2025 Strategic Plan

The Theme of Racial Equity

Through the 2025 strategic plan, ACPS has pledged to provide an equitable, high-quality education which is accessible and engaging to all students in a five-year strategic plan approved by the School Board today (Friday).

Equity For All 2025 is being heralded as “a bold” and “courageous” roadmap that is timely and will position ACPS as a national leader in redefining PreK-12 education as a deliberately inclusive and supportive experience where all succeed.

Going forward, racial equity will be at the center of every decision that the school division will make.

This plan could not be more timely or critical as our nation grapples with the action needed for anti-racism. This plan is bold, courageous and aims to tackle our equity issues head-on.

The Plan’s Content

The 2020-25 Strategic Plan “Equity for All 2025” is bold, courageous and aims to tackle our equity issues head-on. 

The plan’s mission is to ensure success by inspiring students and addressing barriers to learning.

The plan’s vision is: Empowering all students to thrive in a diverse and ever-changing world.

The plan has five core values. We want ACPS to be:

• Welcoming
• Empowering
• Equity-Focused
• Innovative
• Results-Driven

And the plan has five goals, each with racial equity at their heart.

• Systemic Alignment
• Instructional Excellence
• Student Accessibility and Support
• Strategic Resource Allocation
• Family and Community Engagement

Each of the five goals for the 2025 Strategic Plan has a number of measures that will help us monitor progress and accountability in achieving the goal. In addition to measures, each goal also has a number of strategies and highlighted actions, which outline the steps that ACPS will take to achieve the goal. 

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) define the key overall outcomes that an organization is trying to achieve. They answer the question of what success looks like and how will we know if we are progressing toward the intended outcome. As an educational organization, within ACPS all KPIs are student outcomes.

The Process to Develop 2025

The development of the ACPS 2025 Strategic Plan was guided by ACPS’ consultant FourPoint Education Partners and has taken more than a year of collaboration and engagement to establish the plan.

It involved a Strategic Planning Committee consisting of a 60+ committee made up of ACPS staff from every school, students, parents and representation from key community groups across Alexandria.

The plan was drawn up using an assessment of our data and analysis of our priorities.

Feedback on the draft strategic plan was received from several stakeholders and is attached to this memo. Overall feedback received on the strategic plan was positive. Feedback themes included topics around racial equity, unified planning committee commitments, strategies around SEAL, accessibility of the document, and a desire to understand next steps after plan adoption. 

We want to say thank you to all those — and particularly those on the Strategic Planning Committee — who contributed their time over the course of many days and evenings to help build this plan.

Unified Planning Process

For the first time in the history of ACPS, the strategic planning process was aligned with the planning process for multiple citywide departments and organizations with the goal of ensuring that City and school plans have shared goals and outcomes. 

This Unified Planning Team included the Department of Community and Human Services’ Children and Youth Master Plan (CYMP), and the Alexandria Health Department and the Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria’s Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). 

Unified Planning Focused in Three Key Areas:

Racial Equity: The fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all people, while at the same time striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of some groups. Specifically, when race can no longer be used to predict life outcomes and outcomes for all groups are improved.

Developmental Assets approach: These 40 positive supports and strengths are building blocks that children and teenagers need as a foundation for growing up. Research shows that these assets can have a positive impact on young people’s lives. 

Trauma-informed: The increased awareness of trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACES) will build a stronger more resilient trauma-informed community.

Alexandria City Public Schools has pledged to provide an equitable, high quality education which is accessible and engaging to all students in a five-year strategic plan approved by the School Board on June 26, 2020.

Equity For All 2025 is being heralded as “a bold” and “courageous” roadmap that is timely and will position ACPS as a national leader in redefining PreK-12 education as a deliberately inclusive and supportive experience where all succeed.

Going forward, racial equity will be at the center of every decision that the school division will make.

“This plan could not be more timely or critical as our nation grapples with the action needed for anti-racism. It is time to say enough is enough. We have to act now to end the historical inequities within our public schools. This plan is bold, courageous and aims to tackle our equity issues head-on,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr.

The plan’s mission is to ensure success by inspiring students and addressing barriers to learning. The vision is: Empowering all students to thrive in a diverse and ever-changing world and it has five core values that ensure ACPS is Welcoming, Empowering, Equity-Focused, Innovative and Results-Driven.

In addition, it has five primary strategic goals: Systemic Alignment; Instructional Excellence; Student Accessibility and Support; Strategic Resource Allocation; and Family and Community Engagement.

Each of these goals ensures that students are engaged in classroom instruction, have access to the educational resources needed to enhance their learning, and participate while in safe, friendly, and welcoming environments.

It also sets clear division-wide priorities and programs that will eliminate opportunity and achievement gaps as well as ensure that all students graduate ready for college, careers and life. Progress toward these strategic goals will be measured with rigorous metrics.

For the first time in the history of ACPS, the strategic planning process was aligned with the planning process for multiple citywide departments and organizations with the goal of ensuring that City and school plans have shared goals and outcomes. This Unified Planning Team included the Department of Community and Human Services’ Children and Youth Master Plan (CYMP), and the Alexandria Health Department and the Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria’s Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP).

These organizations embraced a shared understanding of racial equity and kept that principle at the heart of all decision making. The key focus areas of the Unified Planning Team are racial equity, developmental assets and a trauma-informed approach. They aim to add value through collective community engagement, the sharing of data, and a focus on joint outcomes.

The development of the ACPS 2025 Strategic Plan, guided by ACPS’ consultant FourPoint Education Partners, has taken more than a year of collaboration and engagement involving a Strategic Planning Committee consisting of ACPS staff from every school, students, parents and representation from key community groups across Alexandria.

“This collaborative process that involved staff from every school, parents, students and community groups, combined with the work of the Unified Planning Team has helped us draft a plan that makes sense for and is aligned across our entire city for at least the next five years,” said Chief Accountability and Research Officer Clinton Page.

ACPS will now work with the Unified Planning Team to develop a process to implement their plans together.

“As a Board, we are excited to adopt a plan that will take our school division to the next level. We would like to say thank you to all those — and particularly those on the Strategic Planning Committee — who contributed their time over the course of many days and evenings to help build this plan,” said School Board Chair Cindy Anderson.