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Implementing Strategic Planning in K-12 by Carmelita Thompson and William Allan Kritsonis, PhD Program in Educational Leadership, PV, Texas A&M System

Carmelita Thompson and William Allan Kritsonis, PhD 

Introduction
 The Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2007) offers a pragmatic framework to strategic planning that will move educational organizations in innovative directions.  In developing a strategic plan, an educational organization must implement Dr. Kritsonis’ (2007) six fundamental patterns of meaning designated respectively as symbolics, empirics, esthetics, synnoetics, ethics, and synoptics.  Strategic planning is the process in which an educational organization determines its current status, envisions its long-term goals, makes projections for the future, and develops strategies to achieve those future aspirations.  Strategic planning must be flexible and practical and yet serve as a guide to implement programs to evaluate the educational organizations progress.  A strategic plan intertwining the six fundamental patterns of the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2007) constructs innovative analytical and critical thinking that will improve and enhance the performance of educational organizations.
  Purpose of the Article
             The purpose of this article is to discuss ways in which strategic planning implemented by utilizing the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2007) creates a high performing educational organization.  Skilled strategic planning makes a current assessment of needs, develops the educational organization’s future thinking, builds commitment, and serves as the guiding document for the educational organization.  Effective strategic planning includes articulating the educational organization’s vision, mission, and values to set a course for future aspirations.

The First Realm:  Symbolics
The first realm of meaning is symbolics.  Dr. Kritsonis (2007) states that ordinary language such as gestures, rituals, and rhythmic patterns allow people to communicate on a personal level.  Effective leadership is the cornerstone of an educational environment.  Eaker and Gonzalez write about learning leaders.
They create systems and processes to engage collaborative teams of teachers in 1) clarifying the essential knowledge and skills students are to acquire for every course, grade level and unit of every instruction 2) developing frequent common assessments to monitor each student’s learning on a timely basis, and 3) implementing a school-wide plan of intervention to guarantee students receive additional time and support for learning as soon as they experience difficulty. (Eaker & Gonzalez, 2007, p. 6)
The leader’s ability to articulate the educational organization’s vision, mission, and values to propel the organization into its preferred future is essential.  A vision statement is a description upon which the organization aspires.  It emphasizes where the educational organization will be at a specific time in the future. The organizational mission  supports  the  vision and  it  describes the  purpose of  the  organization.  The organizational values  state the organization’s  intentions and  the organization’s  core priorities in the organization’s culture.
Implementing the strategic plan requires the use of symbolics. The vision must be clearly communicated within the educational organization.  The vision needs to capture the present status of the educational organization, and serve to guide the direction of the organization. As a means of setting a central goal that the educational organization will aspire to reach, the vision helps to provide a focus for the mission of the organization.  The vision should resonate with every member of the educational organization. The educational organization must clearly communicate its expectations so that members are able to perform effectively.  The strategic planning is effective when it energizes and engages the educational organization.
 The Second Realm:  Empirics
The second realm of meaning is empirics.  Empirics encompass facts and discovering the truth.  Dr. Kritsonis says, “These sciences provide factual descriptions, generalizations, and theoretical formulations and explanations that are based upon observation and experimentation in the world of matter, life, mind, and society” (Kritsonis, 2007, p. 12).  According to Dr. Kritsonis (2007), science is concerned with matters of fact and facts refer to data of observation.  Educational data collection is vital for strategic planning in educational organizations.
Strategic planning, with an emphasis on empirics, provides an understanding of the design of the educational organization’s assessment of needs, finances, and it allows the organization to set specific data-driven priorities.  The educational organization is obligated to be data driven to aide accountability within the organization.  It is essential to the strategic planning of an educational organization to conduct a continuum of critical analysis of the system, policy formulation and appraisal, management and monitoring, and evaluation.  Gathering data and analysis of the current situation of the organization and the critical issues pertaining to the organization’s status and functioning is required in an educational organization. The  strategic planning process requires a multi-method approach in gathering comprehensive data. These multi-method approaches include standardized testing,  observation, surveys, interviews, document collection, and other formal and informal measures of organizational status. Findings and remedial options are formulated to provide policy orientations.  As the system is analyzed, future direction can be established.  Specific programs may be developed or resources may be mobilized based upon the information obtained through the data analysis.  A continuum of monitoring, review, and analysis takes places.  The learning leadership understands that the organization must continually change (Eaker & Gonzalez, 2007).  The more data educational organizations collect, the more effectively the organization can improve.  Assessment is required to constantly improve the strategic planning and ensure the execution of the educational organization’s vision.

