Designing Our School
We are the creators!
What we create will
reflect what we believe
about education and how
we think a school is most
effectively led and managed.
* Values * Vision * Design
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1
The Design Activity
• Who: In design teams of three school leaders each.
• Why: We have walked through two lists of effective instructional
practices, and they are also provided in an accompanying document
along with a third list. You can never have too many lists, right? We
will now reveal the method to our madness. These lists will serve to
inform you in setting a vision, formulating goals, and setting strategies
and milestones to improve teaching and learning in your ideal school.
• In real life, the exercise we are tackling now would be done over a
considerable amount of time and involve lots of people with an
interest in the school. But for practice, we will design our own schools
in small groups, or at least some defining aspects of a school.
• In this session, we will Set the Direction for our ideal school. In the
next session, we will Operationalize the Direction.
Values – Vision – Design
• We are the creators! What we create will reflect what we believe
about education and how we think a school is most effectively led
and managed.
Setting the Direction
A. Defining the School
1. School Name:
2. Age Range of Students:
3. Values: What key values do you expect to be exhibited in the behavior of school
personnel as well as students? 5 to 8 values would be a reasonable number.
4. Vision: [In its ideal form, how would you want the school to be described by its
stakeholders?] XXXX school . . . . . [in one sentence]
5. Mission: [What do you see as the primary purpose of the school? What will it do, in
one sentence?]
6. School’s Most Unique Characteristics (Its Focus): [What sets this school
apart from all the other similar schools? What will it be known for? What will be
emphasized in every classroom and in all activities?]
B. Determining Goals for Students
1. Academic Goal 1
a) Academic Goal 1: Each student will . . . [What is the goal for each student to achieve
academically while at this school?] [Note: Quantitative markers are NOT included in the
goal statement. They are in the Goal Performance Measure.]
b) Goal Performance Measure
• Indicator: [What is one metric you will look at to give an idea if you are moving closer to
achieving the goal? Often expressed in a percentage or a quantity. ]
• Data Source: [Where will you find the data relative to the metric?]
• Baseline: [Invent a baseline for the current year.]
• Year 1 Target: [Project where you expect to be in one year.]
c) Strategy: [Select a practice from IES, CST, or ADI list on the accompanying document –
Effective Practices - that will be key to your pursuit of the goal.]
2. Academic Goal 2
a) Academic Goal 2: Each student will . . . [What is the goal for each student to achieve
academically while at this school?] [Note: Quantitative markers are NOT included in the
goal statement. They are in the Goal Performance Measure.]
b) Goal Performance Measure
• Indicator: [What is one metric you will look at to give an idea if you are moving closer to
achieving the goal? Often expressed in a percentage or a quantity. ]
• Data Source: [Where will you find the data relative to the metric?]
• Baseline: [Invent a baseline for the current year.]
• Year 1 Target: [Project where you expect to be in one year.]
c) Strategy: [Select a practice from IES, CST, or ADI list on the accompanying document –
Effective Practices - that will be key to your pursuit of the goal.]
3. Personal Competency Goal 1
a)
Personal Competency Goal 1: Each student will . . . [What is the goal for each student to
a)
Goal Performance Measure
achieve personal competency while at this school?] [Note: Quantitative markers are NOT
included in the goal statement. They are in the Goal Performance Measure.]
• Indicator: [What is one metric you will look at to give an idea if you are moving closer to
achieving the goal? Often expressed in a percentage or a quantity. ]
• Data Source: [Where will you find the data relative to the metric?]
• Baseline: [Invent a baseline for the current year.]
• Year 1 Target: [Project where you expect to be in one year.]
a)
Strategy: [Select a practice from the ADI list on the accompanying document – Effective
Practices - that includes personal competencies that will be key to your pursuit of the goal.]
4. Personal Competency Goal 2
a)
Personal Competency Goal 2: Each student will . . . [What is the goal for each student to
a)
Goal Performance Measure
achieve personal competency while at this school?] [Note: Quantitative markers are NOT
included in the goal statement. They are in the Goal Performance Measure.]
