A recent paper titled Not another meeting: How performance management routines help education systems deliver on their goals for students asks what data from the field can tell us about the ways in which leaders keep their systems focused on their goals through regular conversations about progress. This paper considers five years’ data from “capacity reviews” and examines the challenges leaders face in holding conversations that are regular, effective and focused on taking action to improve performance.
A capacity review is a rapid but thorough review of an education system’s capacity to drive reform and improve student outcomes. During a capacity review, a small review team external to the system gathers evidence via a document review, focus groups with stakeholders and a facilitated self-assessment exercise with the system’s leadership team. The purpose of capacity reviews is to gather formative feedback for improvement.
The data from this paper show common and widespread challenges, but there are also bright spots:
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has two main kinds of delivery routines, structured around the five key goals in its delivery plan. In “stocktake” meetings Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester holds the leader responsible for each goal accountable for progress every six months. Every other month, between stocktakes, the Delivery Unit prepares a concise memo for the Commissioner, keeping him apprised of progress.
In Eagle County Schools, Colorado, the district established a regular series of stocktakes in which staff reported to the superintendent and board of education on the implementation of their core strategies and tactics.
The Tennessee Board of Regents’ (TBR) experience of routines shows how regular conversations about performance are helpful for key staff, not just the system leader. They have created a set of routines where strategy leaders report out to the Chancellor on progress and ask for help. Routines happen twice a year per strategy with a summative “global stocktake” of all strategies once a year.
For more information and data, see Not another Meeting: How performance management routines help education systems deliver on their goals for students
