Power Up Your Planning

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Power Up Your Planning

A well-defined theory of action leads to systemwide change

By Sharon Williams and Karen Cloninger

February 2018

Vol. 39 No. 1

When Bill Rhoades became superintendent of Oregon’s West Linn-Wilsonville School District in 2011, he inherited a school system with good results according to typical measures. Students at all levels were posting overall gains in their academic growth in reading and mathematics. The district had some of the highest graduation rates, lowest dropout rates, and highest college entrance rates in the state. For a district of 9,500 students located in the greater Portland metropolitan area, these results were a source of pride. A deeply engrained culture of learning pushed everyone to pursue ambitious goals of excellence in teaching and learning for all students. But despite the overall strong performance, everyone knew that the work of closing achievement gaps was not complete. “It’s one thing to have

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Authors

Sharon Williams and Karen Cloninger

Sharon Williams (swill7@uw.edu) is a project director at the University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership in Seattle, Washington. Karen Cloninger (cloningerk@evsd.org), formerly a project director at Center for Educational Leadership, is an assistant superintendent in East Valley School District in Spokane, Washington.

A Tool That Can Help

The Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Washington has developed a tool — Creating a Theory of Action — that guides district and school leaders in this complex process.
The tool provides a step-by-step framework for creating a theory of action, using guiding questions about current learning and practice and about what needs to change. Districts have used this tool to examine entire systems and focus on specific challenges.
To download the 10-page tool, go to https://info.k-12leadership.org/creating-a-theory-of-action.

West Linn-Wilsonville School District Tualatin, Oregon

Number of schools: 14 (9 primary, 4 middle, 3 high schools)
Enrollment: 9,873
Racial/ethnic mix:
White: 76%
Hispanic: 11%
Multiethnic: 7%
Asian/Pacific Islander: 5%
Black: 1%
American Indian/Alaskan Native: <1%
Limited English proficient: 6%
Free/reduced lunch: 18%
Special education: 11%