Dear ACS community,
Over the last few months our community has been involved in a reflective strategic planning process. Many of you have provided ideas, thoughts, comments, and opinions about what is important, valuable, and desired as a result of an ACS education; be it for one year or twelve.
Two Open Forum discussions were hosted in order to collect ideas and listen to the "voice"of the community. One of the regular monthly Coffee and Chats also allowed parents to provide feedback and input about shared values and beliefs.
In mid April, an external strategic facilitator, John Littleford, from Littleford and Associates, conducted a series of Focus Group meetings with over 120 people taking part in representing parents, students, alumni, staff, administration and Board members.
These small Focus groups, of no more than 15 people at a time, allowed Littleford an opportunity to listen and gather vital information that helped him with the strategic planning process. This information gathering process was culminated with a Strategic Planning team meeting facilitated by John Littleford.
There was remarkable consistency among the themes identified by the various constituents who took part in this process.
In the weeks ahead, members of the strategic planning team will be meeting to outline action plans that will provide a direction forward. I do want to take this opportunity to share with you the emerging strategic goals and how they were determined.
The first part of the process was to identify skills students should have acquired upon graduating from ACS, in addition to a strong content knowledge base. These skills were identified as "Skills of the 21st Century" that should distinguish our students as they transition to life outside of ACS. There were hundreds of ideas expressed and I have tried to categorize the ideas into a few common themes. These themes are:
21st Century skills that ACS students should consistently demonstrate (They are in no particular order)
| Communicators | Collaborators |
| Problem Solving | Respectful |
| Integrity | Intellectual Curious |
| Problem solvers | Self Managers |
| World View | Service Minded |
| Emotionally Intelligent | Leadership |
| Happy/Positive/Pleasant |
Additionally, with the assistance of John Littleford, who collected feedback and information from the focus groups, six Strategic Goals were identified that will guide the future allocation of resources at ACS. The process undertaken to identify these six strategic objectives was:
- Focus groups, of no more than 15 people, provided feedback and information to Mr. Littleford. About 120 people were "interviewed" during this process.
- Mr. Littleford compiled this information and identified 36 common themes that emerged from his interviews during his five- day visit to ACS.
- The Strategic Planning team, which consisted of 26 people representing various constituency groups at ACS, prioritized these 36 common themes into the most important areas of which we should be focusing our time on over the next 3-5 years. These six Strategic Goals are:
ACS is Committed to:
| Strategic Goal#1 | Establishing a greater clarity of Mission and Vision. |
| Strategic Goal #2 | Creating a Master Facility Plan that captures the Vision and spirit of ACS in the 21st Century. |
| Strategic Goal #3 | Creating a school structure that enables greater program enrichment across grade levels. Thus, allowing students to better explore their talents and areas of interest and passion. |
| Strategic Goal #4 | Educational excellence that assures inspiring teaching and individual attention that caters to each child's needs and how he or she learns. |
| Strategic Goal #5 | Promoting and marketing the benefits of an ACS education to ambitious and highly dedicated local and expatriate students living in the community. |
| Strategic Goal #6 | Maintaining a positive enrollment mix. |
Developing action plans of how these Strategic Goals will be maintained and achieved is the next step of this process. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) will also be established to outline each Action Plan, which the Board and I will monitor and annually update.
Once the Action plans and KPI's have been completed, hopefully by the end of the 2010-2011 SY, the Board of Directors will approve the Strategic plan, present it to the community, and support the steps necessary to move it forward by holding the administration accountable to its implementation.
This is an exciting time for ACS and I look forward to working with you as we continue to develop, grow, and enhance our programs with the ultimate goal of student success.
Should you have any question about the process or the results, please do not hesitate to contact me.