SMART Templates

Video Transcription

There are many templates available to help PLCs and site-based management teams to develop and monitor their SMART goals as part of their continuous improvement efforts. You'll find that many templates are quite similar in content, but they vary widely in structure. So in this tutorial, we'll discuss the features you might find in various SMART goal templates, and then I'll model the process of using a SMART goal template. Finally, we'll consider how you might measure and monitor your progress towards your SMART goal.

Let's get started. You'll find that there are numerous SMART goal templates available for your team to use. There are a few important elements to consider in order to locate the templates that will best fit the needs of your team.

First, would you prefer to work with a word processing document or a spreadsheet? Second, is it important to you that your template is collaborative. A collaborative spreadsheet or word processing document will allow the entire team to view and collaborate on the template simultaneously. Your team will need to select a SMART goal template based on your answers to these questions.

No matter what type of template you choose, be sure that it aligns with the SMART acronym by providing spaces for you to record the specific goal, and details about how you'll measure progress, the criteria that make the goal attainable, the relevance of the goal or the responsible participating individuals, and a timeline for monitoring progress, reaching goals, and reviewing and adjusting the goal.

If you are leaning towards a template in the form of a collaborative spreadsheet, you might consider using an online SMART goal template like smartsheet.com, which allows you to collaborate to create timelines, assign individual and group responsibilities, monitor progress, and display a Gantt visual display for project management. If you're interested in checking out Smartsheet, you can sign up for a trial of the baseline version for free by linking a new Smartsheet account to your Google account. Smartsheet's project template can be customized to create a SMART goal template for your team.

To demonstrate the process of using a SMART goal template to monitor progress, I'll refer to this SMART goal. Note that you can also use these types of templates to actually go through the process of creating your SMART goals if you wish. In this case, I'll be showing you how to use the template to monitor and evaluate progress towards achieving the goal or making progress in an initiative.

So here is the SMART goal that we want our students to achieve. By December 1st, 90% of students will demonstrate proficiency in using basic operations with fractions by attaining a score of at least 85% on a common assessment.

In this Smartsheetm note that specific action steps have been outlined, and team members have been assigned roles in those action steps. Expected dates for completion have also been identified for the action steps. After considering the SMART goal that students are expected to achieve, the team indicated how and when they'll be collecting baseline data, and how and when they'll be measuring progress towards achieving the goal.

They've clearly indicated the specific actions that will be taken in order to help students reach the goal, and the dates of completion in the Smartsheet correspond to the expected date of completion in the SMART goal. Dates for progress checking through the analysis of data are indicated, and all of the specific roles and responsibilities for the involved teachers are clearly outlined.

Finally, in the discussions column, teachers can record their thoughts about the attainability of the goal or about any other concerns they might have. The team can measure and monitor their progress towards a SMART goal on this collaborative spreadsheet. For example, in the baseline assessments, 60% of students are proficient in addition and subtraction, and 45% are proficient in multiplication and division.

After the team focuses on increasing proficiency in addition and subtraction, the formative data assessment reflects that 85% of students are now performing at proficient levels. This is great news. The students seem on track for 90% proficiency by December 1.

But after administering a formative assessment on multiplication and division, only 70% of students are demonstrating proficiency. While this is still a great improvement from the baseline data, the team isn't feeling confident that they'll reach 90% proficiency by December 1st. So now the team has some decisions to make. They might choose to alter their strategies, but they might also choose to revise the SMART goal itself.

Perhaps, based on this data, the team decides that 90% proficiency by December 1 was too lofty a goal. The team may choose to alter the goal so that it now asks for 80% of students to demonstrate proficiency by December 1st. Alternately, the team could have opted to extend the timeline for the goal. While at first glance either of these modifications might seem like an indication of failure, we really should look at them as exactly the opposite. These teachers have actively monitored data so that they understand the current reality for their students, and they are making informed decisions about how to proceed based on that data.

You've now seen how to use a template to monitor progress towards achievement of your team's SMART goals. Now, it's your tread to stop and reflect. Do you think that a collaborative tool like Smartsheet might help your team to monitor your progress towards your goals?

To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the additional resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material. Thanks for joining me today. Have a great day.