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    DenverPublicSchoolsThe Impact of School-BasedPerformance Managementon Student Achievement

  • 8/7/2019 Dell Foundation - Denver Case Study

    2/16Denver Public Schools / Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

    Performance management gives educators insight into what is working

    to improve student performance and what is not, including relevant,

    timely information at the district, school, classroom, and student levels

    A school-based performance management culture is created by rst having strong leadershi

    dedicated to positively affecting student achievement. Schools must then put timely,

    relevant, and actionable data and useful tools and reports into the hands of well-trained

    teachers and principals for use in a regular, structured process of data analysis, goal setting,

    planning differentiated instruction and interventions, and follow-up with students. But

    performance management is about more than just data and information. Its about the

    studentsand helping them graduate from high school and get to and through college

    and ready for lifes many challenges.

    For the past three years, the educators of Denver Public Schools (DPS) have worked diligently

    to build a performance management culture on their 152 campuses. The tools and processes

    DPS has used provide any school that is pursuing a data-driven culture with valuable insight

    The denition of performance management helps schools understand what must be done

    to create a performance-driven culture. Denver Public Schools efforts show us how it can

    be done.

    David Suppes, Chief Operating Ofcer of Denver Public Schools, says that moving forward,

    DPS will emphasize the work that is having the most impact on the districts ability to outpa

    the state in student achievement. We will focus on the classroom and what happens in clas

    There will continue to be an instructional focus. How do we achieve excellence and consisten

    in the classroom? What tools need to be available? What processes need to be in place to u

    those tools?"

    "We have some excellent schools and every school has some excellent classrooms, but itsnot consistent. Weve got to use the data we have to understand what excellent teachers do

    and then give them the tools and information they need and train them on how to improve,

    he said.

    At the highest level, the

    challenge in public education is

    moving away from a monopoly

    away from being internallyfocused, resistant to change,

    and a sense of entitlement to

    what you have instead of proving

    your worth. This approach

    doesnt mean people in these

    environments dont work hard

    or dont care. But theres just

    no accountability in a culture

    like that.

    David SuppsCOO, Dnvr Pubic Schoos

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  • 8/7/2019 Dell Foundation - Denver Case Study

    4/16Denver Public Schools / Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

    When a school district commits to implementing performance management and using

    data-driven instruction, they take a major step toward building a culture of responsibility

    and driving their students and faculty toward excellence.

    Goals, strategies and strong leadership are critical cornerstones in a performance

    management culture. Using a new approach to utilize data in the district and the classroom

    performance management allows educators to put action plans in place to inuence studen

    achievement and graduation rates before the child fails the grade level or the district fails to

    serve the needs of the child. But performance management cant be considered just another

    initiative. The success of the performance management implementation begins and largely

    depends on the strength of the schools leaders and the expectations they build for data-

    driven decision making culture. Everyonefrom the school board to the custodiansmust

    share the same mission and focus on changing behaviors for the betterment of the students

    If the performance management goals relate to student-centered work, they create a comm

    thread among all employees.

    In Denver Public Schools, the performance management rollout included:

    ThSchoolPrformancFramwork(SPF)is an accountability tool that allows for the

    measurement of achievement growth, instead of merely status, with principals receiving extr

    compensation for the rst time for outstanding student performance as tracked by the SPF.

    For the lowest-performing schools on the SPF, interventions were targeted.

    Anonlinportal(with all data refreshed at least nightly and some data updated even in

    real time) that allows single sign-on access to district data (a portal called Digital Doorsfor administrators (principals, data coaches, and instructional superintendents) and for

    teachers instead of using spreadsheets, a ruler, and a highlighter.

    Arqustforproposal(RFP)procss for a comprehensive instructional management syste

    that links data analysis and reporting to assessments, curriculum, and district portals.

    Mtricsforightoprationaldpartmnts in the central ofce, where previous metrics

    were incomplete and the focus was on volume rather than efciency and cycle time.

