In performance-driven districts, leaders constantly reflect on how well they are achieving and surpassing goals across district departments and schools. The same holds in performance-driven classrooms; teachers constantly reflect on how well their students are learning; they collect and analyze information about student learning, and the data are used in focused conversations with students to help teachers know if and when they need to re-teach the content, provide more practice, or coach more.
Teachers in the School District of Menomonee Falls (SDMF) build performance-driven classrooms. Check out what quality improvement professionals had to say about the district’s efforts during a visit (video cite):
SDMF Continuous Improvement from North Middle School on Vimeo.
At the classroom level, SDMF teachers know that their success is measured by how well their students have learned rather than how well they think they have taught. This means teachers collect and analyze data about student learning which helps them know what’s working well in their classrooms and where there is room for improvement.When teachers and students do this—when they engage in goal setting and instructional strategies that lead to improved learning—the result is increased student achievement, as captured in this Tweet by my colleague, Dr. Melissa Matarazzo:
At the district level, performance-driven improvement is built on quality-focused criteria and continuous improvement models aligned to goals and measures. Leaders use these data to drive decisions that accelerate movement to the goals. When leaders consistently and coherently move toward their goals and measures, they create a results-driven and performance-driven culture that produces improved student engagement; improved employee engagement and service excellence; and a great place for faculty to teach and staff to work, and for children to receive an excellent education. It’s in the culture, as captured by this Tweet from SDMF’s North Middle School principal:
The School District of Menomonee Falls is creating a culture of continuous improvement and quality. District and school leaders and teachers cascade goals and progress monitoring measures to the classroom level. Teachers have implemented a system of formative assessments to see how students are doing and make “real time” adjustments to instruction when needed. Students, beginning in kindergarten, are owners of their learning. Everyone is hungry to achieve quality and passionate in its pursuit.
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Video accessed via North Middle School’s Vimeo site.
Heidi Eliopoulos is the principal of North Middle School in the School District of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. For more information about the school, check out North Middle School’s Facebook page and its website. Follow Principal Eliopoulos on Twitter at @htaylor79.
Discover more about the School District of Menomonee Falls from the district’s website at http://www.sdmfschools.org/ or contact Mitch Maersch, the district’s Public Information Coordinator/Executive Assistant.
Our mission at Studer Education is to provide students with a great place to learn, teachers with a great place to teach, and parents with confidence that their children are getting a great education. Visit us online at http://studereducation.com. Studer Education is a division of Studer Group, ranked for the sixth straight year on the Best Small and Medium Workplaces by Great Place to Work® and a recipient of the 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Filed under: How to Lead…, iTeacherSuite – Teacher Tips, Our Partners, Who’s Engaged? Tagged: @htaylor79, Continuous Improvement, PDSA, performance excellence, Plan Do Study Act, School District of Menomonee Falls, SDMF 
