Students will acquire knowledge, skills, habits, and traits necessary for success in future educational experiences, the workforce, and life.

Areas of Focus

High Quality Instruction: Rigorous curricula, evidence-based teaching practices, and active learning environments that are differentiated, standards-based, and data-driven.

Engaging Educational Experiences: Learning opportunities intentionally designed to activate students' curiosity as they apply critical thinking skills in contexts that are within and beyond the classroom.

College and Career Readiness: The knowledge and skills needed to be successful in postsecondary education and/or training leading to meaningful employment in a highly complex, diverse, and evolving workforce.

Life Readiness: The dispositions and character traits* that improve the learning environment, promote student achievement, and develop civic-minded students of high character.

*YCSD Character Education Traits include:

• Trustworthiness: Being reliable, honest, earned over time; someone on whom others can depend.
• Respect: Speaking and acting civilly, being courteous to others and caring about their rights, beliefs and well-being.
• Responsibility: Showing reliability and consistency in speech and conduct; being accountable for one's own actions; civic engagement in the community.
• Fairness: Acting in a just way in making decisions; standing up for the rights of everyone to be treated equally and honestly, playing by the rules.
• Caring: Feeling and exhibiting concern and empathy for others.
• Citizenship: Caring about the good of the school, community, and society and participating to make things better.

Theory of Action

If we provide intentional learning opportunities that activate students' curiosity and critical thinking skills through rigorous, evidence-based instruction then students will possess the knowledge, skills, and traits necessary to be successful in post-secondary endeavors.

Why this is Important

• In 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released an Employment Projections (EP) summary that indicates that by 2030 employment is projected to increase by 11.9 million jobs across all major industries and occupations.
• The availability of a well-trained and educated workforce remains the top concern for Virginia's business community.
• Virginia's Board of Education has determined that a life-ready Virginia graduate must:
• achieve and apply appropriate academic and technical knowledge;
• demonstrate productive workplace skills, qualities, and behaviors;
• build connections and value interactions with others as a responsible and responsive citizen; and
• align knowledge, skills, and personal interests with career opportunities.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

PSAT College & Career Readiness Benchmark

Grade Level Reading Data (grades 1-5)

End-of-Course (EOC) Assessment Data

CTE Enrollment & Certification Data

College, Career, and Civic Readiness Indicator

Year One Strategies (FY23)

Develop a continuum that outlines expectations for K-12 academic and career planning.

Create a YCSD College and Career website that provides valuable academic and career planning resources for students and families.

Expand the YCSD curriculum framework to include additional resources that promote student engagement, character education traits, effective technology integration and differentiation.

Audit the current K-12 writing instructional program and curriculum documents.

Identify and implement instruction resources to support improved PSAT/SAT outcomes and increased enrollment in advanced coursework.

Update the YCSD Literacy Model to include integration of Science of Reading instructional practices.

Audit the alignment and rigor of the YCSD middle school math curriculum.

Year Two Strategies (FY24)

Create engaging educational experiences by having every teacher integrate 3 or more thinking-based classroom characteristics in at least one lesson or unit of study.

Develop processes to support all students in grade 5 and 8 reaching proficiency on the Integrated Reading and Writing (IRW) Mastery Connect assessments.

Implement strategies to prepare students to meet or exceed state and federal benchmarks in English, math, science, and on-time graduation.

Evaluate and increase opportunities for high schools to meet state and federal benchmarks for College, Career, and Civic Readiness.