Omaha Public Schools Maps Out Next Strategic Plan

Omaha Public Schools is developing its next Strategic Plan with one focus in mind: literacy.

“The one thing that holds everything together and is important to everyone is literacy,” said Jane Erdenberger, Omaha Public Schools Board of Education president. “If we can focus on literacy, we open doors for every single one of our students.”

At a recent Board of Education workshop, staff shared updates on how our district is shaping the framework that will help define our roadmap to improve student success. This follows Omaha Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Ray’s vision for our district’s Moonshot—working together to achieve all students reading on grade level by 2030.

“This supports us in decision making, resource allocation, understanding the systems and what we need to measure,” said Susanne Cramer, Omaha Public Schools chief school improvement officer. “The purpose is to guide our work, keep us focused on that singular literacy goal and tell the story of our school district in a meaningful way.”

Since September 2023, our district has collected extensive input from staff, students, families, community members and partners to inform this plan. District leaders are looking closely at student outcomes, evidence-based practices of high-performing schools and improvement science. 

“All of this is coming together based on feedback,” said Cramer. “All of those pieces will make up that puzzle to drive toward all students reading on grade level by 2030.”

This will guide our district from “random acts of improvement” to aligned goals, behaviors, processes and investments.

“We learned from talking to teachers and leaders that we have inconsistency from classroom to classroom, and from school to school,” said Cramer. “How do we guarantee high-quality grade-level instruction from the pre-algebra classroom to the biology classroom to the second-grade classroom? That will be in the Strategic Plan.”

Building that consistency includes making sure teachers have the resources, support and leadership needed to improve student outcomes.

“That means that our teachers have time to collaborate, we have strong instructional leaders in every building and we're implementing improvement processes with integrity,” said Cramer. “We've been ensuring that we have the right tools, data and processes in place to support continuous improvement.”

As Omaha Public Schools moves forward in this work, the takeaway is clear: literacy unlocks everything else for young people.

“We have an amazing team that really cares for our students and is doing what they can to help them be ready to be launched into the world,” said Erdenberger.

The Strategic Plan is expected to be brought before the Board of Education for approval in March.

“We're reinforcing those value-driven behaviors around results, equity, accountability, leadership and joy all along the way,” said Cramer. “We’re sharing the metrics, telling the story transparently about where we are, how far we have come and what we're planning to do about it.”