Good goals help school districts improve. As part of the ongoing training that administrators have been receiving in preparation for a new statewide educator evaluation system, principals and central office administrators recently attended a workshop that centered around what it means to create “SMART” goals.
Not all goals are created equally and this understanding is so important and pivotal to progress that the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has taken it on as a statewide initiative.
As we reviewed during the workshop, SMART goals are Specific and Strategic, Measurable, Action oriented, Rigorous, Realistic and Results driven; Timed and Tracked.
Karla Baehr, our facilitator, emphasized the unique opportunity that the new educator evaluation system represents as Springfield Public Schools continues the hard work of improving our district. The creation of new goals to help improve teaching and learning in the classroom is an integral part of the new teacher evaluation system. These goals are to be arrived at jointly through conversation and reflection by both the principal and teacher. SMARTer goals will include action plans and benchmarks and will be aligned with district goals and priorities.
The workshop offered administrators an opportunity to “turn and talk” to their colleagues about how SMART goals relate specifically to the work they do daily and how they can best incorporate this new system into their daily work routine. The session ended with Karla Baehr asking us all to recollect a time in our lives when we achieved a personal or professional goal and reflect on the pride we felt in our accomplishment.
Her challenge to all of us was to remember and fully understand the important role that our personal commitment played in our goal attainment and how we didn’t allow “perfection to be the enemy of action.” The exercise modeled how important it is for our teachers and staff to be personally vested in their goals. The new educator evaluation system will help us achieve those results through the creation of goals that are aligned to district objectives yet customized and personal to the educator.
As Karla Baehr pointed out for us, no one highlighted a goal that they felt was an easy achievement. They were all accomplishments that we had worked hard to achieve.
Good goals are not easy to achieve but there is no way forward without them.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
National Summit Highlights Progress; SPS Students
Recently, members of my senior team, the president of our local teachers association and I had the opportunity to participate in a U.S. Department of Education (USDE) School Turnaround Summit and Nation Education Association (NEA) Foundation events, February 9-10 in Washington, D.C.
The School Turnaround Summit included School Improvement Grant (SIG) teams from 26 districts across the nation and several state education agencies. The summit was hosted by the USDE new Office of School Turnaround in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The summit provided an opportunity to reflect on our existing educational practices; to learn from other district leaders who have been successful in addressing persistent challenges in turning around their lowest-performing schools; and a chance to stay abreast of some of the latest research, promising practices and tools for practitioners in the work of school turnaround.
In addition to the summit agenda and targeted breakout sessions, there was also team time relative to the unique needs of our respective districts. Finally, the summit provided an opportunity for participating superintendents and union leaders to meet with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the White House to discuss challenges, impediments and what’s needed from USDE to support our work in the school turnaround arena.
The NEA events afforded SEA President Tim Collins and I the chance to co-present before the Foundation’s Board on labor-management-community collaborations as it relates to the Springfield Closing the Achievement Gap Grant. This allowed us to highlight our successes and opportunities for improvement as we approach the close of our second year of the grant (i.e., project interventions, union-district collaborations, community partnerships and performance outcomes).
The highlight of our visit to D.C. for me occurred Friday evening at the NEA Foundation's Salute to Excellence in Education Gala, where seven Springfield performing arts students (and their teachers) from Rebecca Johnson Elementary School, the High School of Science and Technology and Central High School got to perform on a national stage.
The genres included dance, instrumental and vocal performances. It was a heartfelt evening to watch our students represent themselves and Springfield so well in showcasing their talents and abilities.
The School Turnaround Summit included School Improvement Grant (SIG) teams from 26 districts across the nation and several state education agencies. The summit was hosted by the USDE new Office of School Turnaround in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The summit provided an opportunity to reflect on our existing educational practices; to learn from other district leaders who have been successful in addressing persistent challenges in turning around their lowest-performing schools; and a chance to stay abreast of some of the latest research, promising practices and tools for practitioners in the work of school turnaround.
In addition to the summit agenda and targeted breakout sessions, there was also team time relative to the unique needs of our respective districts. Finally, the summit provided an opportunity for participating superintendents and union leaders to meet with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the White House to discuss challenges, impediments and what’s needed from USDE to support our work in the school turnaround arena.
The NEA events afforded SEA President Tim Collins and I the chance to co-present before the Foundation’s Board on labor-management-community collaborations as it relates to the Springfield Closing the Achievement Gap Grant. This allowed us to highlight our successes and opportunities for improvement as we approach the close of our second year of the grant (i.e., project interventions, union-district collaborations, community partnerships and performance outcomes).
The highlight of our visit to D.C. for me occurred Friday evening at the NEA Foundation's Salute to Excellence in Education Gala, where seven Springfield performing arts students (and their teachers) from Rebecca Johnson Elementary School, the High School of Science and Technology and Central High School got to perform on a national stage.
The genres included dance, instrumental and vocal performances. It was a heartfelt evening to watch our students represent themselves and Springfield so well in showcasing their talents and abilities.
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