Agora Action Plan

A. Summarize an action plan your school organization has implemented.

In 2013, Agora Cyber Charter School was designated a focus school by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In response to the designation, Agora was charged to create a school-wide improvement plan. This strategic plan, which was implemented in June 2014, addresses the reasons why the school did not meet its annual measurable outcomes (AMOs) and details what steps the school will take in order to make measureable improvements toward meeting the AMOs over the upcoming five years. The strategic plan includes a needs assessment and assurances of current practice, an analysis of the school’s strengths, and the challenges that it faces. The plan identified one key goal, based

Each objective has short and long-term targets to determine whether those strategies are driving the school toward the overall projections. Agora also created a plan where the projections are frontloaded, in order to maximize the benefit of new interventions and adjust for fluctuations in data over time. An example of short and long range projections would be increasing the graduation rate from forty-four percent to fifty-six percent in five years (growth over previous years). In the first year the rate should increase by four percent, and then two percent each subsequent year. Each strategy implemented is reviewed periodically for success and changes can be made in order to help meet the

As new data is retrieved (from various sources, including benchmark assessments, progress monitoring, monthly grade reports, weekly attendance reports), the team collects the data, analyzes the data, and provides updated reports on the data to the leadership team. The leadership team, in conjunction with intervention specialists, makes adjustments for learning, performance, or engagement. By having a core group of individuals responsible for evaluating the data in real-time, responding to fluctuations in projected gaps is more authentic. An example of this work is dissecting the performance of all students meet the criteria for students traditionally affected by the achievement gap; data for those students is isolated, and the team determines which students within those parameters could benefit (not all students within the achievement gap student subgroup require intervention) for additional interventions. Based on the analysis, some students may benefit from an escalation of face to face services, additional family assistance, new interventions, or remediation of certain skills. Because Agora spends a great deal of time reviewing scrutinizing such data, the school can address gaps in performance quickly and