Form a small cross-departmental team with defined facilitation roles before starting alignment work¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The guide advises forming a team across divisions and departments, including school, family, and student members, while warning against tokenizing these stakeholders: their "roles are meaningful, that their voices and influence are equal to those of the other participants." For districts new to this work it recommends keeping "your initial team to fewer than seven people" because large teams can hinder decision-making. Teams should identify note-takers, agenda developers, a data analyst, and facilitators, and clearly define facilitation roles before beginning.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Stakeholder members such as students and families must have meaningful roles with influence equal to other participants, and their engagement must be actively supported

Constraints¶

• The guide notes trade-offs between internal facilitators (context knowledge, cost-effectiveness) and external facilitators (equal participation, ability to challenge the group), and warns that knowledge can disappear when an external facilitator departs

Target Learners¶

• K-12 students
• families
• educators
• district leaders

Target Learning Goals¶

• effective coordination of whole-person initiative alignment work

Related Strategies¶

• Assess team readiness across leadership, facilitation, communication, shared understanding, and capacity before starting
• Analyze & Inventory: use cross-departmental data analysis and an inventory of existing interventions before buying new edtech
• Write SMARTIE action-plan goals that are specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, time-bound, inclusive, and equitable
• Design for influence, not simply participation, and scaffold without replacing partner leadership

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Walrond, N. (2021). Serving the whole person: An alignment and coherence guide for local education agencies. WestEd. https://www.wested.org/resources/whole-person-alignment-and-coherence-guide-for-local-education-agencies