A private company can measure its success with financial measures such as return on sales and return on investments.
Although an increasing number of international schools are for-profit, schools usually do not disclose their balance sheets and other financial statements.
Sometimes even international school leaders are not privy to their school’s revenue and profit numbers. So, are there non-financial measures that can be used to measure the performance of an international school? Yes. And research reveals that non-financial measures paint just as clear a picture as financial measures. Therefore, we can predict that if an international school is performing well on non-financial measures, it is also realizing financial gains.
“Sometimes even international school leaders are not privy to their school’s revenue and profit numbers.”
Most schools judge their performance primarily on student achievement data. For example, how many 4s and 5s did we achieve on Advanced Placement (AP) exams? Are our IB Diploma results better than last year? University acceptances may also be used as a signal that our school is doing well.
Although these measures are good, they are not the only things that should be analyzed and discussed when judging a school’s performance. Other non-financial measures can also be used to gain a clearer performance picture.
There are at least seven other factors that can be measured:
- Quality of services and programmes
- Development of new services and programmes
- Ability to attract teachers and school leaders
- Ability to retain teachers and school leaders
- Satisfaction of parents
- Relations between management and other employees
- Relations among employees in general
If these seven factors are high in a school, its AP or IBDP results will most likely also be high. Members of a school, including leaders, faculty, and staff can individually rate their school on the seven factors.
For example, teachers can think about the quality of their programmes and services over the past three years as compared to the quality of programmes and services of other international schools in their city or province. If a teacher doesn’t know how to answer this question, they could enter a “don’t know” response.
“After a year or two, a teacher usually has a good feel for how their school compares to others.”
The international school community is small, and news usually spreads fast; after a year or two at an international school, a teacher usually has a good feel for how their school compares to other nearby international schools. From my experience, most teachers can accurately respond to the majority of the seven factors. The overall data collected will remain accurate, especially if the majority of leaders, teachers, and staff complete the survey.
Here is an example of a survey that one can distribute and then analyze:
On the following factors, how does our international school, over the past three years, compare to other international schools in our city?
The survey can be given annually or biannually. The results, along with student achievement data, can give school leaders, owners, and board members a better picture of how well their school is doing.
Are there other ways a school can collect data for the seven factors? Yes. Factor-specific surveys can be created. For example, to measure parent satisfaction, a parent satisfaction survey can be crafted and sent to all parents. Some of the factors do not require a survey. For example, an HR staff member can provide faculty and staff retention rates for each of the past three years. Going forward, the goal would be to increase teacher and school leader retention each year.
If you have any questions about measuring your school’s performance, contact Wayne through LinkedIn or email waynoza@icloud.com