Vitals for change: process, benchmarking and data.

Picture yourself as the coach of a football team. You missed a game for reasons beyond your control, but you of course want to know what happened. You know the score, but not how many yards your team gained, how many it gave up or any other information to help you determine why you lost and what you need to do to win in the future.

So often school system leaders are in the same position. They have data that tells them whether students are winning or losing but little data that tells them why.

Benchmark Data

Benchmarking is an important tool in systems thinking and in managing organizations of all types and sizes. It is a tool by which organizations can measure their internal processes against those of other, similar organizations, and against the best practices of their sector.

This analysis plays a key role in strategic planning and continuous improvement activities through which an organization increases effectiveness and efficiency.

Wikipedia says: "Benchmarking opens organizations to new methods, ideas and tools to improve their effectiveness. It helps crack through resistance to change by demonstrating other methods of solving problems than the one currently employed and demonstrating that they work because they are being used by others."

School system leaders often recognize the value of using data to make decisions, but the results can be even more powerful when also benchmarking processes to reveal ways to be more effective and efficient. Benchmarking a district's processes can provide leaders with ideas for improving in ways never imagined.

Process improvement can mean increased efficiencies (e.g., cost savings that can be reallocated) and increased effectiveness in how a district services its students (e.g., more highly qualified teachers).

Benchmarking can provide data behind the data that is helpful in evaluating and measuring the processes that constitute the subsystems of a school district. Those processes are often fundamental activities and include planning, developing, delivering and assessing instruction; designing and delivering student support services; designing and managing operations; or managing financial resources.

If school system leaders do have data on these processes, they likely do not have a complete picture of what it means because they have no way of comparing it with similar data from other districts. They have no way to benchmark their process data.

Examining Processes

There are many ways to benchmark performance. The AASA Center for System Leadership has partnered with APQC (formerly known as American Productivity and Quality Center) to bring one method to school system leaders. The Process Improvement and Innovation in Education initiative, or PILE, collects and analyzes benchmark data and best practices. Data from this effort provides districts with information for accountability, instructional improvement and data-driven decisions.

In the pilot phase of the PIIE initiative, 23 school districts, ranging from 10,000 to 747,000 students, collected process data in three areas: district hiring practices; student learning assessments; and instructional technology management processes.

The results of this study produced several interesting findings. A major overall finding is that improvement in district processes can mean significant cost savings. In addition, the study found:

* academically high-performing districts spend more than double on professional development for instructional technology personnel than the average district;

* nearly 60 percent of districts that are top performers in recruiting and hiring tend to allow resumes in lieu of applications, compared to 33 percent of average districts; and

* districts with efficient assessment programs spend a much higher percentage (23 percent) of their assessment budget on technology than the average district (6 percent).

Classification Processes

PIIE is built around the APQC Process Classification Framework, a taxonomy of all processes in any organization.

The taxonomy allows APQC to compare district measures and metrics among all participating districts in 12 categories that comprise the top level of the classification framework. The first five are core operating processes of districts such as: develop a strategic plan; develop curriculum and deliver and assess instruction; and design and deliver student support services.

The remaining seven categories represent supporting or enabling processes such as: develop and manage human resources strategies; manage financial resources; and acquire, construct and manage facilities.

Each of these 12 categories is further broken down into process groups, processes and activities. Altogether, there are 12 categories, 72 process groups, 314 processes and 537 activities.

That's a lot of measures, but in benchmarking, you have to know where you (and similar organizations) are to plan where you want go.

Join AASA's Study

AASA is working with APQC on a benchmarking study involving school districts that enroll more than 7,000 students. New participants are being sought.

To learn more, contact Juli Jones at [e-mail].

Anne Miller is director of strategic education initiatives with APQC, 123 N. Post Oak Lane, Houston, TX 77024. E-mail: [e-mail]. Joe Cirasuolo, chief operating officer at AASA, assisted in preparing this column.