Several years ago, I had an opportunity to attend a leadership retreat for women in education. I’ll never forget the moment a superintendent confessed to me during the retreat: “Kim, we have a beautiful strategic plan sitting in a binder on my shelf. But if I asked ten principals what our district’s top priority is, I’d get ten different answers.”
Have you ever felt that disconnect between what your district envisions and what actually happens in classrooms every day? Well, I have.
This gap isn’t uncommon. In fact, it’s one of the most persistent challenges facing K–12 educational leaders today. The problem isn’t that we lack vision; most districts have compelling mission statements and strategic plans. The real issue is that we haven’t developed the systems necessary to translate our vision into consistent, measurable action across all levels of our organization.
The Mistakes We Make
The first mistake I see district leaders make is treating strategic planning as an event rather than a continuous process. We gather stakeholders, conduct SWOT analyses, create five-year plans, and then move on to address the challenges of the day. The plan becomes static, disconnected from the daily decisions happening in schools. As Peter Senge reminds us in The Fifth Discipline, “The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels.”
The second error is misunderstanding the concept of alignment itself. Too many districts confuse compliance with alignment. We mandate initiatives, expecting implementation to follow automatically. However, authentic alignment isn’t about forcing conformity; it’s about fostering a shared understanding and coherent action toward common goals.
Third, we separate vision, strategy, and outcomes into different silos. Vision belongs in the boardroom, strategy in the central office, and outcomes for principals and teachers. This fragmentation guarantees misalignment before we even begin.
How Can We Do Better?
Before exploring frameworks, we must shift our thinking. Systems thinking requires us to see our districts as interconnected, dynamic organisms rather than hierarchical machines. This means embracing several key mindsets:
Coherence over compliance: Michael Fullan emphasizes that coherence—the shared depth of understanding about the purpose and nature of the work—is what drives sustainable improvement. Ask yourself: Do your team members understand why the vision matters, or are they just going through the motions?
Long-term learning over short-term fixes: Continuous improvement isn’t about quick wins; it’s about building capacity for ongoing adaptation and growth.
Collective efficacy over individual excellence: John Hattie’s research shows that collective teacher efficacy has one of the highest effect sizes on student achievement. Alignment must harness the collaborative power of your entire system.
Let’s Discuss Frameworks That Work
Several proven frameworks can help you bridge the gap between vision and outcomes:
The Balanced Scorecard for Education: Initially developed by Kaplan and Norton for business, this framework translates vision into four perspectives: student learning and growth, internal processes, stakeholder satisfaction, and financial stewardship. Each perspective includes strategic objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives. The power lies in its ability to illustrate how various elements of your system interact to produce results.
Theory of Action (Logic Model): This framework, which is one of my favorites, makes explicit the assumptions that link your strategies to the desired outcomes. It answers: “If we do X, then Y will happen, because Z.” By mapping these causal relationships, you create transparency and testability. When outcomes fail to materialize, you can examine whether the strategy was flawed or the underlying theory was incorrect.
The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX): McChesney, Covey, and Huling offer a practical approach: Focus on the wildly important (identify 1-3 critical goals), act on lead measures (track activities that predict success), keep a compelling scoreboard (make progress visible), and create accountability (establish a regular rhythm of reviewing commitments). This framework prevents the “whirlwind” of daily urgency from drowning strategic priorities.
Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycles: Rooted in the science of continuous improvement, PDSA cycles provide a disciplined approach to testing changes, learning from results, and adapting. When embedded district-wide, this method transforms strategic planning from a static to a dynamic process.
The most effective approach combines elements from multiple frameworks, customized to your context. What matters most is selecting a framework and implementing it with fidelity and consistency.
My Challenge to You
This week, I challenge you to conduct an alignment audit. Gather your leadership team and ask three questions: Can every leader articulate our district’s top three strategic priorities without looking them up? Can they explain how their specific goals connect to those priorities? Do we have systems in place for regularly monitoring progress and adjusting our strategy?
If the answer to any of these is no, it’s time to choose a framework and commit to the discipline of alignment. Your vision deserves more than a binder on a shelf; it deserves to live in every classroom, every decision, and every student outcome.
What will you do differently tomorrow to strengthen the connection between your district’s vision and your daily leadership actions?
#EducationalLeader,
Kim
When students are led well, they learn well.
References
- Fullan, M., & Quinn, J. (2016). Coherence: The right drivers in action for schools, districts, and systems. Corwin Press.
- Hattie, J. (2015). What works best in education: The politics of collaborative expertise. Pearson.
- Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2001). The strategy-focused organization: How balanced scorecard companies thrive in the new business environment. Harvard Business School Press.
- McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution: Achieving your wildly important goals. Free Press.
- Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization (Revised edition). Doubleday/Currency.
The views shared in the Educational Leadership Moment are solely those of Dr. Kim D. Moore and do not reflect the positions of her employer or any entity within the local, state, or federal government sector.
0 comments