Congratulations! At this point, you have successfully surveyed your school and completed the six modules. Now it's time to use these results and suggestions from students, to plan for improvement in your school.

In this section you will choose the specific areas of improvement that you want to focus on at your school and develop a step-by-step action plan to guide you and keep you on track as you pursue your goals.

Choose an Action
The Students Taking Charge toolkit provides Planning Questions to help you:

• Identify your school’s strengths and weaknesses
• Brainstorm possible courses of action to improve your school's scores
• Be more specific about your plans for improvement

Develop a Plan of Action
Once you have identified and prioritized your plans for improvement, you can begin developing an action plan to implement your ideas.

Developing a plan of action is important as it will help you:

• Clearly articulate your ideas for improvement
• Stay focused on your goal
• Build support for your proposed changes
• Be taken seriously by the decision makers

A plan of action should include:

1. A list of goals and desired outcomes
   Identify what does your student group hopes to achieve. Include a mix of short-term and long-term goals to keep your group motivated by early successes!
   


2. A list of anticipated challenges
   Consider membership, scheduling, time, leadership, support from the student body, etc.
   
   
3. A list of important decision makers
   Decision makers are the people who have the power to change things and may include principals, superintendents, teachers, faculty, parents, school boards, PE Directors, Food Service Directors, and legislators.
   
   
4. A list of potential sources of opposition and support
   You may come across decision makers or other people who are in opposition to the changes you are pursuing. Identify these people and plan how you'll deal with their opposition.
   
   Your community is a great source of allies, especially if you are persistent and prepared to justify your proposed changes. Consider allies at school AND within your community.
   
   
5. A Timeline
   Outline the specific steps that need to be taken, when to do them, and when they will be completed.
   
   The timeline provided here will help you map out how you will achieve your desired outcomes.