Charter School Strategic Planning #6: Setting Goals

So what happens once you know your mission and vision and have done your SWOT analysis? 

It's time to develop your goals.  These should be succinct and measurable goals.  A school will need goals for a number of areas.   At minimum, you should think about:

• Academic achievement goals
• Community goals
• Discipline goals
• Attendance goals
• Enrollment goals
• Financial goals
• Facilities goals

Other goals to consider are teacher hiring, teacher retention, class size, students participating in community services, students participating in extra-curricular activities and any other goals that derive naturally from you mission and your SWOT. 

Your goals should be measurable and clear.  You should also limit your goals to the achievable.  They can be stretch goals, but they should not be unobtainable.  I heard a board member recently that said, "We'll never really attain those."  If that's the case, then they aren't good goals.

Also, the goals should derive from your SWOT analysis toward fulfilling your mission.  For example, you may look at some weaknesses that need to become either strengths or at least neutral in order for you to complete your mission.  Create a measurable goal for eliminating that weakness.  Not every weakness needs to be eliminated.  Even more, not every weakness needs to be eliminated over the same time frame.  Goals should have a completion date attached.

Goals can also be overcoming threats and taking advantage of opportunities.  A school that I work with has identified an opportunity of becoming the model in their sector of charter schools.  The next step will be to define what their goal is and in what time frame exploiting that opportunity will be achieved. 

It may seem odd at first, but goals can also relate to strengths.  It may be that a school will want to increase and area of strength or take actions to ensure that the strength remains a strength. Strengths that are key to the school's successful completion of its mission should be maintained or even enhanced.  This may be having an effective teaching staff.  It may be the school's ability to make students feel welcome and inspired.  Whatever it is, it's likely that at least one or two strengths will need bolstering, and the strategic plan will need to include goals to accomplish that. 

Goals should  not simply come out of thin air.  A school may have some goals that are not strategic goals, but that's another subject, and those goals must never take priority over the strategic goals.  Goals must be based on the answers to two questions.

What strategic goals are necessary now to accomplish the mission?
What does our SWOT tell us about the highest priority areas to be addressed in order to accomplish the mission?

The idea of priority is key.  There are many ways to get at this.  Some are more efficient than others.  An objective facilitator can assist in an organized brainstorming session that can lead quickly to agreement on priorities.  This can be done without grandstanding or one person dominating the conversation.  A skilled facilitator will not let any participants dominant the discussion nor will he or she allow participants to refrain from giving opinions.  There are ways to ensure that all good minds contribute and that the most agreed upon priorities rise to the top. 

Once you have your goals, the next step is to figure out how to accomplish them.