Why Time Use Evaluation?
Boards that want to have the strongest impact on improving student outcomes will demonstrate a very strong alignment between the vision and values they speak and the goals and guardrails they act on. The more alignment there is between saying and doing, the more likely it is that the school board’s actions will create the context for improvements in student outcomes. The less alignment there is, the more likely it is that the school board’s behavior is unintentionally harming the school system’s chances of improving student outcomes.
Alignment between saying and doing can be measured by comparing how the school board chooses to use the precious time it has each month – the time during public meetings of the school board – with the board’s written vision and values (the goals and guardrails they’ve adopted). This is the benefit of a time use evaluation: to reveal the extent to which there is alignment between what the school board says and what the school board does as a means of helping school boards see a path toward improving student outcomes.
Using the Time Use Evaluation
The Time Use Eval Form, when complete, is intended to provide school boards with concrete, measurable information about the alignment or non-alignment of their sayings and doings. This is not about identifying rights and wrongs, goods and bads, or any other moralistic judgment about how the school board has chosen to invest its time; it’s simply actionable information for the school board’s use.
Our coaching to school boards is that school boards that are intensely focused on improving student outcomes will aim to have the second to last row (student outcomes-focused minutes) be at least 50%. Our coaching is that school boards will spend at least half of their time making the main thing the main thing.
Click below to go to the Time Use Evaluation spreadsheet, go to File and download your own copy, then follow the directions in the first tab of the spreadsheet.