Measuring Institutional Performance - Assignment Example

Introduction One item that is of particular interest to policymakers, parents, and the general public is the overall performance of the educational institutions within a given community. According to Mayston (2000, pg. 1): Education provides an important area of application for systems of performance management and for techniques of performance measurement. Education is currently an area with a high national priority, in the form of a high weight given by politicians on the raising of educational standards and performance, particularly in primary and secondary education. However, the careful development of performance management systems and performance measurement techniques poses a number of detailed analytical problems that take on particular significance in the education sector, and which merit further examination. At the same time, interesting issues are raised about how best to increase and manage knowledge and information in the process of raising educational performance. There are a variety of measures through which this performance can be measured, most of which will be discussed within the context of this report. The individualized performance of the institution, the staff, the teachers, the administration and the students can be viewed in order to ascertain the overall performance of an educational institution as a whole. Measuring Institutional Performance One of the most common ways through which the performance of educational institutions is measured is through standardized exam score reports. The standardization of tests such as state- or country- mandated or largely optional college entrance exams makes it such that individuals of interest view the results of these tests uniformly across the board. For instance, if the students at School A receive higher scores on a standardized exam than students at School B, School A is viewed as being the better school. Some areas even rate their schools based on standardized score reports, with parents moving their children around to the higher-rated schools in hopes of them receiving a better education. Certain other statistics are also used as a performance measure when it comes to educational institutions. A large one is the number of students that enroll in college close to graduation or upon graduation from that educational institution. The rating and/or popularity of the colleges that those students enroll in also play a large factor in the process. The numbers of students within an educational institution that participate in community or other outside activities also give a favorable impression when it comes to measuring the performance of that institution. Generally, the more positive media attention an educational institution receives, the better it is rated in its overall performance. Size and financial matters also play a significant role in the performance measurement of an educational institution. Generally, larger schools are seen as being more productive since they typically have more resources to fund activities that can better enrich the lives of their students. They can also afford more educational materials that can help their students learn and retain more material. The tradeoff is that students in smaller schools often receive more personalized attention because of smaller class sizes and better student-to-teacher ratios. According to Mayston when referring to this topic (2000, pg. 1), "These issues relate to the clarification of the objectives of the education system, the impact of performance reward systems, such as Performance Related Pay, the role of resources in influencing educational outcomes, the reliability of existing methods of assessing educational performance, such as Data Envelopment Analysis and multivariate regression, and the need for an improved national comparative database if progress is to be made in several of these directions." Motivational Factors Likely to Influence the Level of Performance of Staff and Ways in Which Efforts May Be Made to Quantify Such Factors Staff members in pretty much any organization are motivated by some of the same things. Topping the list would have to be monetary rewards. Performance-based incentives are a great way to motivate teachers and other staff members to enhance their job performance, which can have great benefits for the students and the institution as a whole as well. According to Mayston (2000, pg. 1): A key potential role for non-profit performance indicators in public services, such as education, is that of clarification of the objectives of each service. The need for such clarification becomes even more relevant if performance measures are deployed within performance reward systems, such as Performance Related Pay (PRP), or within performance management systems that make public judgments on individual schools and teachers, such as in publicly available FSTED school inspection reports in the UK. These systems can provide powerful incentives for individual schools and teachers to seek to maximise their reported performance according to the measurement framework that is imposed upon them by the performance reward or management system. There are also ways to reward staff that do not involve direct monetary gains, but can at the same time help them achieve optimal performance. Some of these include open communication, staff meeting leadership, external training workshops, and self-evaluation tools. According to Falcone, regarding open versus closed communication styles (2002, pg. 1): Even if your senior management adheres to this closed communication style, practice open book management with your own staff. Whenever possible, research your organization on an Internet search engine such as Google.com. Or send a member of your team to the library to find information in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Who's Who in Finance and Industry or Ward's Business Directory. In essence, you'll have a chance to research your firm as well as your competitors, and little does more to stimulate interest and competition than pointing employees to the right tools to educate themselves (and the rest of your staff). Knowledge is power, and the Internet and library make for free resources of invaluable information. Another great way to increase a staff member or teacher's confidence is to put them in a position of leadership, whether it be administrative or as the leader of a club or group. This gives the staff member or