A report released by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which has invested more than $100 million in grant money in performance management initiatives across the country, said that school districts and charter management organizations are improving student achievement and making significant progress in closing the achievement gap through performance management.
Performance management is defined in the report as a leadership culture designed to improve student academic achievement enabled through technology to gather, share and act upon relevant and timely information, according to the Dell family foundation.
Leading indicators like attendance, teacher attrition and performance in certain courses that allow administrators and teachers to predict and determine appropriate preemptive action for academic issues before they become problematic and permanent are making measurable differences, the Dell family foundation said.
"We’ve all heard the issues, with too many students falling behind in math, science and reading; low graduation rates and the lack of college readiness among some of our most at-risk youth," said Janet Mountain, executive director of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. "This report outlines how different school districts across the country are using performance management to move from framing problems to solving problems."
Using a performance management dashboard, a student’s teachers are able to compare scores and data between students at the same grade level and determine performance based on metrics such as student participation, academic performance, growth/student progress, academic rigor and college and career readiness, the report said.
Furthermore, despite the fact that more than 30 percent of U.S. students drop out before graduating high school and a persistent achievement gap between students from different economic circumstances and racial and ethnic backgrounds remains, the report said that administrators and teachers agree that performance management has given them new insights to help improve student academic achievement. 