Increasing student academic achievement or performance is an ever present and ongoing challenge. However, many of the usual or tradtional solutions are not performance based. These 5 quick tips may help you quickly raise the performance of your students and school.

1. Raise the bar of expectations. If you have a grading scale like this one:

Grading Curve: A (93-100), A- (90-92), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C (73-76), C- (70-72), D+ (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62), F (0-59)

Run do not walk to the nearest garbage can and throw it away. Raise the bar. Low expectations always lead to low results. Expect more from your student and tie those expectations to specific measurements. HINT: If you actually use this curve for your students, do you use it for your teachers? See tip #2.

2. Be consistent in rewarding all behaviors or punishing all behaviors. Also be consistent in your daily beliefs (attitudes) and behaviors. Be up at all times even when you feel down. Model consistency to ensure sustainable performancefor your staff or your students.

3. Communicate clearly your expectations. Don't presume that a staff or student knows something. Communicate and verify that expectation. Remember, conditioning from previous work experiences, school experiences and home experience is ever present and that the majority of this conditioning is negative.

4. Place a higher value on academic and student leadership success than athletic success. Some schools actually have "Letterman Jackets" for academics. For it is the academic success that will carry 99% of your students into the real world, not their athletic abilities. Return to the previous 3 hints.

5.Remove the waste by evaluating your learning strategies. For example, if you are using cooperative learning, assess the skills necessary to be successful. Chances are many young people lack all of these skills and hence you are not leveraging this dynamic strategy. A lot of wasted time is being spent on classroom management issues that should be devoted to engaged learning.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Good Day. Thanks for visiting. I hope that you have enjoyed my articles. In 1999, I founded ADVANCED SYSTEMS because I saw that performance could and should be doubled in warp time. Individuals, small and large businesses could not afford expensive solutions that may or may not deliver improved results in 12 months.

From my corporate, small business and education experiences, I recognized the individuals must have opportunities for connecting their passion to their purpose to secure the desired performance results, but many lacked the necessary skills, strategies and tools.

With over 20 years in sales management and 10 years in education, I understand how to unite productivity with profitability by developing a proactive working culture. My previous experiences resulted in cost savings through one of the first implementations of a computer software in a wholesaler distributor to the creation of a vendor performance assessment.

Since facilitating over 500 sessions, developing and editing over 25 training programs and writing numerous articles focusing on performance improvement, I bring a results focused approach to my clients. Also, I am proud to be one of the first five nationally certified facilitators of America’s Rising Stars (a Student Leadership developmental curriculum).

My passion is to help others connect their passion to their purpose to double performance. As The small business coach in Chicago, my clients have easily doubled their performance. Since our greatest resource is our young people, I am now working with large urban schools to generate the same results.

Education Background

• Graduated with honors from Purdue University with a B.A. in Education
• Earned M.S. from Purdue University in Instructional Design and Curriculum
• Published in the national trade journal, The Supply House Times, and numerous national newsletters
• Developed seminars and training on diversity, communication, leadership, sales, effective trade show behavior, networking, knowledge management, goal setting and improved educational outcomes
• Co-authored M.A.G.I.C.A.L. Potential: 7 Capicities for Living an Amazing Life Beyond Purpose to Achievement, to be available in 2006
• Working a another book focusing on performance in public education
• Speaker in a national bureau - Resource Associates Corporation