Plans and goals for the new school year?

I noticed it was almost September and the school year had started. A thought struck me: Did everybody involved with educating our children make a plan on what and how it is to be done? Did they all set goals for the school year? Was a monitoring system instituted to trace the progress of these plans? Have standards been set as benchmarks for everybody to evaluate at the end of year?

The school year began in August and ends in June 2001. How will be it fare out unless we plan? Will we have another school year and lament that our students are not progressing as well as we would wish them to? Let’s ask if any plans and goals have been set.

To the Legislature: Have you studied the needs of the PSS? Have you requested from them the goals they wish to achieve? Has money been discussed to hire teachers needed to fill the new classrooms and to supply the other needs? Or you going to chastise them in June for not doing a better performance?

To the Board of Education: Have you set goals for the year or are you just going to
repeat the same policies that have been set in place years prior? Are you looking into the charter school movement sweeping across the United States or any other innovative educational techniques which might help students to learn? Are you working closely with the Legislature and the Commissioner of Education to compliment your and their goals?
Are you studying how the system can be improved besides asking for more money? What monitoring system have you put into place to benchmark the status of achievement?

To the COE: What are your plans and goals? Have you made them public for all to understand? Have you effectively conveyed them to the principals in the schools? What changes or improvements are you seeking to institute? Do you see any urgent remedial needs? Have you set into place standards of learning that you will use to evaluate the system? What training are you planning to give your staff to improve them?

To the Principals: Have you explained the standards of teaching that you will be expecting from each of your teachers? What type of environment do you expect in your school? Do all the teachers understand your expectations? How will you monitor their performance? What do you expect from the students and parents and PSS to assist you in these plans?

To the Teachers: Have you made up your year’s program and clearly explained to the students what you will expect from them? Are you satisfied with your classroom and the supplies furnished? Do you understand your students and their needs? Will you be making a special effort to make sure that your students learn better than then they did last year? Will you practice social promotions?

To the students: Have you set any plans and goals this year or do you plan to muddle through perhaps the same as you did the last year? Have you shared the plans with your parents seeking guidance? What do you really what to accomplish this school year?

To the parents: Are you sending your children to school without inquiring what they will be studying? Have you made an effort to meet the teachers or are you waiting for them to call you when trouble happens? Have you sat down with your child and encouraged him to plan his future while in school?

Plans without standards and goals are like a ship without a destination, merely cruising around hopelessly lost. It’s not too late–make them now!