SMART Schools: Creating Meaning Through Measurement

"At last there is a HOW TO DO IT for every component of the learner-focused, data-driven, continuous school improvement process!" -- Dr. Libbie Conner, Director of Curriculum, Carmel Clay Schools, Carmel, Indiana

A comprehensive DVD-based training program, complete with a documentary showing a school implementing the S.M.A.R.T. Process including a S.M.A.R.T. Tools Data Workshop. The program includes more than 100 activities, PowerPoints, and a Facilitator's Guide.

In the S.M.A.R.T. Tools Data Workshop Jan and Anne show teachers how to: set the stage for data, conduct a needs assessment, gather perceptual data, analyze and display quantitative data, use tree diagrams to create and monitor S.M.A.R.T. goals, and use collaborative inquiry in a "PDSA" cycle to continuously improve.

In the "Our S.M.A.R.T. School" documentary, the principal engages staff and community members in a process where the steps include Visioning, Core Values, Needs Assessment, S.M.A.R.T. Goals, Implementing New Practices, Monitoring, Communicating, and Re-focusing. During this story viewers experience what leadership capacity building looks and sounds like.

Note: This documentary is based on Mendota Elementary School in Madison, Wisconsin, where, as poverty has risen over the past 10 years, so has achievement. Listen at the end to veteran teacher Cathy Hunt describe how this experience has transformed her as a teacher.