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Dear School District of Philadelphia Parents and Families,

Over the past several months, numerous individuals across the city have been busy contributing to the development of a 5-year Strategic Plan. While there are still a few stages remaining, I wanted to celebrate the completion of two major milestones: the revision of the District’s mission, vision, and core values and the creation of a District-wide theory of action.

The Board of Education revised the mission, vision, and core values using feedback from all Strategic Plan teams and the results from the public survey. I thank those of you who took the time to complete the survey and share your insights. The updated versions can be viewed on the District’s strategic planning website.

To address the need for a clear, well-communicated theory of action as outlined by the Transition Team Report, we worked collaboratively with the Steering Committee, Leadership Team, and Advisory Groups to develop this theory of action that is a high level statement on how we plan to improve, accelerate progress towards our goals, and help students prepare for any future they imagine:

Theory of Action

When we focus on…

• Engaging with families and community members in the education of all students;
• Prioritizing the social-emotional well-being, mental health, and intellectual and physical safety of all students and staff;
• Centering schools and school leadership teams as the units of change;
• Advancing equity through everything we do and every decision we make; and
• Aligning our resources, trainings, and accountability structures to a limited number of innovative and research based priorities

Then we will reach the Goals and Guardrails and transform learning and life outcomes for all students.

I want to emphasize that the release of this plan on May 25, 2023, our Strategic Plan, will be a significant milestone for the District. It will be the culmination of months of collaboration. Thank you for participating in the listening and learning tours, Transition Team and the Strategic Plan Advisory Groups – your input will directly inform the District’s direction for the next five years. Please continue to visit the District’s strategic planning website for updates as we continue this process.

In partnership,

Tony B. Watlington Sr., Ed.D.
Superintendent
The School District of Philadelphia