This document presents the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation's (EVSC) five-year continuous improvement plan called "Maximizing Potential: Blueprint for Student Success 2016-2021". The plan aims to maximize student learning and close achievement gaps by prioritizing student learning through a framework called GAIN, investing in staff professional development, and ensuring strategic alignment of systems and processes through infrastructure improvements. Student learning will be advanced through developing student ownership of learning, implementing social-emotional learning and response to intervention programs, and refining rigorous standards-based lessons. Teachers will be supported through instructional coaching and frameworks, and all staff will be engaged and developed to believe in EVSC's vision. Systems and structures will foster collaborative continuous improvement across

1. Maximizing Potential
Blueprint for student Success
2016-2021
Continuous
Improvement
Plan

2. Davids letter
Maximizing Potential:
Blueprint for student Success
How would it look if students took
charge of their own learning throughout
their academic journey? What would
students and teachers need in order
to shift to a true student-centered
learning model? Would it change how
we work together as a community?
Would it change how we approach the
development of human capital? What
systems and infrastructure need to be
in place to support, scale and sustain
proven practices?
In our journey of continuous
improvement, these are just some of the
questions we have asked ourselves. Since we launched our previous three-year plan in 2013, research on
brain development has grown exponentially, and we have learned about the impact stress has on student
learning. This knowledge gives us a new lens through which we view our current continuous improvement
plan, Maximizing Potential. Maximizing Potential is our Blueprint for Student Success that will guide our
strategic direction for the next five years. This five-year continuous improvement plan represents strategies,
that, as we turn into action, will maximize the preparation of EVSC students to be leaders in our 21st
Century Global Community.
In launching this Blueprint for Student Success, we seek to incorporate emergent neurological research
into all facets of student learning. This approach will maximize student learning and affect life outcomes for
all students as we close the opportunity gap and ensure every student is achieving to his or her maximum
potential.
We make STUDENT LEARNING THROUGH GAIN (Growth in Achievement through Innovation and
Neuroeducation) our number one priority for our continuous improvement. In order to accomplish
this, we are investing in HUMAN CAPITAL as we know great people matter. Finally, we are prioritizing
INFRASTRUCTURE to ensure our systems and processes are strategically aligned to supporting student
success.
I invite you to read through our five-year plan and learn more about what we will do to maximize potential
for ALL students.
Sincerely,
Dr. David B. Smith
Superintendent
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation

3. Our Vision
Excellence in Student Achievement
Our Mission
Providing Outstanding Educational Opportunities
Through Shared, Committed Responsibility
Our Values
• Students Come First
• Intentionality
• Responsibility
• Collaboration
• Great People Matter
Strategic
priorities:
Guiding Our Work
1. Student Learning
Through GAIN
2. Human Capital
3. Infrastructure
T
H
E O R Y O F C H A N
G
E
IN
STR UC T IO N A L C O
R
E
Harvard’s PELP Coherence Framework guides our organizational alignmen
and supports our continuous improvement planning. As a learner-centered
organization, the EVSC aligns all aspects of our work to the instructional
core which positions us to focus on what matters most in order to support
student success. The PELP Framework helps us achieve and sustain the
coherence we need to accomplish our goals and make our organization
stronger together.

4. GOAL 1: All students will develop to their maximum potential and be
successful throughout every stage of life.
Priority
1 STudent learning
through GAIN
Core Strategies:
Our core strategies align to the PELP instructional core, which
includes the following three interdependent components:
• students’ engagement in their own learning
• teachers’ professional knowledge and skill
• academically challenging content
(Public Education Leadership Project at Harvard University)
STUDENT-FOCUSED STRATEGIES
We believe in the potential of every student--as well as our
ability to effectively teach every student. These strategies will help us as we equip and empower students to
actively take charge of their learning.
• Develop capacity in students for ownership of cognitively complex learning.
• Continue to implement a comprehensive Response to Intervention (RtI) Model that includes social
emotional learning.
Teachers are paramount to the success of our students. The following strategies target the development of
robust instructional tools and techniques, just-in-time training, and embedded, individualized support as we
prepare students to be leaders in our 21st Century global community.
TEACHER-FOCUSED STRATEGIES
• Implement coherent Instructional Frameworks with aligned professional development, conditions
and supports.
• Implement protocols that enhance coaching and support for staff that are aligned to the
development of social-emotional skills.
• Align current professional growth and evaluation system to core elements of the Instructional
Frameworks.
The EVSC has been a leader in designing and implementing a robust academic curriculum. With this in
place, the focus will shift to the next phases of content development. By developing and implementing
Instructional Frameworks, teachers will have even more resources for personalizing rigorous instruction
for their students. We will also continue to phase in social emotional learning curricula to support our
implementation of comprehensive RtI for our students.
CONTENT-FOCUSED STRATEGIES
• Develop coherent Instructional Frameworks that communicate our vision of instructional practice
and differentiate for grade spans and content areas.
• Design and implement a universal social emotional learning curriculum for each developmental area.
• Refine standards-based lessons and assessments that are both student centered and rigorous.

