The Big Bang: Do Targets Actually Work?

Does target-setting decrease performance in schools?

It is taken for granted in schools and academies that targets for teachers and children are motivating, measurable, and improve performance, whether it is through learning, better grades or performance management.

No learning can take place in the classroom without an objective or target; no teacher can be relied on to do their job properly without setting targets each year; and certainly no leader can motivate their staff without drilling their whole-school targets into them every TE Day.

But where is the actual evidence that targets, and in particular SMART targets, do any good?

Has anyone measured the productivity of schools before and after target-setting, and is there a significant rise in progress, both for teachers and students, since this immersion into measurability?
Owen Barder, Senior Fellow and Europe Director at the Centre for Global Development, writes in his blog:

When you do think about why we have targets, it turns out that the reasons are not very good.
“targets motivate people”
On the whole, they don’t. Most people – especially public servants – already want to do a good job. It is conceit to think that setting a target is going to make someone work harder. When targets do cause people to behave differently, it is usually to do something perverse to meet the numerical target.
“targets set direction”

It is important for everyone in the organisation to know and understand what the organisation is trying to achieve. But that should mean getting on with the work that really matters. Targets turn people’s attention to being seen to meet targets instead.