You hit what you aim for

It's August.  Schools are opening or getting ready to open.  Bulletin boards are decorated, gym floors are refinished, fall sports are practicing, and principals and teachers are preparing for opening day.  Students and their parents are shopping for new shoes and everyone is counting the days until summer ends and school begins.  Hope, excitement and nervous anticipation are in the air.

Principals are meeting with their custodians to ensure every classroom is ready, and someone is counting desks in every classroom to ensure each student has a seat or a desk.

Principals are preparing their opening staff meeting agendas and remarks, and teachers are looking at their class rosters and preparing materials.

As a former high school principal, I always loved the opening of school.  Hope, joy and enthusiasm mixes with nervous expectations.  Every one has a fresh start.

With every thing else to do, have you taken time to set your data goals for the year?

Remember, we usually hit what we aim for, so aim high.

Graphic courtesy freedigitalphotos.com

Taking time to set very specific data goals and communicating those with your staff, students and parents will unite every one in the shared vision of the school, helping improve student learning.

Our administrative team took time each summer to analyze our various data sources, including Ohio graduation test results, ACT, SAT, AP and IB data as well as discipline and attendance data.

We chose one to three areas that required our best work for the upcoming year and communicated those with our staff.  As a professional learning community, each of our same-subject teams also set specific learning goals based on the previous year's data, and aligned it with our building goals.  For example, teams in a graduation testing area set a SMART goal (Strategic, Measurable, Attainable, Results-oriented, and Time-bound) for performance related to student achievement on that testing area and Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate course teams aligned to student achievement in that specific subject.

All SMART goals relate specifically to improving student learning and are monitored then throughout the school year by teachers and the administrative team.

Teams met in a one-hour delayed start each Wednesday as well as in time provided in the master schedule.  Teams viewed results on an ongoing basis and made instructional, intervention and differentiation decisions regularly to monitor progress on the goals.

This goal-setting process also included communication to parents as well as students also engaging in monitoring their own learning progress, increasing student choice and voice.

We were a school focused on learning rather than on teaching, and that made the difference in our culture and academic success, resulting over time in being named a National Blue Ribbon School and National Model PLC at Work School.

Want to have a great start to the school year?  Be sure and set clear and specific learning goals in order to guide your work for the year.

If you and your staff don't know where you are going, how will you get there?

Graphic courtesy of freedigitalphotos.com