smart goals for school, teacher, and student! success

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where—” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you

go,” said the Cat. --Lewis CarrollFrom Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

(2002, p. 53)

Marzano’s (2003) meta-analysis: the impact on student achievement of setting instructional goals ranged from 18 to 41 percentile points, meaning a student at the 50th percentile whose teacher sets clear instructional goals could achieve from the 68th to 91st percentile!

Motto from the past:“I teach, I test, I hope for the best.” DuFour

***Hope is not a strategy….

Think about a personal goal you have in your life. Why do you want to pursue this goal? What will it look like, feel like, sound like when you have achieved your goal? Write your goal with a results orientation. (The Power of Smart Goals, p. 11)

Focus: means a clear vision about where you want to be, being true to your purpose, and asking: “How is this going to help students learn?”; focus means a perseverance to never give up; establishing clear, measurable, results-based goals.

Reflection: the ability to pause, assess, and reflect; thinking about the data, reviewing assessments, seeking feedback, thorough evaluation of products and processes.

Collaboration involves skills that are required to be an effective team: time, partnerships, action plans and strategies, trust, “we’re all in this together”

Leadership Capacity: setting and monitoring goals together, focusing collaboratively on data, developing team structures

What do we want to achieve?

What are the outcomes we’re shooting for?

Strategic and Specific Measurable Attainable Results-based Time-bound

Focus on the “vital few”: high leverage areas where the largest gaps between vision and current reality exist

Concrete, tangible evidence of improvements; targeting specific groups of students

Multiple measures; focus our efforts on what gets measured; (school goals are primarily summative, teacher both summative and formative)

Goals that motivate us to strive higher; almost but not quite within reach; we address goals through data conversations

Motivating, concrete benchmarks against which to measure our efforts; not process goals

Builds internal accountability and commitment—a specific time frame

Return to the personal goal you made earlier. Can you make the goal SMARTer? Apply the SMART criteria to the personal goal. How do you feel about your goal now? Has your motivation for achieving it increased?

GAN: (greatest area of need) The greatest area of need determines your goal(s) Indicators: the evidence we look for to see if

the goal is being achievedMeasures: assessments you will use to

gauge progress on the indicatorsTargets: allows you to track improvement

by average and subgroup; “essential learning outcomes”

Complete your self assessment. Where are your greatest areas of need? How do your GAN(s) align with district and

school GAN(s)?

Take each of your GAN(s) based on your self assessment and school and district goals and determine which teaching standards and elements each addresses.

Develop a SMART goal for each GAN. Determine indicators, measures, and

targets for each GAN.