Goal Setting: Essential Resources to Help LEAs

The Region 15 Comprehensive Center (R15CC), is federally funded to provide high-impact, customized, and responsive capacity-building technical assistance to state education agencies (SEAs) in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. R15CC partnered with the California Department of Education (CDE) to create resources for local education agencies (LEAs) to guide the development of well-written goals for their Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs).

The LCAP is a three-year plan that California LEAs use to set goals, plan actions, and leverage resources as part of their strategic planning process to improve student outcomes. It is required by the state of California for all LEAs and is focused on the following eight specific state priorities: basic services, implementation of state standards, parent involvement, pupil achievement, pupil engagement, school climate, course access, and other pupil outcomes.

The LCAP is developed collaboratively by educational partners—teachers, principals, administrators, other school personnel, local bargaining units of the LEA, parents, and pupils—and is reviewed and updated annually as part of continuous improvement process.

Effective goal setting is a critical aspect of LCAP and LEA strategic plans. Goals that are well-developed and clearly communicated to educational partners provide a roadmap for the LEA to achieve its intended outcomes. To ensure success, goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART), and they should align with the why statement, the measuring and reporting results section, and the actions.

The why statement provides educational partners with an understanding of the purpose behind the development of the goal. It clarifies the motivation and intentions of the LEA's goal-setting process.

The measuring and reporting results section outlines the criteria used to determine progress toward the goal. By measuring and reporting progress, the LEA can make informed decisions and adjust strategies as needed to achieve the desired outcomes.

The actions section supports the accomplishment of the goal by detailing the steps and strategies that the LEA will take to achieve the desired outcome. By aligning actions with the goal and the measuring and reporting results section, the LEA can develop an effective plan to achieve its intended outcomes. 

Resources for Developing Well-Written Goals codeveloped by the R15CC and CDE include

• a high-level overview of the goals section, and
• a checklist that can guide the development of effective goals, why statements, metrics, outcomes, and actions.

While these resources were developed specifically for California LEAs, they can be used for any type of goal-setting process to help LEAs effectively set goals, plan actions, and leverage resources to improve student outcomes.

The content of this report was developed under a grant from the