What's Next for Seattle Schools?
I'll ask that question because apparently, the district isn't going to ask you.
I bring this up after reading thru the presentation for last week's Work Session with one section about SMART goals and the other about the budget. Here's the title for the SMART goals:
Selection of the 2017-18 Board Governance Priorities & Superintendent SMART Goals ... for next year.
Our goals help the Board and staff:First, that's great that the Board and senior staff finally realized that having too many goals dilutes the focus and the work. Also great is that their goals are aligned to the strategic plan.
a) Focus on: a few, high-priority and high-impact goals. Note: Over the last few years we have gone from 12 > 9 > 7 > 5 goals
b) Aligned to the Board-adopted 2013-18 Strategic Plan. Note: Our goals are now fully aligned to our strategic plan.
However, despite the rubric that staff uses to judge the implementation and output of these goals, I'm not quite sure I have ever seen how/when they know they have achieved them. Is complete implementation the goal or outcomes (to some degree) or both?
So their three big goals over the last three years were:
- MTSS
- EOG - Eliminate the Opportunity Gap
- Community Engagement
As a result: we are a high performing district outperforming our peers and each year we increase the number of positive outlier schools – leading the way state-wide in eliminating opportunity gaps.
This is also good news but I note that Seattle Schools Community Forum: What's Next for Seattle Schools?: