Understanding Balanced Scorecard for Schools and other educational institutions

Balanced Scorecard was originally developed with the aim of driving profit growth in traditional private sector organisations.  In this series of articles we will explore different applications in different sectors. This example focuses on using Balanced Scorecard for a School or Educational Institution.

This article will explore the concept of the balanced scorecard and how taking a balanced view of your school can deliver sustainable improvement to your performance, without the need for significant investment.

Let’s first start by understanding the components that make up the DRIVE concept

• D covers the Direction your School is taking or needs to take
• R is the Financial resources that you need to fund your School
• I is about focusing on Impressing your Pupils – past, present and future prospects
• V covers all of the processes you use to deliver your teaching to your pupils
• And finally E, the Evolution Engine that helps understand the impact of Passion, Performance and People in your School

In previous articles we have covered a more in depth explanation of the DRIVE concept – for more information, please read about DRIVE and Balanced Scorecard here.  Now let’s consider a simple, practical application of the Balanced Scorecard to a School.

To do this, visualise a pyramid containing each of the elements of DRIVE stacked.  We have already discussed that the best outcome is where strategy is driven down through the elements and performance is DRIVEN up.  This visual map will become our template for defining the areas of the School to be analysed and monitored – and highlight themes to be address that will create significant improvements.

The next stage is to consider the pyramid in a bit more detail.  The diagram is simplified for an organisation, showing 12 areas to be reviewed.

The process starts with the Goal of the School, which is likely to hinge on quantity and quality of grades.  Ultimately, this is the goal behind which the entire school will be aligned.

Next are the financial resource measures.  Simplistically, we have illustrated budget management and return on investment.

The following layer considers what the pupils and key stakeholders value in what the school is offering.  Their decision to attend the school will be driven by your teaching offering, your perceived image in the community and the way you manage the relationship with them.  A balance is needed across these to ensure a sustained relationship and it is important to consider all these in terms of past, present and future pupils.

Next is the Vehicle of your school, and the way in which you deliver your teaching service to the students.  Again three areas need to be considered.  Firstly, the processes directly involved in delivering teaching services.  Secondly all those departments, processes and services that, whilst not directly involved in teaching, play a very important part of the overall delivery.  Finally, the management of safety, quality and environment throughout the school.

The final part of the pyramid deliver the biggest element of change, again split into three areas of consideration.  First is ‘passion’, which covers the level of morale in the School and the effectiveness of the communication, both are inherently linked.  Next is the pipeline, a funnel to channel innovation through from concept to completion.  This pipeline may look to contain ideas in terms of teaching service, infrastructure improvements or equipment investment.  What is of imperative importance is the continuous flow of ideas.  The final area for review is the skills capability of every staff member in the school, from Head Teacher to a junior role.  A detailed skills matrix considering technical and soft skills, industry and community knowledge will highlight skills gaps that collectively could be having a significant impact on the effectiveness of your teaching.

This template will now enable a process of reviewing and monitoring a diverse set of measures that collectively highlight themes running through the school – which, if managed effectively, will DRIVE the school forward.

Having covered the DRIVE concept in some detail in a schools application, let’s consider the overriding benefits such an approach would bring.

As a funded cost centre, a school will constantly be challenged and constrained by budgets and therefore a focused decision making process around spending will ensure that every penny spent is invested in an activity aligned to achieving better grades for the school.

The concept should deliver a greater understanding of the school’s impact on pupil success and how the teaching, leadership and fabric of the school are assisting that success.

And finally, the concept will continue to ensure that performance is monitored in all areas directly or indirectly connected with the teaching of students and thereby making sure the whole School is aligned behind a central goal on a continual path of sustainable improvement.

Read more about Balanced Scorecard for Schools on the Inspired Change website.

This post is in: Balanced Scorecard