The Third Realm:  Esthetics
Dr. Kritsonis says that health means wholeness which may be regarded as personal wholeness (2007).
  The educational organization needs to include the arts in its strategic plan.  It is imperative that educational organizations make meaningful connections across academic disciplines and everyday life.  The arts can reinforce skills that connect learning to the real world.  The additional positive effects of art education on student learning include attendance, communication, and critical thinking.  Art education also requires discipline and skill which carries over into the community.  A study conducted by Allen, Edmonson, and Fisher (2009) revealed art to benefit students’ verbal and linguistic skills.  Allen, Edmonson, and Fisher’s findings were that he nature of fine arts classes was to help students better demonstrate ideas, feelings, and emotions through expressive use of their body and creative skills.  This training could be beneficial to students in the form of written expression through TAKS writing and also help students in the reading portion of the TAKS. (Allen, Edmonson, & Fisher, 2009, p. 47)
  The Fourth Realm:  Synnoetic
Dr. Kritsonis describes synnoetics as “…meanings in which a person has direct insight into other beings (or oneself) as concrete wholes existing in relation”  (Kritsonis, 2007, p. 393).   Synnoetics can easily be ascribed to strategic planning.  It is imperative that an educational organization understand its present position to understand its future aspirations.  Critical analyses of the educational organization’s internal and external environments provide information to assess the organization’s current needs and needs for future planning.  The heart of strategic planning is flexibility and ongoing evaluation of both the strategic plan and the planning process to ensure the organization’s success.  Dr. Kritsonis clearly states, “A person is a being who both remembers and anticipates.  He is related not only to himself as present, but also as past and as future” (Kritsonis, 2007, p. 397).  This statement can be applied to the educational organization as well.  The educational organization must have knowledge of itself to provide the best educational opportunities today, tomorrow, and into the future.  The educational organization must gain a historical perspective to determine how previous perceptions influenced current initiatives.  The educational organization must also understand the external environment, the global market, to meet the needs of students and prepare them for global challenges.
  
The Fifth Realm:  Ethics
              The fifth realm is ethics.  According to Dr. Kritsonis, “The essence of ethical meanings, or of moral knowledge, is right deliberate action, that is, what a person out to voluntarily do” (2007, p. 443).  An educational organization must incorporate ethics in its strategic planning.  The educational organization must establish policies or codes of conduct.  Steven Bowman (2008) explains that the best way to describe ethics is by utilizing the following four words: rights, obligations, fairness and integrity. He goes on to say that these words have energies underlying them that seem to get at the basis of ethical considerations.
Ethical standards are important to ensure that the educational organization operates within the law and is viewed by the public as an ethical organization of learning.  Codes of ethics within educational organization are necessary for promoting ethical teaching practices.  The educational organizational must conduct a continuum of evaluation to promote ethical standards within the organization.  Ethics provide justification for the actions that occur within the organization.  Ethics provide the base upon which the vision, mission, and values are created.
Some other important ethical codes that are addressed in educational organizations are honesty, integrity, and respect.  These beliefs are the very foundation of culture and civilization.  The educational organizations must encourage students to collaborate across disciplines and learn the viewpoints and contributions of others. This combination of depth in learning fosters critical thinking skills, creativity, integrity, responsibility, and ethics.

