As educators we are really good about setting goals and defining strategies that we’ll use to reach those goals. But then school happens. Day to day activities in a district or a school takeover. And even with the best of intentions, we find ourselves at the end of the semester or the end of the year looking back and trying to figure out what parts of our plan we implemented, what parts we didn’t, and whether the plan had any impact at all on our students.

A great progress management tool is an easy way to turn a school improvement plan into an action plan that produces real changes in student outcomes. Our theory of action is very simple. We believe that you’ve invested your time, your expertise, your knowledge of your students and your knowledge of your community into your improvement plan. We believe you’ve made the investment and if you systematically implement your plan with specific actions, then your student outcomes will improve. This active approach is critical, because to change student outcomes requires a change in educators input.

In this short article and supporting videos we will discuss four ways a great progress management software can help you drive improved student outcomes by turning strategy into actions in following ways:

• Providing a framework for a systematic approach
• Encouraging clear communication and easy reporting for your staff
• Providing leadership visibility
• Empowering your team to better collaborate on driving student outcomes

Providing a framework for a systematic/timely approach

The first thing progress management systems help you do is to turn strategy into action. It helps you turn a static plan into a dynamic School Improvement plan that everyone can access – providing the following specific enhancements, all geared towards more effective action.

• Sets clear expectations and goal setting for all the stakeholders
• Increases alignment by establishing accountability norms
• Creates a supportive environment to openly address challenges and celebrate success
• Increases visibility by consistently monitoring efforts for smarter decision making
• Tracks progress to identify high and low engagement so you know when and where to provide support
• Increases clarity with real time analysis so you know what is working and what’s not working, enabling you to adapt your plan to stay on target and have a greater impact on student success.

High School Principal, Chad Thomas, Shares How RespondAbility Keeps His Team on Track

Long time RespondAbility user, Chad Thomas, shares how RespondAbility helps his entire team to colloborate effectively to improve student outcomes

Clear communication and easy reporting for the staff

A great progress management software allows you to get the school improvement plan off the written page and into a system.  Flipping through a document to understand the plan takes time and effort that most of your staff does not have to spare.  A living plan allows your team to access the areas that are most relevant to them.  Once your staff has access to their specific areas of responsibility, it’s easy for them to understand the goals, targets and specific tasks they are responsible for and on what timeline.  Most importantly, they understand why the actions are important.

On the backend, great software makes it easy to report on their progress.  Reporting takes about 4 minutes a week – providing the added advantage of turning staff meetings into problem solving events instead of reporting events.  Meetings become collaboration events where problem solving focused on student outcomes becomes the order of the day.

Provides a principal visibility to make them a more impactful leader

Consistent reporting means real time visibility for the leadership team. Principals can see the team’s  performance over time.  More importantly the leader and the team can see what actions are producing the desired outcomes and what actions are falling short.  This correlation visibility is a top key to success.

Quick Example of How the Right Metrics are Used to Inspire and Empower a Team

This quick 6 minute demo of RespondAbility’s Progress Management Software demonstrates how you correlate metrics to actions to improve student results

Continual feedback allows leadership to quickly intervene where needed and observe the whole picture allowing you to focus your efforts where it is most needed.

Decisions become data driven with limited speculation. This allows for the development of protocols for genuine collaboration and sharing of expertise.  The principal can leverage expertise where needed.  But more importantly they can tap and deploy the talent they have on their team where it is needed most.

This type of insight and collaborative culture leads to: 

• Alignment – Everyone on the team is aligned to the purpose and vision of improving student outcomes through specific actions.
• Improved Communication – Visibility and alignment result in focused conversations and real problem solving.
• Fact-based Collaboration – With actions correlated to outcomes the entire team’s focus is on fact-based analysis of efficacy.

Empowering your team to better collaborate on driving student outcomes

The power of collaboration drives your team meetings. Great progress management software empowers the team to maximize team meeting time.  When teams come together they enter a shared space with the ability to:

• Identify issues
• Strategize to solve those issues
• Craft targeted actions to address them

This creates a culture of improved collaboration because we are now coming into a space knowing that feedback is data driven, so teams trust each other because the work has been captured and measured.  And that only happens when teachers, principals, supervisors, and central office staff can enter a space that has been established to focus energy on specific results and specific pieces of identified work. 

When teachers, principals, and administrators can enter a space that has been established to focus energy on specific results and specific pieces of identified work this creates a culture of improved collaboration; the work has been captured and measured, and feedback is data driven.

Effective Team Collaboration and RespondAbility

Former Principal and Education Leadership Development expert, Ed Morris Junior, shares lessons learned from the front lines helping educators produce substantial changes to student outcomes

About RespondAbility

 RespondAbility focuses on helping two types of schools:

• Schools on a short timeline that need an immediate catalyst to expedite the work inside their school – facilitating rapid progression with student outcomes, cultural outcomes, and data generation that will prove those outcomes are occurring.
• Schools that are at the precipice of tipping over into being exemplary in their district – they need that one push to go from good to great.

Watch this Quick Overview Video Below to Learn More

RespondAbility is a cloud management software that helps Districts and Schools successfully implement their school improvement plans.  Once you have a plan we help you:

Turn your School Improvement Plan into a living document

• Turn your school improvement plan into a living document
• Implement and collaborate on school improvement actions
• Monitor and adjust your school improvement plan based on the impact to student outcomes