S.M.A.R.T. GOALSSustaining Learning

Anne Conzemius and Jan O’Neill

SMART goals are not an overnight process

Verona Area School District, Wisconsin

Spent 5 years on site-based governance, culture of collaboration, dialogue, and choice

Then…

Decided to use data driven decision making to improve student results through SMART goal setting.

Choosing the right

kind of goals Goals are the “center to the mystery

of school’s success, mediocrity or failure.” Rosenholz

“The one accomplishment that would foster longer-range actions would bea goal worthy of commitment.”

All district, school, and classroom goals should be rooted in our missions, visions, and values.

What goal do we choose that is

worthy?• Increase student

achievement?• Close achievement gap?• Create innovative, engaging

schools?• Increase parent involvement?• Eliminate school violence?

When educators have…

• devoted care and attention to creating shared vision,

• undertaken a thorough assessment of the “gaps” between current situations and visions for the future,

• identified the “essential learning outcomes” that will close the gaps,

then…

developing goals that are personally and communally meaningful is a natural next step.

UNDERSTANDINGPROCESS GOALS

AND RESULTS GOALS

Goals must be SPECIFIC

andMEASURABLE.

PROCESS GOALS…

• establish goals that define the activities the school hopes will contribute to positive outcomes; programs and policies are expressed.

• identify the methods, actions, and activities school staffs can use to build their capacity for improvement.

RESULTS GOALS

• establish desired outcomes.• answer the “so what”

question– So what if we did X, Y, and Z?– What actual improvement

would we see?• identify what all that

capacity building adds up to.

“Educators looking for effective tools to measure performance and progress need goals that are RESULTS ORIENTED rather than process-oriented.” Schmoker

Transforming Processes

into Results• Processes build capacity

for improvement

• For every process goal set, answer the “so what?” question with the desired result

SMART goals…

• are specific/strategic, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, and timebound

• provide educators with the means to develop feedback on efforts that are making a difference and by how much.

SMART goal example

“Within the next two years, reduce by 50% the number of students needing remedial assistance after 9th grade (over the past five years, 20-30 students have required this assistance).”

To be measurement tools, goals must…

• specify improvement targets that define performance levels.

• address the specific indicators to be looked at as evidence of progress.

• specify the tools that will be used to monitor progress.

Always measure results against benchmarks of

improved student learning.

SMART goals by “Altitude”

“SMART goals that define focus also vary by the system level where they’re created—district, school, classroom. At each level, SMART goals address vision, mission, values, beliefs, and priorities; together, these elements are the elastic that binds the goals together and ensures we are focusing improvement on high-leverage areas.”

Operative Questions

• Are our students growing at an adequate, or better, rate of progress?

• What instructional strategies and programming work best for which students?

Goals allow teachers to…

• more rapidly identify those students who need help.

• challenge the students in the middle to reach a little bit higher.

• move students who have mastered the materials on to new skills and competencies.

• have quick feedback which allows continuous adjustments to instructional strategies.

To set SMART goals at the school level, ask broad questions about the student population.

• In which areas of the standardized tests were students weakest this year--math, reading, language arts, science, or social studies? Has this been a consistently weak area for all students or just for this particular group of students?

• What patterns do we see in the standardized test data? Who is in the top 25 percent? Middle 50 percent? How are girls doing compared to boys? Children of color compared to Caucasian children? Is mobility a factor? Attendance? Motivation? How is our special education population doing? How is our English language learner population doing?

• What programs, curricula, and instructional strategies have our top, middle, and low achieving students been exposed to? Do we see any patterns or trends?

• Are there other performance measures that verify our school’s weaknesses in particular areas? Do we have district or classroom assessments to back this up?

• Which aspects of school climate are most important to our students, families and staff? How is each group of stakeholders perceiving our school? Are there demographic differences?

• Which of the most important aspects are most strongly related to student learning? On which are we weakest?

It is recommended that

schools set just one or two SMART goals focused on learning improvement and no more that one SMART goal focused on “climate” (which might address an issue such as safety or respect).

Teachers need SMART goals at the classroom level that will help them get feedback quickly.

• Limit the number of SMART goals directly tied to standardized test results.– End-of-the-year data point

• Failures occurred, but it is too late in the process to do anything about it.

• If you must wait until the last month of school to find that students haven’t made the gains you’ve hoped for, there’s precious little time to remedy the situation!

• Using standardized tests as the only measure of student learning puts teachers in danger of providing narrow instruction–of “teaching to the tests”—rather than thinking about the whole teaching-learning experience.

Developing SMART Goals

1. Choose a results-oriented goal.• School wide, grade-, department-,

or subject-level goal.• Improve reading skills of 3rd grade

students.• Improve the critical thinking skills

of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students.• Improve students’ analytical

thinking skills and problem solving methods in grades 9-12.

Developing SMART Goals2. Develop indicators for the goal.

