Strategy Development
The Client
Diverse Charter School Coalition (DCSC) catalyzes and supports the creation and expansion of high-quality diverse American public schools, including charter schools, through strategic research, advocacy, membership activities and outreach.
DCSC visualizes high-quality diverse schools as the catalyst to prepare students to pursue higher education, meaningful and sustainable work in a global economy, and an equal role in a more cohesive and connected participatory democracy. DCSC membership represents 227 individual schools serving over 90,000 students. In continuing with their vision, DCSC deemed it necessary to reflect, vision and plan for the next 5 years.
The Approach
DCSC took The Ed.ucateD Approach by engaging in our strategic planning process designed to create an intentional time for the organization to reflect on their past impact, evaluate their current impact and vision its future impact through a facilitated process. The strategic plan became a living document that aligned a vision of success to core priorities and strategies.
Through the establishment of a Strategy Development Team (i.e. board members, leadership team members, staff members and other key stakeholders) we built a collaborative structure and process to ensure that the strategy was inclusive of multiple perspectives. We developed an eight-phase design process which included re-defining "Diverse by Design Schools", understanding the current state, stakeholder perception data collection and analysis, dreaming and visioning the organization's future impact, strategy development, strategy testing, strategy revisioning, and implementation tool and resource development.
The Result
This specially designed strategic planning process enabled DCSC to reflect on its current state, re-align the mission to its priorities and re-envision the future of its work.