teacher the impression that they are valued and trusted, which is highly likely to help boost their overall performance when it comes to work. Leadership positions give teachers and staff the ability to make decisions and feel like a more valuable member of the team than just when they are left to perform their regular job duties alone. Besides the ways that were mentioned in the paragraph above, putting staff members or teachers in charge of staff or teacher meetings is a great way to give them responsibility. This can also have the double benefit of helping to alleviate problems within the institution since teachers and staff will be playing an active role in addressing problems that may be arising. "In addition, keep an eye out for other ways to give your employees more responsibility to test their leadership skills. Respect and recognition are two proven ways to retain employees--and you don't have to spend a dime" (Falcone, 2002, pg. 2). Both internal and external targeted training workshops can also prove to be a valuable way to not only enhance employee performance, but to retain those staff members. A lot of individuals will continue to work at an organization until they feel they can no longer move up the ladder. Continuous training exercises, which are often a requirement of educational institutions anyway, will allow teachers and staff to continually learn new things that they can apply to their jobs and enhance their overall performance. "The key is to allow all your employees a chance to reach their career goals at your organization. People are much more inclined to feel like they're making a positive contribution to your organization if they're in a learning curve. So even if you can't promote them because of hiring freezes, you could indeed challenge them to challenge themselves" (Falcone, 2002, pg. 2). Another way to help motivate staff members and teachers, which will in turn help to increase their job performance, is to allow them to administer self-evaluations. "People want to learn, contribute and make a difference at work. They will do this better if they feel a direct connection with a company that benefits their own careers. Have your employees take stock of how they think they are affecting the business. It's a chance for your workers to give themselves an intermittent report card so that you can both compare notes" (Falcone, 2002, pg. 2). Falcone recommends breaking a self-evaluation into three different parts: past, present and future. This way, staff members can learn from what they did in the past, recognize what they are doing presently, and take steps to improve in the future (Falcone, 2002). Motivational Factors to Influence the Level of Performance of Students and Ways in Which Efforts May Be Made to Quantify Such Factors Students are often motivated by some of the things that were mentioned in the first section of this report. They are undoubtedly motivated when they receive high standardized test scores. They can also be motivated by their daily grades and by their report cards. Parental involvement also plays a large role in the motivation of students in school. Extracurricular activities such as sports, music, or the like can serve to motivate students to perform better in school. Not only do many of these activities require that a student maintain good grades to participate, but involvement in the activities themselves also serves to make students feel good about themselves, which in turn often leads to higher grades and better attitudes overall. Students are, of course, all completely different from one another and, thus, are motivated by different things. For this reason, it oftentimes takes a wide variety of strategies to increase a large number of students' motivational levels. This is often quite a challenge for teachers, especially since the act of teaching in itself is quite taxing at times. According to Davis, certain factors affect student motivation when it comes to their schoolwork (1999, pg. 1): "interest in the subject matter, perception of its usefulness, general desire to achieve, self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as patience and persistence." Of course, these factors will be different for different students based on their own individual needs. Also according to Davis (1999, pg. 1): Researchers have begun to identify those aspects of the teaching situation that enhance students' self-motivation. To encourage students to become self-motivated independent learners, instructors can do the following: Give frequent, early, positive feedback that supports students' beliefs that they can do well. Ensure opportunities for students' success by assigning tasks that are neither too easy nor too difficult. Help students find personal meaning and value in the material. Create an atmosphere that is open and positive. Help students feel that they are valued members of a learning community. General strategies for helping to increase the motivation of students are highly varied. They include individualizing approaches to students own needs, holding high but obtainable goals for your students, help students set achievable goals, keeping students interests and abilities in mind when structuring a course, keep the main focus off of grades alone, respond to students' performance, and motivate students to read (Davis, 1999 and University of Oregon, 2008). Conclusion How the schools perform within a particular area is of grave interest to policymakers, parents, and the community in that area in general. As such, it is important that they are held accountable for continuously striving to improve the education that they provide for students. Measuring the overall performance of an educational institution is one way in which this is done. Within the school system itself, the students and staff members and teachers are also measured according to their individual performance. References Davis, B.G. (1999). Motivating students. Jossey-Bass. Falcone, P. (2002). Motivating staff without money: here are four ways to motivate staff when there's not much in the kitty. HR Magazine. Retrieved June 5, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_8_47/ai_90536354 Mayston, D. (2000). Performance management and performance measurement in the education sector. The University of York. Motivating students. (2008). University of Oregon. Retrieved June 5, 2008, from http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/faqs/motivatingstudents/motivating.html Read More