In Quality Check: The Best Way to Measure School Performance, author Lynn Olson argues that the traditional answers to that question, such as standardized test scores, U.S. News rankings, or graduation rates, are insufficient and biased.
"Schools today are routinely rated in ways that fail to reflect the research on school quality, under measurement systems that fail to capture essential characteristics of quality schools and key student outcomes," Olson says in the report. "It is time, the research suggests, to rethink how we measure school performance."
The report cites five key attributes that strong, high achieving schools have in common:
- Ambitious instruction, characterized by a coherent curriculum and significant academic demands
- A school environment where students feel safe, supported, and respected by teachers
- Committed teachers working to improve their schools and themselves
- Effective school leaders
- Involved families
Taking this into account, the best and most research-supported way to measure school quality, Olson argues, should focus on an analysis of five areas:
- Standardized test scores, as one important but not overriding element
- Students' level of access to ambitious instruction and advanced coursework
- Levels of access to high-capacity teachers and school leaders
- Prevalence of the aspects of positive school climate and culture that are most related to student success
- Levels of student success after high school
To learn more, download the full report from the FutureEd website.
FutureEd is an independent, solution-oriented think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. The Keystone Policy Center is an independent non-profit focused on developing actionable solutions to contentious policy challenges.