5. GOAL 2: 100% of employees will be engaged and empowered to do
their work while believing in the vision of EVSC.
GOAL 3:
We will build upon a culture that embraces continuous
improvement - - with systems and structures working together
to advance EVSC’s vision.
Priority
2
Priority
3
Human Capital
Infrastructure
Supporting Strategies:
Every employee matters and makes a difference for EVSC students. When employees are engaged, satisfied and
growing professionally in their roles, student success is maximized. Workplace culture is critical to employee job
satisfaction and retention, which is best informed by listening to and learning from our employees’ experiences in the
field.
Supporting Strategies:
The EVSC is a results-driven organization focused on the success of each and every student. Our infrastructure
helps us build organizational systems that support our vision, core values and strategic priorities. Critical to
the success of our students are systems, practices and behaviors that foster collaborative and evidence-based
continuous improvement. These are essential for our organization to provide the most efficient and effective
support to our instructional core.
• Leverage internal talent to align with strategic needs.
• Strategically recruit new talent aligned to school and district needs.
• Expand the professional growth system to ensure all employees have individualized
feedback and development aligned to roles and responsibilities.
• Continue to provide opportunities and benefits desired by EVSC
employees that could be used to improve workplace culture and engagement.
• Continue to develop and implement systemic process-driven continuous improvement, including a
system to continuously monitor and refine improvement efforts.
• Develop and initiate standard processes and tools for project management across all functional
areas, including a system for project selection and prioritization.
•Embed systems for collaborative planning across all key strategic initiatives and projects.

6. Executive Leadership Team
David B. Smith, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Dionne Blue, Ph.D.
Chief Diversity Officer
Rick Cameron, MBOE
Senior Chief of District Operations
Debbie DeBaillie, PHR, SHRM
Chief Human Resource Officer
Cathlin Gray, Ph.D.
Associate Superintendent of Family,
School & Community Partnerships
Carrie Hillyard, M.A.
Chief Transformation Officer
Stacy Mauser, MBOE
Chief Technology Officer
Catherine Minihan, Ed.D.
Associate Superintendent of
Strategy & Accountability
Paul Neidig, M.S.
Chief of Staff
Susan Phelps, M.S.
Director of Neuroeducation
Velinda Stubbs, Ph.D.
Deputy Superintendent of Teaching
& Learning
Pat Tuley, MBOE
Chief Facilities Officer
Carl Underwood, Ed.D.
Chief Financial Officer
Caren Whitehouse, B.S.
Director of Development
Jason Woebkenberg, MBOE
Chief Communication Officer
2016 Board of School Trustees
Rev. Paul T. Gamblin
President
Andrew Guarino
Vice President
Rance Ossenberg
Secretary
Michael Duckworth
Member
Christopher Kiefer
Member
Karen Ragland
Member
Jeff Worthington
Member
Glossary
Cognitively Complex Learning: Challenging learning tasks that require students to apply knowledge to make decisions,
solve problems, experiment and/or investigate (Marzano & Toth, 2014).
GAIN (Growth in Academics through Innovation and Neuroeducation): A framework that helps us shift our focus from
how instruction is presented to developing a deeper understanding of how students learn (EVSC, 2016).
Harvard’s PELP Coherence Framework: A framework that helps us stay on track and focus on what is most important
to impact student success as we improve our management and leadership across the school district (Public Education
Leadership Project at Harvard University, 2011).
Instructional Core: The Instructional Core consists of three interdependent components at the center of the PELP
Framework: teachers’ knowledge and skill, students’ engagement in their own learning, and academically challenging
content (Public Education Leadership Project at Harvard University, 2011).
Instructional Frameworks: Instructional Frameworks are guiding documents that outline a common language and vision
for high quality teaching and learning.
Response to Intervention: A standard operating procedure regarding the way EVSC educates students, addressing both
academic and social/emotional learning. It is a combination of instruction, assessment, remediation, intervention and
enrichment to ensure success for all students in the school environment (EVSC RtI Handbook, 2014).
Social Emotional Learning: The process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge,
attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy
for others, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions (CASEL, 2016).