Webinar Recording: New Virginia Support Framework and Plan

The Office of School Improvement hosted a webinar with Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) families and community members on June 3, 2024, at 7 p.m. to learn about the Virginia Department of Education’s new Virginia Support Framework (VSF) and Division Support Plan for school divisions. The webinar discussion was offered in multiple languages and included a question-and-answer component.

The webinar was designed to:

• Provide information about the new VSF and Continuous Improvement Process.
• Share information about the process of developing the draft ACPS Division Support Plan.
• Gather feedback from stakeholders about the ACPS Division Support Plan.
• Provide an overview of the next steps.

The webinar recording is now available on the ACPS website. Webinar viewers are invited to share feedback and questions through a brief, multi-language survey. 

The new VSF provides guidance for divisions to schools newly identified with significant Academic Achievement needs in English, math, and/or science. The new accreditation guidelines require ACPS to conduct a division-level needs assessment to identify systems-level teaching and learning needs and an explicit divisionwide plan of support to address identified systemic needs to improve student outcomes in four specific domains: Academic Supports, Staffing Supports, Professional Learning Supports and School Climate Supports.

In March 2024, central office leaders representing academics, student services, family engagement, human resources, professional learning, school improvement and other stakeholders began collaborative work sessions to gather and analyze data, conduct root cause analyses, identify priority areas and develop the SY 2024-25 Priority Areas for the ACPS Division Plan of Support.

ACPS Division Support Plan Draft Priority Areas SY 2024-25

Academic Achievement Supports

• Tier 1 Instruction: Alignment, Rigor, Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) Strategies.
• The High School Academy Model.

Staffing Support

• Onboarding for New Licensed Staff.
• Divisionwide Pay Philosophy.

Professional Learning Supports

• Comprehensive Division Professional Learning Plan.
• Identify Measures to Determine the Impact of Professional Learning.

School Climate Supports

• School-to-Home and School-to-Student Engagement.
• Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Evaluation Action Plan.

Next Steps

• The ACPS Office of School Improvement will review, synthesize and share stakeholder feedback with ACPS leadership.
• The superintendent will submit the Division Support Plan for review to the Virginia Department of Education (June 2024).
• ACPS will revise the Division Support Plan based on feedback from the Virginia Department of Education.
• ACPS will share an overview of the ACPS Division Support Plan with the community.
• Families and community members will continue to be updated on plan implementation progress throughout SY 2024-25.