Charting New Milestones: Enhancements to RCSD’s 2024 Student Goal-Setting Conferences Guide Students to Greater Success

A runner trains weekly, working toward going a little farther or a little faster. A gymnast practices a routine over and over, striving to stick the landing. Athletes are certainly not the only ones who set measurable, actionable goals.

Uplifting children as the main stakeholders of their education, Goal Setting Conferences empower students to name their successes and to challenge themselves.

Students began the school year with self-reflection and the goal-setting process. Families can also help facilitate those goals by planning for the student-centered conferences.

During Goal Setting Conferences, families and teachers will assist students in creating an Action Plan for achieving their goals. Families can discuss with children about what goals they have in mind, such as hopes for growth or what they are most excited about learning this school year.

The Action Plan includes:

Student Goal: What does the student want to achieve?

Focus Steps: What steps might the student make toward achieving the goal?

Success Criteria: How will the student know they have made the steps?

and later,

Reflection Time: Students consider whether they are on track and what adjustments they might make.

Elementary School Level:

At the upper elementary level (third through fifth grade), either one goal will be worked on for the course of the year or a new goal each trimester, depending on student need. Kindergarten through second grade will focus on a new goal each trimester.

Following the conference, students will work toward their goal each week with progress reported on the first trimester report card November 8.

Middle School Level:

In Middle School, students will create goals pertaining to literacy and mathematics based on their i-Ready test scores, as well as setting personal goals for creating healthy work habits. Students will be encouraged to review their progress and set new goals throughout the year.

Student-centered goals are based around the RCSD Learner Framework: Empowered Learners, Knowledge Constructors, Effective Collaborators, and Creative Communicators.

Setting goals, in addition to qualities such as perseverance, motivation, and planning, is a beneficial academic habit that influences learning. Students will explore what learning means to them and how their actions impact their experience.

This school year’s Student Goal Setting Conferences are scheduled over the week of Sep. 30 through Oct. 4. There is no school for students on Monday, Sept. 30. Tuesday, Oct.1-Friday, Oct. 5 are super minimum days.