• The evidence we look for to see if goals are being achieved.

• Describe those skills and performances that are aligned with standards, benchmarks, and learner objectives.• What would good _____ (goal area)

look like?• What would good writing look like?

• complete sentences, has a logical flow, correct use of punctuation

Assemble a list of “good features”

• Use a focusing question to select only the “essential learning outcomes” skill areas.

• Use data to determine the answer.

• Limit the focus to only those skills areas that students really need to work on.

3. Identify measures for the indicators.

• Create and administer a pre assessment to determine current student learning.

• Consider both annual standardized measures and ongoing, periodic measures (formative assessments).

• Monitor student progress on some indicators with just one measure; others will require more.

When developing school wide and classroom

goals…

• Have teachers from the same grade level or subject talk about measures they currently use to evaluate student progress.

• Agree on common quizzes, tests, and other classroom-based assessments.

4. Develop targets for improvement.

• Identify a reasonable target for improvement on every measure.

5. Select one or two goals to work on.

• Identify a few SMART goals you

want to pursue for the year, the semester, or some other designated time frame.

• It is better to have one or two goals that focus on your essential learning outcomes improvement issues.

Data’s Role in SMART Goal Setting

• Ensure the targets you’ve set are realistic.

• Data is the key.• Make a highly strategic decision

to pursue an “incremental improvement” or a “breakthrough improvement.”

• Focus improvement efforts on the “essential learning outcomes”.

Classroom level goals are…

• focused on the collaborative work of teaching and learning.

• aimed at both groups of students and individual students and are identified by looking at this year’s students.

• written in the language of curriculum objectives and competencies.

• measured through diagnostic-based, periodic, ongoing assessment tools.

School level goals are…

• aimed at groups of students and are identified by examining patterns and trends over time.

• driven by content and/or performance standards.

• used to measure progress annually and over time.

• written as annual improvement goals or as part of a three-year plan.

District level goals are…

• aimed at groups of students and are identified by examining patterns and trends over time.

• broadly stated and aimed at significant benchmarks of student learning.

• included in the district’s strategic plan for at least five years.

Integrating School and District Goals

• Each summer, establish goals based on an assessment of students’ learning needs.

• Develop school improvement plans, which are brought to the school board for strategic alignment.

• Board uses these plans as basis for its annual budget.

• Next year, develop new goals based on a reassessment of students’ needs.

A “SMART” Process for

Improvement

When teachers are using SMART goals

to learn, they…• Set specific, measurable,

learner-focused goals together.

• Plan how to help learners accomplish these goals.

• Gather evidence of individual and class progress toward the goal.

When teachers are using SMART goals

to learn, they…

• Share their results.• Adjust teaching

strategies based on what they’re learning together.

• Develop new plans for meeting their goals.

Learning from SMART Goals

• Creating shared responsibility is a dynamic learning process, and it revolves around schools’ ability to use inquiry and monitoring to achieve meaningful goals.

Learning from SMART Goals

• Regular monitoring of students’ progress toward goals allows educators to adjust instructional strategies and professional development activities against intended results.

“Mastery or enactive experiences are the most powerful source of efficacy information. The perception that a performance has been successful raises efficacy beliefs, which contributes to the expectation of proficient performance in the future.” Tschannen-Moran

EFFICACY is the belief that what one does

makes a difference.

Efficacy is at the center of building shared responsibility for student learning; the process of using goals to improve one’s practice and one’s school is the engine.

Schools need goals that identify what they desire in terms of performanceAFTER or AS A RESULTof putting new processes

in place or improvingexisting process.

“Within the next two years, reduce by 50% the number of students needing remedial assistance after 9th grade (over the past five years, 20-30 students have required this assistance).”

Specific/Strategic:Goal focuses on students in grades 10 and 12 and deals with reading skills, a strategic priority in the district.

SMART Goal

“Within the next two years, reduce by 50% the number of students needing remedial assistance after 9th grade (over the past five years, 20-30 students have required this assistance).”

Measurable:The school knows how many students have required assistance in the past and will be able to determine if that number drops by 50%.

SMART Goal

“Within the next two years, reduce by 50% the number of students needing remedial assistance after 9th grade (over the past five years, 20-30 students have required this assistance).”

Attainable:Current data confirms that this goal is neither so conservative to be uninspiring nor so high that people will think it’s impossible to achieve.

SMART Goal

“Within the next two years, reduce by 50% the number of students needing remedial assistance after 9th grade (over the past five years, 20-30 students have required this assistance).”Results-oriented:The goal describes the desired outcome, not the process or activity that might contribute to attaining this outcome.

SMART Goal

“Within the next two years, reduce by 50% the number of students needing remedial assistance after 9th grade (over the past five years, 20-30 students have required this assistance.”

Timebound:The goal sets a deadline for accomplishment.

SMART Goal