• Indicator: [What is one metric you will look at to give an idea if you are moving closer to
achieving the goal? Often expressed in a percentage or a quantity. ]
• Data Source: [Where will you find the data relative to the metric?]
• Baseline: [Invent a baseline for the current year.]
• Year 1 Target: [Project where you expect to be in one year.]
a)
Strategy: [Select a practice from the ADI list on the accompanying document – Effective
Practices - that includes personal competencies that will be key to your pursuit of the goal.]
Presentations and Discussion
Presentation (5-10 minutes)
1. Present the school your team has designed
2. Use a Power Point, graphic, handout, or other tools
Discussion (prompts for audience) (5 minutes)
1. What stands out as an innovative approach in this school’s design?
2. What does this design tell you about the underlying education
philosophy of its creators?
Questions & Answers (5 minutes)
Operationalizing the Direction
• We have set the direction for our new school by describing the school
and setting goals for its students. We have also selected a few
strategies we will use to pursue the goals.
• To operationalize the direction we have set for our school, we will
construct milestones for each of the strategies. A milestone is a
statement of what we will have accomplished in one year relative to
the strategy.
• To get more specific about our work toward a milestone, we will
outline a couple actions that we would take as first steps toward the
milestone.
• One action will be a step we would take as principal.
• Another action will be a step we would ask of someone else. Would that be a
team, a teacher, another administrator, who?
Definitions
• Vision – A brief description of the ideal school as it might be described by a
stakeholder.
• Mission – The school’s central purpose, what it does.
• Goal – An academic or personal competency outcome desired for ALL students. A
goal stays in place for the long term—several years at least.
• Goal Performance Measure – A quantitative measure of annual progress toward
a goal.
• Strategy – A practice or cluster of practices that are employed in pursuit of a goal.
A strategy typically takes several years to fully implement.
• Milestone – Work on a strategy that will be accomplished in a year.
• Action – A significant task or activity that on the path to meeting a milestone.
A. Academic Goal 1 Strategy (from Setting the Direction):
1. Milestone 1:
a) Action 1 (our first step as principal):
b) Action 2 (the first step we will ask of someone else, and who):
2. Milestone 2:
a) Action 1 (our first step as principal):
b) Action 2 (the first step we will ask of someone else, and who):
B. Academic Goal 2 Strategy (from Setting the Direction):
1. Milestone 1:
a) Action 1 (our first step as principal):
b) Action 2: (the first step we will ask of someone else, and who):
2. Milestone 2:
a) Action 1: (our first step as principal):
b) Action 2: (the first step we will ask of someone else, and who):
C. Personal Competency Goal 2 Strategy (from Setting the Direction):
1. Milestone 1:
a) Action 1 (our first step as a principal):
b) Action 2 (the first step we will ask of someone else, and who):
2. Milestone 2:
a) Action 1 (our first step as a principal):
b) Action 2 (the first step we will ask of someone else, and who):
D. Personal Competency Goal 2 Strategy (from Setting the Direction):
1. Milestone 1:
a) Action 1 (our first step as a principal):
b) Action 2 (the first step we will ask of someone else, and who):
2. Milestone 2:
a) Action 1 (our first step as a principal):
b) Action 2 (the first step we will ask of someone else, and who):
So what?
Designing Our School has been an interesting project, but what is the
point?
In designing a school, you have drawn upon your own values as an
educator to create a vision of a school as you would want a school to
be. You also outlined practical steps in how the work would be put into
motion.
Now, how has this activity given you insights that will be useful in your
real work in your real school?
Applying What We Have Learned
Discussion
1. You developed values for the school you designed. Do these values
reflect how you go about your work? In what ways?
2. You created a vision for your ideal school. In what ways does that
vision statement express your personal philosophy about
education?
Discussion
3. What three conclusions do you draw from Designing Our School
might be turned into objectives for change in your own school?
a) __
b) __
c) __
4. Would all or part of the Designing Our School activity be useful with
your faculty or your Leadership Team?