The Power of SMART Goals by Solution Tree

E d u c a t i o n / S c h o o l I m p r o v e m e n t / Te a m s

Goals “Very well organized and easy to read. [The authors] have taken the best information that is available and synthesized it in a way that is immensely practical. I found myself wishing that our entire school district staff would read it—it is so clear, direct, and useful.” — Arlene Geres, Principal, Beaver Creek Elementary, Surrey, BC, Canada

“This book will persuade you that goals . . . are the glue that holds teams and their efforts together against the incessant distractions that bombard us at every turn. This book helps us to understand and implement the goal-oriented principles and practices that will help schools to be . . . vastly better than they ever thought they could be.” — Mike Schmoker, Author and Consultant

Many schools have improvement goals, but they are all too often written into a mandated school improvement plan and then soon forgotten. Although most of us acknowledge the power of goals in our own lives, they remain the single most underestimated and underutilized means of improving student learning—particularly in the classroom—in education today. This comprehensive yet easy-to-read book by the authors of The Handbook for SMART School Teams shows readers how to transform their schools into places where each and every student is meeting and exceeding standards by shifting thinking to a focus on results. The authors begin by presenting several frameworks for adult and student goal-setting and then discuss: • The barriers to goal-setting and monitoring • How to “keep goals alive” through supportive systems, policies, structures, and skill-building • The role of assessment in goal-setting • The power of goals to improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment

• The role of professional development practices in goal-setting and improvement • How to build capacity for goal-oriented thinking • Case studies from real schools that are turning challenges into opportunities for learning and improvement

Jan O’Neill, M.S., is a former teacher who became one of the pioneers in applying quality principles system-wide in municipal and state governments and health care. Anne Conzemius, M.S., is a former school psychologist and executive assistant to the Wisconsin State Superintendent and has spent many years working in quality improvement in the public and private sectors.

“[This book] supports the reader in making connections to previous learning while taking it a step deeper into how to implement SMART goals at the school, team, and student levels to support student learning.”

Both authors are cofounders of Quality Leadership by Design, LLC, based in Madison, Wisconsin, and coauthors of Building Shared Responsibility for Student Learning (ASCD, 2001) and The Handbook for SMART School Teams (Solution Tree, 2002).

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— Ellen S. Perconti, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Independent School District #1, Lewiston, ID

Copyright © 2006 by Solution Tree (formerly National Educational Service) 304 West Kirkwood Avenue Bloomington, IN 47404 (800) 733-6786 (toll free) / (812) 336-7700 Fax: (812) 336-7790 Email: info@solution-tree.com www.solution-tree.com

Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved. Readers may reproduce only those pages marked “Reproducible.” Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

Cover Design by Grannan Graphic Design, Ltd. Text Design and Composition by TG Design Group

Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-1-932127-87-4

Table of Contents About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Foreword by Mike Schmoker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix Chapter 1: Introduction: The SMART Goals Process . . . . . . . . . . 1 Barriers to Goal-Setting and Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Hard Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Lack of Common Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Lack of Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Power of Results Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The QLD Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Power of SMART Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Strategic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Specific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Measurable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Attainable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Results-Based . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Time-Bound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 A Powerful Graphic Organizer for Creating SMART Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 A Process for Implementing SMART Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 The 30+ Minute Meeting Process: Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Meeting #1: Identify the Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Meeting #2: Identify SMART Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Meeting #3: Correlating Promising Practices With Current Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

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THE POWER OF SMART GOALS Meeting #4: Plan Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Meeting #5: Analyze Results and Refocus Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . 27 SMART Goals Work! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Chapter 2: Keeping Goals Alive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 From Survive to Thrive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 The Journey: Five Key Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Where Do We Want to Be? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Where Are We Now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 How Will We Get to Where We Want to Be? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 What Are We Learning, and Where Should We Focus Next? . . 38 Leadership Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Will and Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Team Skills: The Three Realms of Skillfulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Individual Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Organizational Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Implementation Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Action: Beyond the Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Phase I: Initiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Phase II: Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Phase III: Institutionalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Success in the McFarland School District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Nurturing the Cycle of Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Chapter 3: Linking Assessment and Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Team Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Assessment That Promotes Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 The Need for Balanced Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Summative Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Formative Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Changing Our Practices: Using Common Assessments . . . . . . . . . 59 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Just in Timeâ&#x20AC;? Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Student Involvement in Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 The Five Dimensions of Quality Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Dimension 1: Quality Assessments Arise From and Are Designed to Serve the Specific Information Needs of Intended Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Dimension 2: Quality Assessments Arise From Clearly Articulated and Appropriate Achievement Targets . . . . . . . 65 Dimension 3: Quality Assessments Accurately Reflect Student Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 viii