The Sixth Realm:  Synoptics
            Synoptics is the sixth realm.  Dr. Kritsonis says this about synoptics, “This term comprises meanings having an integrative function, uniting meanings from all realms into a unified perspective that is, providing a “single vision” on “synopsis” of meanings” (2007, p. 483).  Dr. Kritsonis relates that history is concerned with the understanding of past events.   The historian must describe, order, and interpret events (2007).  Understanding the past of the educational organization is a basic premise for strategic planning.  By reviewing the organization’s history, the strategic planning builds upon past accomplishments or failures to broaden the organization’s reach.  This type of planning builds a bold and aggressive educational organization to keep pace with social, economic, and demographic trends with proactive performance measures that gauge organizational success.
The educational organization’s strategic planning method should include a thorough analysis of the organization’s history and current situation.  The educational organization must review important milestones to determine their influences on the organization.  Effective strategic planning requires the educational organization to visualize the organization’s future status by looking back at its past history.  It is necessary for educational organizations to be committed to being more responsive to society.  Educational organizations are obligated to provide educational services required by present and future citizens to make the contributions needed to sustain society.  The educational organization will meet these obligations by properly utilizing resources provided by taxpayers. Although Miech is skeptical about strategic planning in education, he writes, “Strategic planning can also play an important public relations role in education. For example, strategic planning in education can help improve school-community relations by involving parents and community members in the formal strategic planning process” (Miech, 1995, section 8).  The strategic plan can bridge the gap between the schools and the community.  The strategic plan also includes the educational organizations commitment to providing access to a broad range of educational services.

Concluding Remarks
In conclusion, education is a focal point for American society today.  The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, signed into law by President Bush in 2002, is a reauthorization of the Elementary  and  Secondary  Education  Act (Education Week, 2004).  The No Child Left Behind Act has expanded the federal government’s role in education.  This came about because of the wide concern about the state of education.  This legislation is expected to target every public school in America.  At the core of the No Child Left Behind Act are a number of provisions designed to ensure broad gains in student achievement and to hold states and schools more accountable for student progress (Education Week, 2004).
The need for effective strategic planning is critical for all educational organizations.  The constant challenges in education and pressures of student achievement will be guided by a well-developed strategic plan that serves as an integral part of day-to-day leadership and future aspirations in educational organizations.  Dr. Kritsonis’ Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (2007) provides a pragmatic framework that connects strategic planning to the six realms of meaning.  The six realms provide the foundations for strategic planning that will be vision, mission, and value driven which will create a successful educational organization.  The strategic planning aligns the organization with the environment and explores perspectives and cultures from around the globe to achieve long-term stability.  Strategic planning is an ongoing process. Strategic planning in an educational organization will provide a framework to support high-quality, student-focused education.
 
REFERENCES
(2009).  The value of fine arts education: 
A student-centered analysis.  National FORUM of Educational Administration and Supervision Journal, 25(3), 28-49.
Bowman, S.  (2008). Embedding ethics into strategic planning.  Retrieved on July 5,
2009, from http:// www.conscious-governance.com/strategic.html
Eaker, R., & Gonzalez, D.  (2007).  Leading in professional learning communities.
National FORUM of Educational Administration and Supervision Journal, 24(1), 6-13.
Education Week (2004, September).  No child left behind.  Retrieved on July 6, 2009, from http://www.edweek.org/rc/issues/no-child-left-behind/
Kritsonis, W.  (2007). Ways of knowing through the realms of meaning.  Houston, TX:  National FORUM Journals.                      
Miech, E. J.  (1995). The rise and fall of strategic planning and strategic planning in
education.  Retrieved on July 5, 2009, from http://www.hepg.org/her/abstract/310

Dr. William Allan Kritsonis has served as a superintendent of schools, principal, teacher, director of field experiences and student teaching, university professor, editor, publisher, invited guest lecturer at the Oxford Round Table in the United of Oxford, United Kingdom.
  


