitators.  This allowed me a formal opportunity to check-in with each school to ensure the teams were on track and on time with all pieces of the processes.  It also provided the school facilitators a chance to bring to my attention any issues they had encountered so that we could develop solutions.  I think that the facilitators also benefited from hearing what and how the other teams were doing.

Without some type of written plan, I don’t think I could have kept track of everything that we had to accomplish throughout the year.  Remember, while this work is occurring, you will still be handling all your normal responsibilities.  Project management tools are key.

 

3.  Form sub-teams.

In the preparation phase,  you formed a central office team, and now you need to divide the members of this team into sub-teams.  I assign central office team members to each of the accreditation standards.  Those with knowledge of curriculum worked on the teaching and learning standard.  Those whose expertise lay in district support services (e.g., finance, facilities) worked on the resources standard.  

 

I also used these standards teams to assist with all the other parts of the process, too.  The larger central office team was often too big for a work team, but the standards teams consisted of three to five members, a great size for actually accomplishing work.  Each standards team was also responsible analyzing survey data and providing feedback.  

 

The standard teams were also responsible for creating and delivering a short presentation on their assigned standard to the external review committee.    

 

4.  Utilize current work.

I dislike having to duplicate work.  So whenever possible, we use our current work to address the accreditation tasks.  For example, districts can use their strategic plans, and schools can use their school improvement plans to meet certain requirements.  I utilized a previously written annual report for another requirement, rather than creating an entirely new document.

 

5.  Determine your writers.

You will need to create or revise several documents, so it is good to determine who your writer(s) will be, and how your team members will assist.  During our process, we created documents for data, both survey and student testing data, and we created a report for our standards assessment.  We also wrote an overview of the district.  

 

Regardless of how many writers you have, you need input and feedback from all members of your team.  I created documents in our shared Google folder for our team members to record their feedback and input.  When it came time to write the reports, much of the information to include in the reports was already developed in these shared documents.  

 

These five strategies worked well for us during our accreditation process.  The project management tools allowed me to keep track of where we were in the process and kept us on schedule.  The shared folder for collaboration kept everyone in the loop.

 

I cannot emphasize how important a good central office team is to the accreditation process.  With the first meeting being the exception, all of our meetings were work sessions.  We had homework to finish before our next meeting.  

 

It is also important to have strong school level facilitators.  Our meetings were often progress checks and troubleshooting sessions.  

 

What tools and strategies have you used during the accreditation process?  Please share in the comments section.  

This is part two of a three-part series.  If you missed the first part, you can find it here:   Part I:  Prior Year Preparation.