Table of Contents Dimension 4: Quality Assessments Yield Results That Are Effectively Communicated to Intended Users . . . . . . . . . . 71 Dimension 5: Quality Assessments Involve Students in Classroom Assessment, Record-Keeping, and Communication of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Creating Winners Through Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Chapter 4: SMART Goalâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Driven Curriculum and Instruction . . 77 Traditional Curriculum Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 The Ideal System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Using Goals to Focus Curriculum Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Curriculum Improvement in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 The Team Learning Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 1. Identify Essential Learning Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 2. Develop Common, Comprehensive Assessments . . . . . . . . . 90 3. Identify Proficiency Levels That All Students Should Achieve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 4. Review Results, Identify Problem Areas, and Develop Plans for Addressing Those Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Where Am I Going? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Where Am I Now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 How Can I Close the Gap? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 A Living, Breathing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Chapter 5: Using SMART Goals to Drive Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Linking Goals and Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Organizational Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 How They Did It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 The Importance of Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Individual Professional Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Goals for Beginning Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Goals for Experienced Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Goals That Are Motivating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Goals Focused on Student Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Student Learning Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Evaluation of Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Level 1: Participant Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Level 2: Participant Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Level 3: Organization Support and Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Solution Tree

THE POWER OF SMART GOALS Level 4: Participant Use of New Knowledge and Skills . . . . . 135 Level 5: Student Learning Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Rethinking Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136 Chapter 6: Building Capacity for Goal-Oriented Thinking . . .139 The Power of Optimism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141 Optimism and Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Optimism and Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Developing Competence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Barriers to Teacher Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 Strategies for Reducing—or Eliminating—the Barriers . . . . . . . . .150 Working From Our Beliefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Restructuring Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Building Optimism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 What Teachers Can Do to Build Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157 The Power of Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159 Teachers Need to Collaborate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162 A Clear Vision of Student Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163 Chapter 7: Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165 Jenifer Junior High School, Lewiston, Idaho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166 The Middle School Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Goal-Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Longfellow Middle School, La Crosse, Wisconsin . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Examining the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 The Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 The Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 SMART Goals and Action Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Continuous Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 New Lexington High School, New Lexington, Ohio . . . . . . . . . . 178 SMART Team Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Burleigh Elementary School, Elmbrook, Wisconsin . . . . . . . . . . . 187 The Rest of the Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 The Path to Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Chapter 8: Renewing Our Schools, Our Practices, Ourselves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Table of Contents

Figures, Features, and Reflections Figures Figure 1.1: The QLD Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Figure 1.2: Tree Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Figure 1.3: Tree Diagram Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Figure 1.4: Tree Diagram Goal and Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Figure 1.5: Tree Diagram Goal, Indicators, and Measures . . . . . . . 21 Figure 1.6: Tree Diagram Goal, Indicators, Measures, and Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Figure 1.7: Fourth-Grade Team SMART Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Figure 2.1: The QLD Framework and the Five Key Questions . . . 36 Figure 2.2: The School Improvement Planning Process for Building SMART Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Figure 2.3: Fullan’s Three-Phase Change Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Figure 2.4: McFarland Reading Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Figure 3.1: Student SMART Goal Tree in “I Can . . .” Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Figure 3.2: Matching Learning Targets With Assessments . . . . . . . 68 Figure 3.3: Student SMART Goal Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Figure 4.1: Fourth-Grade Test Scores at Lowell Elementary School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Figure 4.2: Underpinning Learning Targets for Eighth-Grade Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Figure 4.3: Matching Learning Targets to Assessment Methods . . 92 Figure 4.4: Zone Scoring Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Figure 4.5: Common Measure Summary Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Figure 4.6: Eighth-Grade Math Team SMART Goal Tree . . . . . . .98 Figure 4.7: Lowell School Implementation of Literacy Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Figure 4.8: Team/Department Goal-Setting Form . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Figure 4.9: Pre-Observation Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Figure 4.10: Post-Observation Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Figure 4.11: Goal-Setting for Improved Student Achievement . . 110 Figure 5.1: Kimberly, Wisconsin, Reading Comprehension Test: 7-Year Comparison of Third-Grade Reading Scores . . 119 Figure 5.2: Kimberly, Wisconsin, WKCE 7-Year Comparisons for Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

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THE POWER OF SMART GOALS Figure 5.3: Reading SMART Goal Tree for Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Figure 5.4: Ann Banaszak’s SMART Goal Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Figure 7.1: New Lexington High School Scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Features Process Goals Versus Results Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Professional Learning Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The 30+ Minute Meeting Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Five Things Principals Can Do to Grow Teacher Leadership . . . .153 Ways Teachers Can Lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161

