Pilot Project Will Enable Districts to Compare Effectiveness

Nearly two dozen districts soon will be able to compare the effectiveness and efficiency with which they assess student achievement, recruit and select teachers, and manage their information-technology systems, thanks to a pilot project launched by the Houston-based American Productivity and Quality Center.

The Open Standards Benchmarking Collaborative for education will enable 22 districts across the United States to frame common terms and definitions for how they collect data in core areas related to both their instructional and management practices. The three areas targeted for the pilot were identified by the districts as top priorities that have a significant effect on student achievement, and for which they could collect measurable data.

Over the next year, the center’s staff will design surveys to collect qualitative and quantitative data from the participating districts. The information will be validated and “blinded” to protect the name of each district, and then entered into a database that is accessible to all districts in the pilot. Each district will receive reports that compare its performance with the mean, median, and top performer...