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Working
systematically: Your goals and targets
What
are you going to achieve?
What's a goal?
A goal is a statement of what
you are trying to achieve — frequently in general and
sometimes in overall terms. Goals differ in important ways
from targets and performance indicators.
Three goals of the National Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Education policy most relevant
here are:
- To provide adequate preparation of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children through pre-school
education for the schooling years ahead.
- To enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander attainment of skills to the same standard as other
Australian students throughout the compulsory years of schooling.
- To enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students to attain the successful completion of
Year 12 or equivalent at the same rate as for other Australian
students.
The over-arching goal is to eliminate
the gap between the success rates of Indigenous and non- Indigenous
students. This is where your thinking and planning should
start.
The value of thinking holistically
is important. But because of the way multiple focal points
may make effort diffuse and cause energy to be unrealistically
spread, some management theory says — more than three
goals equals no goals. Three goals is likely to be an
upper limit for effective work.
TAKING
ACTION: Define your goals. Add them to your plan.
What's a target?
Targets
differ from goals in their degree of specificity and
time-bounded-ness. They are 'what by when' statements, defining
how and by when goals will be achieved.
So,
a goal might be — 'to improve the level of literacy
among upper primary students'. Relevant targets might
be — 'to have 65 percent of Years 5 & 6 students performing
at or above statewide averages in the literacy elements of
the Basic Skills Test within two years', OR 'to increase the
proportion of Years 5, 6 & 7 students working at level X in
literacy by the end of the year by 15 percent'.
While
goals may be lasting, targets can be progressive or otherwise
adjusted as circumstances change.
Why
set targets?…
TAKING
ACTION: Add targets to your goals. Put them in
your plan.
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