George jorge Bartow wrote:
> What interests me is that with the move toward accountability has come
> more oversight and control. Many of the newer measures of competency are
> lists and lists of checkpoints that an observer (e.g. principal or
> supervisor) looks for when he/she visits a class. The low salaries add up
> to a very demoralizing situation.
The failure to think through an evaluative process clearly and carefully
is one of my pet peeves in life. We set performance expectations
(corporate, departmental, individual) and then say we will measure them,
but fail to do so. All we accomplish is the facade of measurement if we
settle for the quick and easy "checklists." They represent a snapshot in
time that is tactical and not strategic. For educational organizations,
this is especially problematic since they function only on a long term
(strategic) basis.
I am especially fond of the Balanced Scorecard as measure of performance,
since it incorporates continuous learning and customer satisfaction along
with traditional measures of productivity and financial results. The most
accurate measure of customer satisfaction is probably repeat business (if
that is feasible) or referrals. Measuring that, however, is very
difficult in most businesses With education, real customer satisfaction
occurs 10, 20, 30 or more years down the road of experience...so we settle
for some possible indicator of customer satisfaction that we can capture
today ~~ easily and cheaply. It's important, however, to go through the
exercise of identifying the ideal, the realistic, the strategic or
tactical measures that an an organization believes will be useful.
With any organization, including schools, one must ask the hard questions:
1) how do you measure success?
2) what does it look, feel, and sound like?
3) what is the best measure of success?
4) what does it cost to measure that?
5) is it worth the cost? (some successess are inuitive; measurement is moot)
6) does the best measure provide operating decisions in a timely manner?
7) what measures are needed to conduct business on a daily basis?
8) what is the cost/benefit ratio of each measure of success?
9) what strategic data do you need to make good decisions?
10) what tactical data do you need to make good decisions?
11) what is a good balance of the two types of measures?
If we take the four areas of the balanced scorecard: financial, internal
processes, customer service, and continuous learning...and we identify
MEANINGFUL measures of their success, I find that a true balance in
measurement systems are arrived at. It will take more time, thinking,
questions, analysis, and learning...but the end result is data that helps
drive organizational (short term and long term) decision making.
And after all, isn't that why we measure in the first place?
kind regards,
Vana Prewitt
Praxis Learning Systems
www.praxislearning.org
--Vana Prewitt <vprewitt@bellsouth.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>