SMART Schools:  Training for School Leadership Teams

When:               Thursday, September 18,  12:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Where:             National-Louis University-Lisle Campus

Cost:                 Individual    $100     

                          Team of Three-Five  $250        Team of Six-Ten  $350

Why:  There are growing demands on the resources and energy of educators.  Consider the enormity of the task:  we must educate the whole child; we must attend to children’s daily needs; we must prepare children for all possible futures; we must meet the needs of ALL children; we must meet the needs of multiple stakeholders with differing expectations; we must be accountable to our public.  The ability to meet these demands and do them all well, at the same time, for a sustainable period is well beyond the capacity of must current educational systems.  Schools must work smarter not harder.  In SMART schools the staff shares clear goals for student learning (FOCUS).  There is collaboration and collective responsibility among staff to achieve those goals (COLLABORATION).  There is professional inquiry by the staff to address the challenges they face (REFLECTION).  There are opportunities for staff to influence the school’s activities and policies (LEADERSHIP CAPACITY)

Background:  SMART School training will help you set the stage for collaboration and teamwork by sharing research-based practices to assist you become a SMART School.   SMART Schools use focus, reflection, collaboration, and leadership to set strategic and specific, measurable, attainable, results-based and time-bound goals.  The progress made in reaching these goals can be measured using a comprehensive collection of data-measurement and data-analysis tools.  CEC’s Perry Soldwedel, Associate Director for Systems Thinking, will facilitate the training.

Goal:  Build capacity of school leadership teams to build on a simple framework for becoming SMART, incorporating the best of continuous improvement within a culture of shared responsibilities.

Outcomes:  By the conclusion of this training, participants will be able to:

• Identify the elements of the SMART School framework
• Use CORE questions to assess their SMART School IQ
• Construct SMART Goals using the Tree Diagram
• Identify products of collaboration that will enhance a school’s/district’s “SMARTNESS”

More Details:  This half-day workshop is a highly-interactive workshop in which participants are asked to conduct self assessments, and share personal ideas around:

• Focus (mission, vision, and values—Performance Standards);  
• Reflection   (data management, formative and summative data, School Scorecard, the right data, data analysis)
• Collaboration (Effective and efficient teams, team skills, team reflection)
• Leadership Capacity (SMART Goals, indicators, measures, timelines, action plans, monitoring and tracking progress

Registration:    Please register by September 10th

For Further Information:    Contact Perry Soldwedel at perry.soldwedel@cecillinois.org