GOAL SETTING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS
| Published date | 01 February 1975 |
| Pages | 62-72 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009734 |
| Date | 01 February 1975 |
| Author | FRANCINE S. HALL |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 2 OCTOBER, 1975
GOAL SETTING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: A CRITICAL
ANALYSIS
FRANCINE S. HALL
Four common goal setting practices in public schools are assessed from the perspective of
modern organization theory. The major thesis of
the
paper is that organizational goals are
established through the process of committing policies and allocating resources. Thus, the
paper questions the rational approach to goal setting in which goal statements are
developed by
ad
hoc committees independent of
the
arena in
which
operative
decision mak-
ing
occurs.
The paper concludes that goal setting
should be
viewed
as a major
confrontation
of
values
and
that administrators
and
policy makers might better clarify school goals
by
ex-
amining their actions.
INTRODUCTION
Never before has the need to understand how goals are determined in
public education systems been more salient than it is today. In the past,
administrators were both content and safe in presenting the appearance
that their schools had goals. Today, efforts to change
and
improve educa-
tion through rational planning and accountability schemes require that
goals be specified and their attainment measured. Thus, personnel in
public education are increasingly
faced
with
the
problem of
clarifying
what
the goals of their organizations are, or will be.
Unfortunately, the response to this problem appears to be equally
rational.
At every level in education one finds people engaged in what has
come to be known as goal
setting.
Ad hoc committees are formed to
develop
goals.
Charged with
the
task of
producing a
set of
goal
statements,
these committees often approach
the
job as if it were a matter of simple,
rational decision making. Frequently, however, they find that it is neither
simple nor rational. Depending on the composition of
the
group, conflicts
may arise and attempts to use problem solving techniques may fail to
produce agreement. If pushed to reach consensus, the group may finally
settle on a series of ambiguous intangible goal statements. Such state-
ments often satisfy everyone and specify nothing. Finis! The committee
dissolves and the system has a new set of goals—or does it?
On the surface it would appear that the task of establishing goals has
been completed. More often than not, however, the statements that
emerge bear little, if any resemblance to the real goals of the school.
Rather than clarifying what the real goals of the system are, goal state-
ments may only confound the issue. While goal setting as it is currently
FRANCINE S. HALL is Assistant Professor, Division of Management Science, University
of
Wisconsin,
Parkside. She holds the degrees of B.A. (Boston), M.S. (Southern Connecticut
State College) and Ph.D. (Toronto), Professor Hall is co-author of Experiences in
Organizational Behaviour and Management (Chicago, St Clair. 1975).
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