Covina-Valley USD Has a Plan to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

There is no doubt that districts and schools today are bombarded with “must do’s” and “must try’s” coming at them from every direction. So much so, that often the real work gets lost in the shuffle of the “must do’s and try’s”.

What might happen if we approached the work differently?

Under the direction of Dr. Elizabeth Eminhizer, the Educational Services Team in C-VUSD made a commitment. They made a commitment to move away from the long list of “must do’s and try’s” to get focused on a few things connected to the main thing. Their main thing:

“to improve teaching and learning opportunities in every classroom, every day – no exceptions”.

How did C-VUSD approach the work?

The team decided to:

1. Use data to identify the strengths and opportunities for improvement within and across schools;

2. Analyze the common strengths and opportunities for improvement to craft a district-wide focus;

3. Determine a small set of evidence-based practices that support the district-wide focus to be implemented in every classroom, every day;

4. Develop SMARTe goals that measure the impact on teaching and learning; and

5. Create a comprehensive, yet straight-forward, communication tool (see below) to share across the district.There is no doubt that districts and schools today are bombarded with “must do’s” and “must try’s” coming at them from every direction. So much so, that often the real work gets lost in the shuffle of the “must do’s and try’s”.

   What might happen if we approached the work differently?

   Under the direction of Dr. Elizabeth Eminhizer, the Educational Services Team in C-VUSD made a commitment. They made a commitment to move away from the long list of “must do’s and try’s” to get focused on a few things connected to the main thing. Their main thing:

   “to improve teaching and learning opportunities in every classroom, every day – no exceptions”.

   How did C-VUSD approach the work?

   The team decided to:

   1. Use data to identify the strengths and opportunities for improvement within and across schools;

   2. Analyze the common strengths and opportunities for improvement to craft a district-wide focus;

   3. Determine a small set of evidence-based practices that support the district-wide focus to be implemented in every classroom, every day;

   4. Develop SMARTe goals that measure the impact on teaching and learning; and

   5. Create a comprehensive, yet straight-forward, communication tool (see below) to share across the district.