How do you measure growth?

We talk a lot about growth here at Growth-Driven Dad. I guess that makes sense. But, I’ve been wondering: how do we measure this growth?

How do we know if it’s working. I’ve long relied on the “take a step back and see what’s what,” approach. Spoiler alert: it’s not very exact.

I’ve been exploring this idea of measuring growth. Here’s what I’ve found:

• There is no defined way to measure growth
• Some say to put it aside and just focus on your progress, ie. are you going where you want?

The best evidence I saw for growth measurement in practice is the recommendation from educator Kathy Dyer. Within the context of a 2007 report that studied how the world’s top school systems keep improving, she writes:

How might the use of growth measures support the development or deepening of a growth mindset? Let’s consider a few more characteristics of a growth mindset: challenge is worthwhile; effort matters; getting things wrong and receiving feedback is positive, particularly when it guides improvement; and learning is important. With these types of characteristics, having data about where you are in your learning can be a strong support for moving forward. That’s where the use of a growth measure comes in to play.

If growth measures provide the change in academic performance over two or more points in time, then being able to determine a starting point and track the change (growth) lets us know what type of progress we are making. We can get a picture of what and how much learning is taking place and where we are in relationship to our goals. This provides us an opportunity to receive feedback, set goals, use the feedback and monitor our forward (upward) progress.

So, maybe a check-in ritual is all you need? To that end, I’m going to explore how I can look at my true growth goals and see if I can’t reverse engineer them in order to get a linear look at the steps I need to achieve before whatever growth I’m aiming for is achieved.

How do you, or will you, measure your growth? Leave a comment below and be sure to subscribe to my monthly newsletter for more content like this.