| In June 1995, the Southcoast School District board of directors adopted a strategic plan. The goals and objectives of the plan address establishing high standards, focusing on student learning, involving constituents in decision-making, providing high quality support systems, and collaborating with community resources. Action planning is required of each school, and is an alignment tool for realizing district policy intent. Principals approach school action planning from different perspectives. This research investigated action planning and plan goals, primarily from the perspective of the school. The principal research questions were: Do principals plan and act locally to implement global policy strategically envisioned by district policy-makers? Or, do they plan and act locally in response to local needs, and retroactively fit the local plan to a global model? Is there a corresponding difference in the content of their school action plans? This research identified (a) the processes used to construct action plans; (b) principals' and key teachers' perceptions of the key influences on action planning, including state standards and assessments, state school improvement grants, district curriculum implementations, and central office directions; (c) principals' and key teachers' perceptions of the "downward" and "upward" nature by which action plans are linked to the district's strategic plan, and (d) the characteristics of school action plan goal content linkage to the content of the district strategic plan. The result of statistical analyses indicated that the differences in the variables tested were not significant in relationship to the principals' approaches to alignment. An embedded case study method was applied for descriptive and theory-building purposes. The research strategy included personal interviews and examination of district documents. Content analysis of the school district strategic plan and school action plans was employed to develop and triangulate related qualitative data. Key research results include: (a) a common process for tactical planning; (b) descriptions of action planning processes; (c) analysis of two planning approaches described by principals to align schools' goals with district objectives; and (d) comparative characteristics for assessment---through content analysis---of schools' action plan goals. |