 Since 1983, over 4,200 scholarly articles have been published by National FORUM Journals

EDUCATION IS THE FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA: PROSPECTS, CHALLENGES AND REMEDIES

EDUCATION IS THE FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA: PROSPECTS, CHALLENGES AND REMEDIES
Mr. D.Sambangi
Senior Associate Professor  &  Head
Department of Social Work, Kodaikanal Christian College, Tamil Nadu, India
Education is a potent tool in the emancipation and empowerment of women. The greatest single factor which can incredibly improve the status of women in any society is education. It is indispensable that education enables women not only to gain more knowledge about the world outside of her hearth and home but helps her to get status, positive self esteem, and self confidence , necessary courage and inner strength to face challenges in life. Apparently it also facilitates them to procure a job and supplement the income of family and achieve social status. Education especially of women has a major impact on health and nutrition as an instrument of developing a sustainable strategy for population control. Moreover educated women can play an equally important role as men in nation building. Thus there is no denying fact that education empowers women. Indeed the different organs of the United Nations and experts on women‘s liberation argue for women’s education as the basic step to attain equality with men.
One of the recommendations of National Policy on Education (1986) by the Government of India is to promote empowerment of women through the agency of education and it is considered to be a land mark in the approach to women’s education of illiterate. The National Literacy Mission is another positive step towards eradication of illiteracy in the age group of 15-35 years. Women’ education has assumed special significance in the context of India’s planned development, as it is incorporated in every Five-year plans as the major programme for the development of women. Universalization of elementary education, enrolment and retention of girls in the schools, promotion of balwadies and crutches, raising number of schools and colleges of arts , science, and professional for girls , politechniques, girls hostels, multipurpose institutions and adult education programmes are some of the steps being  taken by both central and state governments in India to boost-up women’s education
WOMEN’S EDUCATION: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES
In spite of the forceful intervention by a bastion of female privilege, feminist critics, constitutional guarantees, protecting laws and sincere efforts by the state governments and central government through various schemes and programmes over the last 62 years and above all , the United Nation’s enormous pressure with regard to the uplift of the plight of women in terms education is still in the state of an enigma in India for several reasons. The 2001 Census report indicates that literacy among women as only 54 percent  It is virtually disheartening to observe that the literacy rate of women India is even much lower to national average i.e. 65.38 .The growth of women’s education in rural areas is very slow. This obviously means that still large womenfolk of our country are illiterate, the weak, backward and exploited. Moreover education is also not available to all equally. Gender inequality is reinforced in education which is proved by the fact that the literacy rate for the women is only 54% against 76% of men as per 2001 Census.
Table -1 The Literacy Rate in India 1901-2001
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Percentage   of     Literates    to   total    population
Year                                                         Persons                  Males           Females

1. 1901                                                  5.3                           9.8                 0.7
2. 1911                                                  5.9                         10.6                 1.1
3. 1921                                                  7.2                         12.2                 1.8
4. 1931                                                  9.5                         15.6                 2.9
5. 1941                                                 16.1                         24.9                 7.3
6. 1951                                                 16.7                         24.9                 7.3
7. 1961                                                 24.0                         34.4               13.0
8. 1971                                                 29.5                         39.5               18.7
9. 1981                                                 36.2                         46.9               24.8
10. 1991                                                 52.1                         63.9               39.2
11. 2001                                                65.38                       76.0               54.0

