What’s the Measure of a Great School?
One of the mistakes that organisations in the social sector commonly make is measuring their greatness based just on quantifiable outputs (eg student results) or, worse still, on inputs (eg budgets).
Think about your own school or school district for the moment and ask yourself these questions.
1. Are you clear on your measures for success?
2. Are these measure appropriate relative to your mission or purpose?
3. Do you consistently focus on those measures and assess your progress?
The confusion arises because, in contrast to the business sector, the outcomes are not fully easily measurable. Of course, its easy to measure student results but when it comes to focusing on the child’s overall development - well, not so easy.
But as Jim Collins says in Good to Great and the Social Sector:
“…separate inputs from outputs, and hold yourself accountable for progress in outputs, even if those outputs defy measurement…To throw your hands up and say “But we cannot measure performance in the social sectors the way you can in business” is simply lack of discipline. All indicators are flawed, whether qualitative or quantitative. Test scores are flawed, mammograms are flawed. crime data are flawed….What matters is not finding the perfect indicator but settling upon a consistent and intelligent method of assessing your output results, and then tracking your trajectory with rigour. What do you mean by great performance? Have you established a baseline? Are you improving? If not, why not? How can you improve even faster towards your audacious goals?”
And don’t be afraid to involve staff, parents and students in identifying and setting these goals.
Here’s one Australian school that has taken a small step in the right direction (and is refreshingly willing to publicly admit that they have room for improvement).
PS If you are wondering if there is a link between our name (Great Schools Australia) and Collins books, the answer is yes and no. No in the sense that we did not derive our name fom his work. Yes in the sense that, with a couple of exceptions, we like much of what he has to say. I highly recommend Collins books for school and school district leaders.
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