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As an educational leader trying to turn around a school or take a school to a new level,\u00a0 the process starts with a school improvement plan.\u00a0 To create that plan, you and your team will use a lot of energy and expertise. You will invest your time, your passion, and your political capital in crafting specific strategies and approaches. In many cases, you will also engaged outside experts and partners to help create your plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But often, we don\u2019t hit our desired student outcomes and can\u2019t understand why. We try to look back in time to work out what parts of our plan were actually implemented, what parts didn’t get implemented, and what impact any of it had on our students.<\/p>\n
Most improvement plans fail because life in a school or a district is busy. And even when you have the best of intentions, the improvement plans never get fully implemented.\u00a0 As an educational leader, you get pulled in many different directions.\u00a0 You need to educate your students despite the competing interests of your board, community members, families, and the regulations \/ requirements required by multiple initiatives. These competing priorities can create a lack of clarity and alignment in your district or school and there is just not enough time to do everything.<\/p>\n
Without a process and a set of tools to drive your strategic or school improvement plan forward, successful implementation is nearly impossible.<\/p>\n
So how can a progress management tool help you lead more effectively? At RespondAbility we think about it in four areas: 1) goal setting, 2) accountability, 3) visibility, and 4) clear decision making.<\/p>\n
Just sharing goals is not enough.\u00a0 You need to set specific goals for specific team members that are time bound and that are understood and relevant to that person.\u00a0 The goals also need to be measurable and visible to the individual and their supporting team.\u00a0 You need to share your goals in a system that is always on line so that the entire team can see the big picture.<\/p>\n
Then, we need to stay committed to the goals.\u00a0 That requires accountability.\u00a0 The strategic plan needs to be converted into a playbook.\u00a0 The leader needs to know clearly who is responsible for the tasks required to achieve stated goals.\u00a0 And the person responsible for tasks needs to keep the leader informed on a regular basis of the actions being taken to achieve those goals.\u00a0 You need the ability to keep score.\u00a0\u00a0 To do this, you need to establish metrics and goals.\u00a0 And then you need to keep score on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
You won\u2019t improve what you don\u2019t measure. Keeping score is powerful way of keeping the entire staff motivated by:<\/p>\n
One of the most important\u00a0 features of a progress management tool is that it allows you to keep score on a frequent basis with metrics.\u00a0<\/p>\n