How Are You Measuring That?

Success is how your customers feel. How are you measuring that? 

Jiwa, Bernadette (2014-09-30). Marketing: A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers (p. 73). The Story of Telling Press. Kindle Edition. 

Read this and it really struck me.  We spend so much time setting goals and being very quantitative
about the things we are focused on instructionally.  We set up formative assessment processes, we discuss data in PLC meetings, we put the data up on the wall and/or student binders and it tells a story of learning.  We plan interventions and hopefully take the time to celebrate success!!  All of these are great things!

We are very familiar with the conversation about multiple measures of progress and success.  We are all beaten over the head with state assessments as the measure by which we are judged and emphasize to each other and our families that our students and our schools are so much more than a single day, a single assessment.  Shouldn't our success be more than data?  Shouldn't our success be more than simply numbers?  A part of our success should be measured in how our families feel.  Are they happy?  Are they connnected?  Do they feel apart?  Are they enjoying the experience of school and learning?

Annual surveys by the Gallup Organization published in Kappan magazine reveal that the closer (more connected) people are to their schools the more satisfied they become with their performance.

Vollmer, Jamie (2010-07-14). Schools Cannot Do It Alone (p. 197). Enlightenment Press. Kindle Edition. 

There are formal and informal ways to measure our success in this areas ranging from engagement measures and satisfaction surveys to counting smiles as students enter the building.  We all can speak to the fact that our feelings regarding anything have a tremendous impact on we approach tasks and situations and, in turn, the quality of the outcome.  How much time and energy are well placing there?  How much improvement would we see in our kiddos if we invested in the quality of the experience?

What are some ways that you are measuring how your families, students, teachers, etc. feel about the school experience?

Happy reflecting!

B