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Source: Census of India, Government of India (2001)
According to the Table-1 the pre-Independence time literacy rate for women had a very poor spurt in comparison to literacy rate of men. This is witnessed from the fact that literacy rate of women has risen from 0.7 % to 7.3 % where as the literacy rate of men has risen from 9.8 % to 24.9 % during these four decades. During the post-independence period literacy rates have shown a substantial increase in general. However the literacy rate of male has almost tripled over the period e.g 25% in 1951 and 76 % in 2001.Surprisingly the female literacy rate has increased at a faster pace than the male literacy during the decade 1981 -2001. The growth is almost 6 times e.g. 7.9 % in 1951 and 54 % in 2001. From this analyse one can infer that still the female literacy rate (only half of the female population are literates) is wadding behind male literacy rate (three fourth of the male population are literates).The rate of school drop outs  is also found to be comparatively higher in case of women. This higher rate of illiteracy of women is undoubtedly attributing for women dependence on men and to play a subordinate role. The lack of education is the root cause for women’ exploitation and negligence. Only literacy can help women to understand the Indian’s constitutional and legislative provisions that are made to strengthen them. Thus promoting education among women is of great important in empowering them to accomplish their goals in par with men in different spheres of life.
THE ROOT CAUSES FOR LOW LITERACY AMONG WOMEN IN INDIA
Women education is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. No single factor or cause can be held responsible for very low literacy rate of women in India. Subsequently it is associated with combination of many factors including social, cultural, economic, educational, demographic, political and administrative and so on. The following are the some of the important factors which could be attributed for the present poor state of affairs of womenfolk in education.
The Lower Enrolment: The lower enrolment of girls in schools is one of the foundational factors which stand as stumbling block for women empowerment in India. Reliable sources indicate that more than 50 % of the Non-Starters (those who have never been to school) are girls.  According to the latest statistics, two out of every ten girls in the age group of 6-11 are still not enrolled in schools.
Higher drop-out rate among girls from schools: The incidence and prevalence of drop –outs among girls especially in rural, tribal and slums areas seem to be quite high. According to available sources, occurrence of drop-out and stagnation amongst girls is nearly twice that of boys all over India
Girl Child as Second Mother: In many families girl children play the role of second mother by shouldering the responsibilities of household work such as looking after the sibling, fetching water, collecting firewood, bringing fodder for cattle, cleaning and cooking etc.  In rural India especially in poor families this traditional sex role makes girl child handicapped and conditioned by the attitude of mother and the family and discourages girl child to go school as it becomes secondary
Bonded Labour System: This social evil is a quite discouraging phenomena which stand as barrier for girl’s education in rural areas for the underprivileged families of washer men and agricultural labour , scheduled caste and scheduled tribes.
Cast System as a Barrier; Children belonging to low caste families are forced to learn skills and work ways and not encouraged to go to school due to various factors in the sphere of strict instruction /threat from high caste communities for their selfish motives of keeping them as domestic servants and child labourers in the farms or factory.
Dowry as cordon: Dowry system and other social practices act as main causes of the neglect of the girl child and discrimination against girl child including the deprivation of right of education. In many families especially poor and down-trodden think that if their daughters are educated more, they have to accumulate more assets and properties to provide as dowry in large proportion at the time of marriage, so prefer rather to either stop their children with average education and so on but never higher education. This prevails more in underprivileged families and communities
Child Labour Practice: A large segment of child population in India is engaged in child labour practices. According to UN sources  India is the most child labour populous nation in the globe with more than 50 million child labourers indulged in beedi works , carpet making , bricks,  mining , quarrying ,glass, bangles, match and fireworks, gem polishing ,handloom works. zari,  embroidery ,coir industry, domestic works, construction etc. In most of these industries girl children are preferred for high productivity and low cost.
Poor School Environment for girls: In general the school environment for girls in India is not really interesting and encouraging. The subjects taught in schools are also not related to the environment of girl children. The methods of teaching are mostly out – dated, rigid and uninteresting. There are still hundreds of schools with poor basic amenities such as drinking water, latrine and toilet facilities, improper building, and inadequate number of teachers’ especially female teachers preferable for any parents for safety of their girl children from different types of exploitation and abuse.
Female age at marriage: There is high association of female literacy with female age at marriage.  By and large the female age at marriage of 18  ( recently 21 years ) as prescribed by various legislations not at all followed in India .It is very much ignored and neglected by the families of parents with low literacy and illiteracy background. This obnoxious practice discourages female children to continue their schooling and higher education as they enter into family life at the early age which is not advisable from the physical and mental health point of view and also of social development.
Inferiority, subservience and domesticity: The female child in Indian culture especially in rural, tribal and poor families is expected to develop the qualities of inferiority; subservience and domesticity which place sever limitations on her education and development
Poverty as a Barrier: In many poverty stricken families, children especially girls are considered as economic   assets as they bring income for livelihood as well to save from economic crises due to death or incapacity of parents (sick/ handicapped/aged)
Ineffective Law Enforcing Machinery: Indian constitution and various legislations pertaining to education to children assure free and compulsory education all children of this nation but unfortunately the enforcement machinery fail to discharge its duties and responsibilities to the satisfaction of the public interest and welfare of women
Demographic Factors: The high population growth rate, rapid urbanisation, migration etc also attribute immensely for the poor literacy level of women and girls in India
Poor Political Will and Conviction: Government officials, policy makers, politicians etc of our country have neither political will nor conviction for the empowerment of women in general.
REMEDIAL MEASURES FOR IMPROVING THE LITERACY LEVEL OF WOMEN IN INDIA
The following measures can be considered for bringing phenomenal change in the plight women’s education and empowerment in India

