Case Studies: Overview | Mission Possible | W. K. Kellogg
Mission Possible is a comprehensive teacher incentive plan launched by Guilford County Schools (GCS), North Carolina, during the 2006-2007 school year. The plan combines multiple components to keep and attract highly effective teachers and administrators for the ultimate goal of increasing student achievement in schools with critical needs. The Mission Possible teachers and administrators receive ongoing specialized training, extensive collaborative support, reduced class sizes, recruitment incentives, and are eligible for performance incentives.
In order to facilitate the changes and cooperation necessary to implement the new incentive plan, the Mission Possible Office developed a communications plan that sought to invite dialogue between program officers and key stakeholders.
The Mission Possible communications plan highlights goals that focus on four distinct areas of service. These areas are:
- Inform current faculty about program logistics by developing and utilizing effective systems to communicate with and receive feedback from internal constituents on program goals, policies, and procedures
- Raise awareness of program outcomes by increasing awareness of program goals, activities, and achievements among internal and external constituents
- Leverage existing systems of communication to increase awareness of program successes as a marketing strategy to recruit and retain the highest quality teachers and school leaders
- Celebrate the accomplishments and the positive impact of Mission Possible by effectively using media outlets to garner program awareness and support on local, state, and national levels
In order to meet these goals, the Mission Possible Office developed a "Communication Plan of Action" that can be seen on page two of the communications plan.
Communication Plan of Action
The plan of action details a variety of strategies for achieving the goals highlighted above. Certain strategies are designed to address multiple goals. The plan is formatted as a chart that lists the particular strategy, the audience for whom it is intended, the internal member who is responsible for the strategy, the timeframe, and the goals that each strategy addresses.
- Strategy. Sample strategies used by GCS to implement Mission Possible include forming advisory teams, using email distribution lists, creating marketing materials, conducting media interviews, publishing a newsletter, holding on-site faculty orientations and meetings, and maintaining a website.
- Audience. The plan tracks whether the audience is internal or external, but districts could also identify more specifically the target constituencies.
- Responsibility. By listing the individual responsible for overseeing each strategy, the principal or other head administrator can more easily track overall progress and maintain contact with key personnel.
- Timeframe. GCS devised the timeframe to reflect whether the specific strategy required daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or as-needed implementation. Districts could also list specific deadlines and interim goals.
- Goals. By identifying which goals are impacted by each individual strategy, it is easier to ensure that the plan is holistically addressing all of the district's goals.
Evaluation
The communication evaluation chart groups the different strategies into four categories based on which goal they address. It then provides the baseline as well as the target for each strategy. The baseline is the existing level of implementation of a given strategy, while the target reflects how much overall implementation is desired. For example, under "email communication," the sample evaluation chart indicates that the target is daily communication with faculty. For the newsletter, the target is ten distributions over the period covered by the sample evaluation.
Evaluation is a crucial part of the overall communication plan. Having a built-in evaluation component allows the directors to maintain accountability and make improvements over time. By linking each strategy to a particular goal and continually monitoring the implementation of that strategy, it is possible to ensure that there is sustained progress in the direction of the district's overarching mission and goals.
The Guilford County Schools Mission Possible Brochure is a useful example of marketing materials geared toward educating the general public as well as teachers about a proposed reform.