School Performance - Brooke Avenue School - Case Study Example

Running Header: School Performance Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: School performance Introduction Many companies and institutions underperform due to failure of linking the right strategies to operations. It is therefore important for companies to have a developed mission statement which is translated to enable the institution achieve its objectives and goals. A vision statement is also important and the values present should be maintained. This study reviews the Brooke Avenue School from a critical reflection regarding the measure of performance used in the school according to the information provided in my school website. Brooke Avenue School is operated as a community as members enjoy caring for each other. The school also employs professional staff members who conduct their programs in a professional way. The schools objectives is to ensure that every child acquire necessary knowledge, skills and good values. Attkisson et al. (2000) shows the acquired values should enable the students become creative in problem solving situations so that in future they can some up with proper decisions for their lives. The school achieves the above objectives by ensuring that a positive learning environment is provided as well as ensuring that core values are maintained. Some of the vices that the school is against include indiscipline, bullying and others that discriminate other students. The school curriculum is in way that all the parts are covered. These include the environmental education, aboriginal education, and technology and sustainability studies. Other subjects included in the curriculum include strategies that promote students talents and their leadership skills. The school educates students on how to be innovative in future. Fountain (2007, p. 8) describes that this can be achieved through the introduction of goal setting strategies where students take control of themselves. Attention has been created focusing on the benefit of an individual student. The system has open many opportunities for the students since they are able to focus on the subject that they know best. Some of the subjects taken up by many include creative arts and sports. The school is proud for nurturing proud citizens, intelligent and those who possess quality education. The school exerts control over its operations by providing professional staff members who are able to understand every student’s ability to enable them become useful members to the community. The Australian government measure performance through The National Assessment Program- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). The program analyses performance in schools by the use of charts. These charts display scores of students and compare them to other statistically similar schools. NAPLAN displays the scores of students in percentages are arranging it in bands. The students’ results are then compared with other schools across Australia that shares the same external environment. Kingdom (2005) shows this environment includes factors that affect performance such as the social economic factors, the geographical location of the school and the number of indigenous students present in those statistically similar schools. The schools average scores are then recorded by the program which then compares the students’ achievements depending on the average achievement of that particular school. This measure of performance links the objective of the Australian government by showing the average score that every school in Australia attains. This then enables the government to determine the best performing schools whereby the schools can either receive incentives or other educational opportunities. The government is also capable of determining the poorly performing schools and such schools can be improved. By categorizing the schools according to those that share the same environmental factors enables the government to realize the factors that enable the students to perform better. This measure of performance is therefore linked to the schools objective where students are nurtured to become important citizens to the Australian government. The creativity skills also enable the country develop through improved technology and innovation. The formula used to calculate this measure of performance is where the schools scores are arranged in domains and charts are displayed showing whether the school attained its average or if it did not attained. The charts are displayed in different colours introduced by the NAPLAN program. The program also provides every school’s information to the Australian government through these charts which can be easily understood. In monitoring its performance, the Brooke Avenue School employs the individual students’ ability. This is one measure of performance that the school views as important since it enables students to realize their potential. According to the plan, do, study, act (PDSA) plan, this measure fits well at the do stage which forms a basis for innovation. Curcio (1999) describes that one example is where students are given assignments that are not clearly explained since the teachers wants the students to come up with their own understanding on how to solve the problem. I think the measure of performance used in the school enables the school attain its objectives. However the measure used by the Australian government has no benefits to the students. This is because the school enables students to know what kind of tools to apply at every stage. The students are taught how to evaluate strategies to operational actions and this improves their creativity. This is where the teachers show their students the right direction and the resources needed in order to achieve their goals. The teachers then monitor their students to ensure that the right processes are applied. This monitoring and evaluation stage enables teachers to understand a student’s potential and therefore is able to correct any mistakes. The process is constantly repeated and updated to avoid various assumptions and to ensure that every one adapts to the system. According to Carnall (2005) there are various changes that lead to improvement of a situation. For the school to perform better, it is important for every one involved to understand the benefits of initiating change. The school as a community should enable every student focus on this change in order to understand the principles involved in improvement. Improvement occurs when the factors leading to change are effectively and efficiently managed. The school should therefore try to alter their measure of performance by changing several activities. Visible results should therefore be provided and should have a lasting impact for the benefit of everyone. In order for the school performance to improve, management should ensure that every student understand the benefits of this improvement. Holzer and Arie (2006) describes that a mechanism of measuring improvement should also be provided to measure the level of change. The school curriculum should be in a manner that all the issues be addressed in a planned way to produce better results. This improvement will be initiated through the introduction of a new strategy of measuring performance. The Australian government can use other factors of varying performance other than comparing the external environment of the schools. The school’s management has to consider their mission which states the purpose of their business, the vision which shows the future aspirations should also be considered before coming up with a new strategy. Values guiding their actions are also important in the process. The measure of performance used by the school enable the stakeholders of the school understand the efficiency and effectiveness of the school. This is because students are able to realize their potential and this makes it easy for their teachers to put more emphasis at their weak points. The result of this is an effective performance. The school shareholders expect outstanding performance from the students in return of their investment. Some of these investments include ideas, skills and values. According to Aristigueta (1999, pp. 61-67) the Australian government should however introduce a better way of measuring performance. This is because some schools performance is not only affected by the external environment for example the geographical location. Comparing the students’ performance with that from a statistically similar school does not always give the right results. The reason for this is because the measure of performance promotes school innovation and transparency. It also enables one to invent in other strategies that lead to improvement. Learning is improved thus causing an improvement in intelligence. Measurement of performance also leads to vicious effects in to the minds of students. A given measure of performance stimulates professional productivity. This is because students will be in a position of viewing their output which may be rewarding to them especially when the results are to be celebrated. Performance should be rewarded as this initiates a strategic behavior (Hatry 2000). One example of an organization that benefits from performance measurement is the Dutch Public Prosecution Service. Records show that its performance rarely drops since one of their major goals is to drop many cases reported to the organization. The Minister of Justice then rewards the Public Prosecution Service according to the reduction of cases in the ministry. The American FBI also measure performance according to the number of people arrested. An increase in its performance encourages a strategic behavior as this initiates the officers to aim at achieving a higher output ( Holze and Arie 2006). Conclusion This analysis shows that an effective measure of performance optimizes production in any given organization. This effectiveness is mostly initiated by the introduction of a financial award to every good performance. Rewards exist one a strategic behavior of performance is achieved. On the other hand performance measurement reduces innovation and also blocks ambition. This may be experienced in schools that do not receive awards from the Australian government not because they can not perform but because of the measure of performance used by the government. Students from such schools that are rewarded for their performance may lack ambition in future since the school concentrates on performance ignoring potential students who need monitoring to succeed. References Aristigueta, M 1999, Measuring performance in state government, Handbook of state government administration, vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 61-67. Attkisson, C et al. 2000, Evaluation of human service programs, Academic Press, New York. Carnall, A 2005, Managing change in organizations, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, London. Curcio, F 1999, Performance indicators, Phoenix parks, recreation and library department, Macmillan, Washington DC. Fountain, J 2007, Are state and local governments using performance measures? PA Times, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 2-8. Hatry, P 2000, Performance measurement, Getting results, Urban Institute, Washington, DC. Holzer, M & Arie, H 2006, Measurement as a means of accountability, International Journal of Public Administration, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 19-44. Kingdom, J 2005, Agendas, Alternatives and public policies, 2nd ed., Harper Collins, New York. Read More