Reflections Individual Reflection: Business as Usual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Team or Individual Reflection: A Picture of Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Individual Reflection: Achieving Your Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Individual Reflection: A SMARTer Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Team Reflection: The 30+ Minute Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Individual Reflection: Goals and Commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Team Reflection: Skill Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Team Reflection: Implementing Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Team Reflection: Courageous Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Team Activity: Data Trust Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Team Reflection: “Teach, Test, and . . .” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Team Reflection: Engaging Students in Learning and Assessment . . 64 Individual Reflection: Timely, Accurate Information . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Individual Reflection: Conversations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Individual Reflection: Curriculum and Transformation . . . . . . . . . 78 Team Reflection: Your Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Team Reflection: Your Improvement Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Team Reflection: Your Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Team Reflection: Reviewing Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Team Reflection: Effective Instructional Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Individual Reflection: Your First Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Team Reflection: A Strong Focus on Student Learning . . . . . . . . 122 Individual Reflection: New Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Team Reflection: Learning Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Individual Reflection: Focus on Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Team Reflection: A Profound Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Team Reflection: Evaluation and Professional Development . . . . 136

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Table of Contents Individual Reflection: Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Individual Reflection: Optimists and Pessimists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Team Reflection: Leadership Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Team Reflection: Confidence Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Individual Reflection: Energy Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Team Reflection: Teacher Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Individual Reflection: The Gift of Breath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Individual Reflection: Seeing Things in a New Light . . . . . . . . . . 162 Team Reflection: Innovative Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

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About the Authors Jan O’Neill, M.S. Jan O’Neill has been an educator for more than 25 years, amassing diverse experience at the preschool, primary, intermediate, and middle school levels. As a teacher-leader, she served on district K–12 curriculum committees and developed language arts curricula for middle school. Leaving education to earn a master’s degree in public policy and administration from the University of Wisconsin LaFollette Institute, Jan studied with Dr. Deming and others involved in the quality movement, and she became one of the pioneers in applying continuous improvement principles system-wide in government and healthcare. After consulting with the private sector for 7 years, Jan returned to education to establish QLD Learning with Anne Conzemius. Her work has been published in local, state, and national newsletters and journals. In addition to The Power of SMART Goals, Jan is coauthor with Anne Conzemius of The Handbook for SMART School Teams (Solution Tree [formerly National Educational Service], 2002) and Building Shared Responsibility for Student Learning (ASCD, 2001).

Solution Tree

THE POWER OF SMART GOALS

Anne Conzemius, M.S. Anne Conzemius brings a broad range of experience to her practice. Prior to establishing QLD Learning with her partner, Jan O’Neill, Anne served as assistant state superintendent for Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction. From 1988 to 1990, she served as director of employee development and training for the state of Wisconsin. She worked in public schools for 8 years as a school psychologist. She later consulted in the private sector, bringing continuous improvement principles and methods to a variety of businesses and industries. Her work has been published in local, state, and national educational newsletters and journals. In addition to The Power of SMART Goals, Anne is coauthor with Jan O’Neill of The Handbook for SMART School Teams (Solution Tree [formerly National Educational Service], 2002) and Building Shared Responsibility for Student Learning (ASCD, 2001). Anne holds two master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one in educational psychology and one in industrial relations. Carol Commodore, Ed.D. Carol Commodore was a classroom teacher for more than 20 years. She has also held positions as assistant superintendent and administrator for assessment. Today Carol is a founding member of Leadership, Learning and Assessment, LLC, and a professional development associate of Rick Stiggins’ Assessment Training Institute. Carol strongly believes in bringing students into the decision-making and implementation processes of assessment and instruction. She is continually looking for meaningful ways to assist educators in developing reflective xvi

About the Authors

tools that will bring insight and joy to them and their students in the educational process. Carol’s work takes her across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Carol received her bachelor’s degree in Spanish and English from Dominican College in Racine, Wisconsin, her master’s degree in curriculum and supervision from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and her doctoral degree in leadership for the advancement of learning and service from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her dissertation is titled “The Impact of Assessment on Learners and Their Learning.” Carol Pulsfus, M.S. Carol Pulsfus is a consultant for multiple organizations and agencies including QLD Learning, About Learning, Inc., CESA 5, and Red Pine Consultants Group. She has been facilitating successful 4MAT System seminars for over 12 years and is building facilitation skills for a repertoire of new seminars as research emerges in the field. Carol’s 31 years in education includes being a teacher at all grade levels, an elementary school principal, a professional development coordinator, and an adjunct professor for Viterbo College and for the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in the Department of Teaching and Learning. Carol’s certification is in elementary education. She has a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. In 2000, she received the Educational Influence Award from the Wisconsin Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. She has written and coordinated multiple Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) grants in Wisconsin. Through CSRD, she has mentored school districts and organizations for many years, validating long-term,

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THE POWER OF SMART GOALS

systematic professional development. Carol also works in the private sector, focusing on strategic planning, leadership, and management issues.