1. Ø  Since the prevailing situation of poor or less enrolment of girls in schools closes the doors for development and prosperity of future generation of women, concerted efforts must be initiated jointly by the government, parents and civil society to achieve universal enrolment for girls without any compromise. The enrolment can be made even mandatory for every girls by the government in the realm of compulsory education. .

• The Ministry of Education both at Centre and State level should work out strategic steps to stop firmly the ongoing high drop –outs among girls especially in rural, tribal and slums areas with the serious involvement of voluntary organisations in every locality to realize zero drop-out among girls.

• The poverty stricken families can  be identified through proper research and necessary poverty alleviation  services be provided to strengthen the income  thereby to enable the families to send their children to schools and colleges without much financial difficulties

• Bonded Child labour and Child labour  practice must be abolished with strict administrative measures and the relieved children form bondage  should be integratedinto schools with suitable defence social mechanism.

• Appropriate steps should be taken by the educational authorities with the participation of communities in order to bring the girl children to the main stream of education and development at every level including family and community.

• The female child in every Indian family irrespective of socio-economic status should be moulded to overcome the challenges of inferiority; subservience and domesticity which place sever limitations on her education and development. Every family irrespective its socio-cultural and economic background can take it a challenge to bring up their girl children as dignified human being with empowerment in physical , mental, economic and social dimensions of life.

• The Midday meal scheme and other educational supportive services like free text books,  Note books , Fee uniforms , Free Bicycles, Free bus , scholarships Free bus pass and so on  as done in the state of Tamil Nadu can be provided in all states and union territories to lift up the literacy level among girls

• As social evils like dowry, child marriage , caste system and other practices deprive rights of education for children belonging to poor and underprivileged families and communities, they should eliminated through well-designed packages of mass awareness programmes and social welfare measures with full support of  public, political parties, NGOs and government agencies.

• The electronic and print media can play significant role in building a good and positive image about girls and women in general in the society by giving no focus for such advertisements and news fetching commercial gain at the cost of depicting women as an object. This would help in changing the society ‘s attitudes towards girls and their roles to treat every girl or woman as human being with self respect and dignity.

• Government, voluntary sector and philanthropic organisations and individuals should come forward to provide free education for poor girls and provide free  hostel facilities  for girls studying in schools and colleges in every state of India. This will certainly encourage children of poor families to pursue good and higher education without much impediments

• The schools of social work, departments of women studies, Women Universities and other educational institutions in hand with  NGOs  and social service organisations such as Rotary Clubs , Lions Clubs , women lib organisations associations can work together to improve the educational status of the womenfolk in this country on mutual respect and understanding.

• The parents of children belonging to poor, underprivileged families  must be specially educated with proper social formula to help them  to understand the significance of education  for their girl children as foundation for empowerment

• Government, NGOs and public should work hand in hand to implement the minimum age at marriage (21and above) Awareness should be created to institutionalise it as a traditional practice cut acrossing castes, religions, community etc.

• Government officials, policy makers, political parties and others should have adequate political will and conviction to empower women in India without double standard mind

• The law enforcing machinery should be made really effective with efficient monitoring vigilant system to implement the constitutional and legislative provisions and administrative measures to assure free and compulsory education for all children of this nation without any gender discrimination.