Are You Communicating Progress Towards Goals—Or Just Tracking It?

Schools are full of goals. We work in teams to set them, design actions to reach them, and gather data to evaluate progress. But here’s a question that doesn’t get asked enough: 

Who actually knows about the progress being made?

Too often, progress lives in a spreadsheet or only gets shared in an end-of-term/semester summary. But if we want students, staff, and the wider community to feel connected to school improvement, we need to communicate progress clearly, consistently, and widely.

When we're working toward shared goals—like building a stronger feedback culture or strengthening literacy—people naturally want to know: 

• Is what we are implementing, working?

• Where are we now?

• What’s changed?

Sharing progress isn't just about success—it’s also about learning in public. When we’re open about what’s working and what still needs work, we show that school improvement is a living, learning process.

Just as importantly, think about your audience.

• How do students hear about schoolwide progress? Do they see themselves as contributors to it? Can they name what’s changing and why?

• How do families find out what the school is working on? Do they feel like partners, not just observers?

• Are staff across teams and roles seeing the same picture of progress? Are they hearing each other’s stories and learning from one another?

So how might you do this?

Idea 1: Communicate progress clearly, regularly and with purpose

Idea 2: Try some of these sentence frames

Students deserve to see that their school is growing because of them, not just around them. Hearing something like “Our schoolwide writing goal improved because of how seriously you’ve been using feedback” deepens their sense of purpose and ownership.

Teachers and teams thrive when they know their efforts are making a difference. Celebrating small wins—like a boost in student engagement or better attendance in a target group—builds momentum, motivation, and trust. Check out another PIE about planning to celebrate HERE.

Families and communities should feel like part of the journey, not just recipients of the final results. When updates connect to shared values— growth, belonging—they reinforce authentic partnership.

Because progress that’s shared, is progress that’s owned.

If we want our school goals to truly live in our community, we can’t just track them—we need to talk about them, often and well.

So ask yourself:

You’re making progress towards your goals. But who knows—and how do they know?