Tool: Goal-Setting Worksheet

This worksheet, in combination with the Preliminary School Inventory tool, will help a school design team reflect and brainstorm on the school’s needs and goals. With the inventory, this worksheet should guide the selection and adaptation of school model(s) and ensure that all members of the design team agree on the opportunities and challenges in building an Opportunity Culture.

To use this worksheet:

Answer the guiding questions to begin to analyze your school’s needs.
Use your school’s student outcome data, ideally by grade and subject; aggregated teacher performance data (if available); your school improvement plan; and the Preliminary School Inventory to answer the questions.
Draft goals for areasthe team has set as a priority.

Student Achievement Analysis Guiding Questions
OVERALL
Take 10 minutes maximum to scan your school’s data. What immediately evident areas of need are most important? Focus on broad trends; you will have time later to analyze data in detail.
Describe key characteristics of student need in your building / Example responses:

Very weak math performance that has not budged for 3 years
Little cohesive culture among students and teachers

GRADES AND SUBJECTS
Use knowledge of your school and available student achievement data to determine priority grades/subject areas. Note areas with declines in achievement or significant gaps between school and district performance.
What are your priority grades and subjects? Focus on a maximum of three grade/subject combinations / Example responses:

4th- and 5th-grade math
Literacy in early grades

SUBGROUPS
Use your knowledge of your school and available student achievement data in your answers, noting areas where the gap between subgroups at your school exceeds the district average.
Do the data suggest any particular student groups you should prioritize? / Example responses:

English language learner students
Special education students

*Adapted from materials by Public Impact, Education Resource Strategies, and Education First

CURRENT STRATEGIES
What specific actions or strategies in your school are leading to positive outcomes? / Example responses:

Looping of kindergarten and 1st-grade students and teachers
Intervention block for struggling students to receive support

What specific actions or strategies in your school are not leading to positive outcomes? / Example responses:

Time spent during in-school suspension not used well
Advisory period

Teacher Data Analysis Guiding Questions
For all areas below, use your knowledge of your school and refer to appropriate teacher data if available.
OVERALL
List major areas of strength and needed growth among your teaching staff. / Example responses:

Teaching staff needs to improve how effectively they use planning periods.

PRIORITY AREAS
Based on the composition of teacher performance in your school, which of the following should be a focus and why?
Leadership Opportunities:
Creating roles to leverage excellent teachers?
School/Teacher Culture:
Building a strong and cohesive culture?
Teacher Retention:
Retaining excellent teachers?
Teacher Development:
Developing underperforming teachers?
Improving the quantity and quality of collaborative professional development?
Tailoring support to novice teachers?
CURRENT PRACTICES AND STRATEGIES
What specific teacher actions or strategies in your school are leading to positive outcomes?
What specific teacher actions or strategies in your school are not leading to positive outcomes?

Prioritizing Areas of Need
Looking at your answers to the questions above, what are your areas of need?
What areas of need must you work on first—that is, these should be the focus of the next 2–3 years?
Can these areas of need be targeted toward particular student or teacher groups (such as only for ELA, or building teams only in the 9th grade)?
Setting Goals
Using your answers to and thoughts about the questions above and other data, draft goals for the specific areas you set as a priority. These will often focus on targeted areas, but can also be school-wide areas for improvement.

These are only draft goals; you will be able to revise them.
A school design partner may provide you with guidance and feedback in preparation for the next design session.

Prioritized Areas of Need / Goals