I regularly teach a graduate course in educational program design and evaluation. One thing we work on is developing program goals. Understandably, students often default to developing goals similar to those they’ve seen before—that aren’t goals at all—that are actually metrics. They articulate goals as increases in standardized test scores or the number of books in the library or the attendance at parent nights…They mostly articulate goals as increases in standardized test scores.

I ask them if they chose education as a career because they wanted to increase standardized test scores. Of course not! *eyes roll*

Then we talk about all the great, valuable, powerful reasons they decided to teach and become educational leaders. This is the stuff program goals are made of.

On a recent flight I watched a TED Talk by Tristan Harris, How Better Tech Could Protect Us from Distraction. Tristan discourages us from typical design goals and encourages us to consider deeper human design goals that articulate our values. This resonated with me, capturing what I’ve been pushing with students, colleagues, and clients. Design goals, program goals, policy goals, product goals…rooted in human values.