Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders. This is something almost anyone would attest to. This is the main reason behind the need to evaluate education systems not only in this country, but throughout the world. After all, the world might well need quality leaders everywhere, right? That is why it is important that all educational institutions, regardless of the level of education they provide, have what is known as a school scorecard drawn with the right combination of metrics. In this way, educational institutions would have a systematic and accurate way of measuring their performance, with much attention paid to the key areas of performance that have such an impact on tomorrow’s leaders, as we speak.
Looking across academic institutions today, there is a prevailing trend that you may notice. Around the world, you will find that there are an increasing number of registrants year after year. This, in turn, means that there will be more demands for these academic institutions to meet. Then it would be more vital to have education evaluation metrics.
The BSC or Balanced Scorecard has long been an extremely effective management tool across all industries and the academic industry is by no means exempt from this. This started as a tool implemented in the corporate environment. But as more and more companies began to discover the benefits of using the BSC, it didn’t take long for universities and high schools to see how this management tool could be used in academia as well. As long as the scorecard is comprehensive and applied to the relevant issues and areas of performance in the academic industry, you will have a tool that can give you much-needed guidance.
The scorecard is effective only with the presence of criteria that must be used to characterize and measure the effectiveness of the institution. To do this, there have to be four covered areas. These are the internal actor, the external actor, the growth and innovation sector, and the operational-financial performance of the academic institution. All of these areas should receive the same attention and priority. Focusing on just one or two of these areas would only give you a useless scorecard in the long run.
There have to be built-in effective benchmarks for each performance area. Outside stakeholders, for example, might have access to students, outreach, and marketing as reference points. Meanwhile, the internal stakeholder could have integrated planning, safe and secure campuses, performance measurement, and effective communication.
Programs, coordinated programs for teacher development, educational modules and innovation in service delivery could be benchmarks used in growth and innovation. Practical resource planning strategies, school facility improvement, and school equipment and facility replacement are excellent benchmarks for the area of financial and business performance.
Incorporating these would definitely come in handy when you’re drawing up your school’s scorecard. Keep these tips in mind and you are sure to develop an extremely consistent scorecard on your hands.