Supporting Utah's Learning Agenda on School Leadership
The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) recently updated its strategic plan and is now developing an operational plan to translate these high-level goals into aligned, actionable strategies across sections, programs, and funding streams.
Aligned with this effort, USBE is participating in the National Comprehensive Center’s Learning Agenda Initiative, which aims to strengthen states’ capacity to define focus area learning questions, leverage data, and use research to guide policy and practice.
For this initiative, USBE identified school leadership as the focus of its learning agenda, recognizing effective school leaders as critical drivers of improved student outcomes.
The West Comprehensive Center supported USBE by:
- Partnering with the National Comprehensive Center and REL West to design and facilitate a learning agenda development process for USBE leaders;
- Supporting the development of a learning agenda focused on strengthening school leadership as a driver of improved student outcomes;
- Conducting a national scan of state education agency policies, practices, and supports to inform learning priorities and implementation efforts; and
- Supporting implementation by integrating continuous improvement processes and learning activities into USBE's existing systems and decision-making structures.
Through these collaborative efforts, USBE will improve cross-division coordination and demonstrate a shared understanding of how the state’s strategic priorities translate into operational goals, initiatives, and performance expectations.
