Education is more than just teaching children various subjects. There are numerous performance indicators in elementary education, middle school education, and high school education curriculums. Some school districts have hundreds of indicators to track.

Teachers become overwhelmed when districts or schools require too many extraneous performance indicators. They want to teach the required instructional material while providing the students with the needed emotional support in their care. 

The well-being of students and teachers diminishes when an unreasonable number of student and teacher performance indicators are required.  Teachers feel the pressure and quickly burn out. Students sense the pressure, and motivation decreases.

Rather than worry about ten, twenty, fifty, or even more performance indicators, imagine what the outcome could be if teachers could focus on just three critical key performance indicators:

1. Character Focused Prosocial Student Behavior – To create a supportive culture and learning climate by focusing on character and socialization skills that help students become more mindful of interactions like acceptance, respect, kindness, and cooperation.  
2. Academic Achievement – To cultivate a productive culture and learning environment by acknowledging student characteristics of attentiveness, self-control, diligence, perseverance, and responsibility while ensuring students are motivated, engaged, and excited about learning.
3. Teacher and Student Well-Being – To increase the overall contentment, satisfaction, and motivation of teachers and students by advancing the first two key school performance indicators.

Surprised? Most educators are because they are often distracted from teaching as they juggle various tactics like:

• Implementing that latest educational trend
• Taking away from instructional time with high-stakes required testing
• Attempting to adhere to high-performance indicators that seem unrealistic
• Managing the increase of teacher accountability, and so on

How many teachers say, "I can't add one more thing to my instructional day!" or "If we are required to do this, what do you want us to leave out of our instructional day?"   Multiple tactics and critical performance indicators quickly lead to an ineffective learning environment where the teachers' focus is divided.  

How can focus on just three key performance indicators work?

Implementing an effective character-building classroom management system and focusing on one performance indicator at a time quickly creates a positive, productive chain reaction. Improvement in one indicator overflows into the next one and continues right on down the list.

Why Focus on Prosocial Student Behavior?

When teachers focus on recognizing desired student interactions and behavioral characteristics like respect, kindness, and cooperation throughout the instructional day, a chain reaction is set in motion.  Students want to do better to receive positive recognition from their teachers.  They learn what positive character and prosocial behavior look like from the reinforcement of their actions and the actions of their peers.  Teachers discover more teaching time with fewer student disruptions throughout the school day.  This paradigm shift in a teacher's approach to classroom management creates a supportive and productive learning climate. 

Why Focus on Student Achievement?

If teachers cultivate a productive classroom climate by acknowledging student characteristics of attentiveness, self-control, diligence, perseverance, and responsibility, then, students have a better opportunity to realize their potential.

A climate of academic achievement emerges by reinforcing the characteristics needed for this achievement-oriented critical performance indicator and by discarding unnecessary ones. When teachers are consistent and authentic in recognizing students’ academic achievement, students become more motivated to do their best, ultimately learning more.

Teachers are more energized and want to provide innovative instructional opportunities. Students are happier, better behaved, and more prepared for life once they graduate.

Students who are successful in the classroom tend to be successful in other areas of their lives. Whether they play sports, participate in extracurricular activities, or enjoy positive relationships with friends, students tend to improve in these areas too.

Maximizing Teacher and Student Well-Being

As you can see, focusing on the first school performance indicator paves the way for the second key performance indicator. Achieving the first and second indicators also results in achieving the third indicator through cause and effect.

As student behavior improves, achievement improves. Teachers will be happier and more motivated to ensure their students continue to achieve. Simply focusing on just these three critical performance indicators provides additional benefits.

When students enjoy going to school, attendance rates improve. When students enjoy learning, graduation rates increase. Most importantly, these three indicators work with the majority students, so success is unlimited.

Creating the Ideal School Culture for Success

Creating the ideal school culture and learning climate for thriving students start with an understanding of how the essentials of character development are imbued with the critical performance indicators. School culture encompasses the character, academic, social, and emotional learning of the school community.

Since students spend a significant amount of time in school, they should feel safe, accepted, and supported by their peers and teachers. A persistent uplifting school climate has been linked to positive student character development, improved academic achievement, higher graduation rates, lower dropout rates, and increased teacher retention.

In fact, positive school culture is correlated to academic achievement across school levels—elementary, middle, and high school—as well as improved personal and mental health and relationships of all involved.

One of the biggest challenges for schools is filling the gap between the evidence demonstrating the positive effects of school climate and implementing school performance indicators to achieve success. The Honorable Character Classroom Management Systemᵀᴹ is the right tool to fill that gap.

School administrators can set the tone of a more positive and productive school climate by implementing Honorable Character Classroom Management Systemᵀᴹ schoolwide. A consistent, more positive school climate with higher academic achievement occurs with the Honorable Character Systemᵀᴹ, as noted in a 30-year analysis of data from the high-performing school where teachers developed the Honorable Character Systemᵀᴹ.  

By implementing the three key school performance indicators and the Honorable Character System, you will notice that your school climate and school performance improve immensely.

Where to Get Started?

Your next step should be to start building a new foundation with character embedded throughout the day within the classroom or home-school learning environment. You need an exceptional classroom management system that aligns with social-emotional learning goals and objectives—such as the Honorable Character Classroom Management Systemᵀᴹ.

Children taught using this system are better behaved, perform better academically, enjoy going to school, and end up graduating better prepared for their future. The skills they learn today with Honorable Character ensure their greater success in college, and in their careers, and in their relationships.

Additionally, teachers who use the Honorable Character Systemᵀᴹ in their classrooms report that they are happier and have higher job satisfaction rates. Parents can also use the Honorable Character Home Systemᵀᴹ to create the perfect learning climate to promote positive sibling interactions while exposing their children to simple money management skills.

To learn more about how the Honorable Character Classroom Management Systemᵀᴹ benefits students, teachers, schools, and homes contact the Honorable Character Team at info@HonorableCharacter.com or call 833-950-1256 today!