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Foreword By Mike Schmoker Many have written about the supreme importance of goals. But in this excellent book, The Power of SMART Goals, Jan O’Neill and Anne Conzemius have done something original and important: They have helped us see that goals are a useful and powerful prism through which we can see the totality of school improvement. Goals, rightly understood, both urge and unify the most vital elements of school success. Through this prism, O’Neill and Conzemius allow us to see, with great clarity, the significant and manifold implications of getting goals right—and the needlessly destructive consequences of getting them wrong. The Power of SMART Goals helps to clarify the fact that first and foremost, goals redefine our relationship to work and effort. In turn, SMART goals redefine the relationship between effort and personal satisfaction. What the authors call “joy in work” can only be experienced when daily work is linked to goals that allow us to see that our thoughts and efforts connect, at every moment, to something larger and worthwhile—to something we can see and examine and enjoy. Without this orientation, effort and energy can only dissipate into aimless, joyless toil. Without goals, we will never work as hard or as smart to accomplish what is important—to us, and for our students.

Mike Schmoker is the author of RESULTS (ASCD, 1999) and The RESULTS Fieldbook (ASCD, 2001). His forthcoming book is The Opportunity: From Brutal Facts to the Best Schools We’ve Ever Had (ASCD, in press).

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This book also advances our understanding of how goals have the power to help us prioritize: to prevent the unfocused, timewasting folly of so much that goes on in the name of school improvement. As the authors point out, SMART goals are notoriously absent in most of these plans. And so, once written, they are typically “forgotten . . . until the next plan is due.” Thus they exert little or no influence on student learning. Rather than focus, as the authors urge, on the “vital few” elements and actions that promote better instruction, the “goals” that fill the typical improvement plan only seduce us into confusing action with outcomes, good intentions with results. Nothing could be worse for schools or those who work and learn in them. The perfect example of this confusion can be seen in how we confuse goals with training—the common, garden-variety professional development that the authors ingeniously refer to as “adult pull-out programs.” These always sound great, but too often constitute a kind of bland, superficially appealing “menu” with something for everyone, regardless of any connection to SMART goals. The items on this menu are seldom carefully selected (or rejected) on the basis of their ability to clearly advance teams and individuals toward the achievement of clear, measurable progress toward substantive learning. This book will persuade you that goals, rightly rendered, can be seen as far more than a component of improvement; they are in fact the glue that holds teams and their efforts together against the incessant distractions that bombard us at every turn. They screen out the competing demands that cause teams to lose focus and thus waste precious time, thought, and energy. SMART goals—whether short-term or long-term—focus our attention on the simplest and most vital elements of improvement, like formative assessment results, which directly connect to goals and without which we cannot see or enjoy our progress. Only effective goals demand such attention to measurable short-term results

Foreword

that sustain and nourish the momentum that Jim Collins (and many others, in so many words) tell us is the soul of improvement. O’Neill and Conzemius argue, quite compellingly, that goals are the common denominator—at all levels. Logically enough, they are just as emphatic about the importance of helping students themselves to be goal-oriented, so that they can see and enjoy their own palpable progress and accomplishments regularly and frequently, along with those areas where they can be better. Of course student goals, like all SMART goals, thrive on frequent feedback. The authors help us see that we have only scratched the surface of helping students work deliberately and optimistically toward their own “I can” goals, as they begin to realize that they are far smarter than they think. It’s all about hope: the belief that hard, persistent effort will pay off. And as O’Neill and Conzemius assert, with such goal-oriented structures, “Hope can be learned.” Effective goals urge us to attend to the most critical elements of improvement: solid evidence of learning, short-term results, common formative assessment (which reveals those short-term results), recognition and celebration of short-term results, and the all-important opportunity for teachers and students to enjoy— to “take joy”—in their work. These are the major, protean elements of substantive improvement. Perhaps the primary theme of this book is that we cannot take these elements for granted. O’Neill and Conzemius are right: SMART goals—rightly understood—are still all too rare. Make no mistake: Such goals represent, in the authors’ words, “business as unusual.” This book makes a rich contribution to clarity about this most pervasive and practical concept, and helps us to understand and implement the goal-oriented principles and practices that will help schools to be vastly better than they are, vastly better than they ever thought they could be.

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— Ellen S. Perconti, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Independent School District #1, Lewiston, ID