This practice guide is the second in a series of 4 on developing and applying effective strategic plans and provides practical steps for prioritising approaches to achieve each goal.

About this guide

The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) has produced a series of practice guides to help school leaders develop and apply effective strategic plans. These guides relate to the Australian Professional Standard for Principals Professional Practices:

  • Leading improvement, innovation and change
  • Leading the management of the school.

This practice guide is the second in a series of 4, and focuses on prioritising curriculum, pedagogical and assessment approaches to achieve the goals in a strategic plan.

Once you’ve set goals and associated targets in specific learning areas, you’ll need to prioritise approaches to achieve each goal. An approach is a high-level improvement strategy that shows how you will work towards a goal. Approaches that focus on curriculum, pedagogy and assessment have the greatest impact on learning.

This guide recommends practical steps for prioritising approaches to achieve each goal within a strategic plan.

We recommend reading this guide after you have read the first guide in this series, Setting Goals and Targets for Student Learning.

After reading this guide, we recommend you read Selecting Practices to Deliver Improvement.

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Keywords: practice implementation, educational strategies, managing change,