What Are They Planning? An Analysis of Round 4 Partnership Districts' Improvement Goals and Plans. Research Report

School improvement is an iterative process through which districts and schools develop their capacity, implement and refine new policies and practices, and respond to new developments and needs over time. School improvement policy can also be considered an iterative process, with policy implementors learning from previous rounds of a policy. Michigan developed the Partnership Model for School and District Turnaround to provide support and accountability for its lowest-performing schools (i.e., Comprehensive Support and Improvement schools, or CSI schools). In November 2022, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) identified the current round (Round 4) of Partnership schools and districts. By the spring of 2023, Partnership districts outlined new improvement goals and accountability measures, and by fall of 2023 they developed improvement plans to meet those goals. Throughout the 2023-2024 school year, they began to implement those improvement plans. This report describes the goals and planning activities for Round 4 of Partnership schools and districts and analyzes the targets that they set, the accountability measures they selected, and the specific activities they planned to implement as part of their improvement efforts.