Many of them, however, confess to being confused over exactly what it is and what it requires. An effective plan, by this definition, encompasses an organization's entire resources and purpose. It must be constructed deliberately and thoughtfully. Many benefits of planning are patently obvious. An organization simply cannot know what it is doing and what it intends to do unless it periodically establishes and monitors its goals.
Strategic planning enables people to influence the future.
The very act of planning implies that schools are more than passive pawns in the hands of socioeconomic forces. Such forces will soon overwhelm districts that refuse to plan for them. School officials must plan for shortages of teachers, particularly in math, science, and bilingual education, and they must prepare to accommodate growing numbers of Hispanic students, many of whom will not speak English. More students of all types will continue to come from single-parent homes. These profound demographic changes will continue to reshape the nation and its schools in the coming decades.