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Key roles in the New Approaches, New Solutions Strategy
There are several categories of educational stakeholders playing key roles in the process of school improvement. The following descriptions, of what are often overlapping and collective responsibilities, provide a useful overview of the key players and the positions they play in the success planning process for Quebec schools.
   
Comité national de pilotage (CNP) The Provincial NANS Steering Committee, which is composed of the main partners from the educa- tion sector, will follow up on the implementation of the strategy. The steering committee will identify the strengths, progress, obstacles and accomplishments of the strategy and, if necessary, it will carry out any required adjustments. Lastly, where necessary, it will submit its recommendations to the Minister.

Coordination des interventions en milieu défavorisé (CIMD) Through the regional offices and the Services à la communauté anglophone, the Coordination des interventions en milieu défavorisé (CIMD) provides schools and school boards with details about the different aspects of the strategy. It offers, in collaboration with the regional offices and the Services à la communauté anglophone, and according to an arrangement agreed upon at the regional level, support for professional development for NANS resource persons in the areas of poverty and its impact on student success. The CIMD also provides help in understanding the framework for school improvement through the use of a success plan.
Services à la communauté anglophone The regional offices or the Services à la communauté anglophone follow up on the implementation of the strategy in their region and support the school boards in their situation analyses, as well as in drafting and evaluating planning for NANS schools. They first ensure that the school boards and schools understand the concept of poverty and its possible impact on student success.
School Board  The school boards coordinate the activities of all of their schools and ensure that the schools are complying with the established educational policies set by the MELS, as well as with the goals identified by the board. The boards also support the schools in achieving their locally set initiatives. When preparing NANS planning, school boards may support and guide their schools in gathering and interpreting data, choosing promising measures for student success in disadvantaged areas, choosing instruments or mechanisms used to assess the impact of the measures on student success or on reaching the objectives each school has selected for evaluation of their planning.

  School
Each elementary or secondary NANS school must draw up its portrait and situation analysis using the characteristics of disadvantaged areas. In future planning, NANS schools will use this analysis to identify their priorities, which will include a limited number of orientations and objectives to improve student success and adapted, recognized measures. Schools will then implement these measures, evaluate whether they have reached their objectives and make any necessary adjustments.  

  Governing Board    
Every school has a governing board, and its purpose is to support and advance the mission and educational project of the school. Members who are on this board represent the local community and ensure that the aspirations of the community, served by the school, are advanced.

  Principal The principal plays a key role in the development and implementation of a school success plan. The principal must ensure that a success plan and MESA is devised, that it respects the policies passed by the MELS, that it reinforces the educational direction set by the school board, and that it promotes the local aspirations of the school community, the latter voiced by the governing board. In sum, the role of the principal is both in leadership and coordination.
  Teacher Teachers play the most important professional role in a school. They are obliged to support and promote the educational project of the school, and in turn, its success plan. Teachers may also influence this process by forwarding their recommendations to the administration.
  Student Students benefit from being in a school with an educational project that addresses their needs, deals with the conditions prevailing at the school, confronts those challenges tied to student success and respects the characteristics and expectations of the community served by the school. In sum, an effective plan and an involved community will increase the chances that students will succeed in schools.
  Parent Parents, as the key members of a school's educational community, should be involved in the educational process. To support the success plan, their involvement may include informally sharing their ideas with the school or formally influencing the administration of the school by becoming members of the governing board.
  Community A community consists of those who are involved in a schools project and benefit from it. In sum, all the people who have a "stake" in a school.