    BUILDING AN ENVIRONMENT FORPERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

    PeRFRMAeMAAeMeT

    AcademicProjects

    SchoolPerformanceFramework

    Data SchoolImprovement

    Administrators

    Parent/Student/Staff Surveys

    Administrator/Teacher Portal

    EmployeePerformanceManagement

    Process

    Service andPerformanceManagement

    Training

    DataGovernance

    PrincipalSurvey

    Central OfceMetrics

    OperationsProjects

    Communications

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    5/16Denver Public Schools / Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

    Businssprocssimprovmntpracticsto boost productivity, improve customer service,

    enhance accountability, and correlate metrics in the central ofce to overall

    student performance.

    Anwmployvaluationprocsssandtoolsto align with district metrics and develop

    new annual review cycle for all salaried central ofce employees.

    Trainingforcntralofcdpartmnts and selected school-based staff in concepts of

    customer service and change management to help develop a service culture that links

    staff jobs to student outcomes.

    Acommunicationsplanthat includes videos and/or other visual media to communicate

    performance management goals and updates.

    DPS didnt achieve their current success overnight. The district started slowly with manual

    processes based on the work of Doug Reeves and cycles of inquiry. Educators need to realize

    that, like DPS, schools must acknowledge the imperatives of a culture of data and ensure

    the leadership is willing and able to support it before structural changes that support the

    automation of data access and processes can occur.

    David Suppes acknowledges that building a data-driven culture meant years of vision with

    supportand the acceptance among leaders that the process must continue to advance to

    guarantee the best outcomes for the students.

    Since beginning to institute performance management, DPS has revised its strategic plan.

    In the rst version, I dont think performance management was called out signicantly. We

    built the plan around accomplishing three cultural goals: have an outstanding leader in every

    building, have an outstanding teacher in every classroom, and provide a safe and productive

    learning environment, explains COO Suppes.

    The Denver Public Schools transformation started with a strategic plan focused onthree key areas:

    1. Popl: Denver needed to attract, retain, develop, incent and, if necessary, remove peop

    based on performance. They needed the data to show how performance is occurring in

    the classroom and use those experiences to help their educators build a performance

    management culture.

    2. PrformancandAccountability:Denver is measuring outcomes, measuring against

    goals, and keeping track of whether people are doing what they say they are going to do

    3. BuildingaSrvicultur: Denver looked at who their customers were for each

    department or person in their organization and focused on how to meet their needs

    and wants.

    In just a few years, performance management has become central to how we try to change

    and improve the district. The new strategic plan doesnt have one section dedicated to

    performance management. Instead, weve incorporated performance management into

    several sections on instructional core strategies and how schools should be using performan

    data and using the assessments to guide instruction in the classroom, explains COO Suppes

    While building a culture of

    data and transparency at DPS,

    of course weve encountered

    obstacles. Things in all parts of

    the organization have evolved.Initially, there was organizational

    resistance to change. We had

    to manage the expectations of

    staff, balance the demands the

    teachers unions with the need to

    implement cultural changes with

    real signicance, and try to align

    nancial performance-based

    incentives for teachers with

    goals of the district."

    It took time to look at the

    data objectively and rely less

    on anecdotes from single

    classrooms. We had to provide

    information into the hands of

    decision-makers, create a sense

    of accountability for the districts

    goals, and provide transparency

    into how we were measuringsuccess and whether we were

    achieving it.

    David SuppsCOO, Dnvr Pubic Schoos

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    BUILDING COMMITMENT THROUGH CULTUREAND LEADERSHIP

    As a culture and standard of measurement, performance management does more than provid

    reams of data to teachers and administrators. It simplies the data and makes the information

    actionable. It gives the data and information purpose. It answers key questions that change

    behaviors. It empowers districts with information that helps predict and manage performance

    rather than just track it.

    It is one thing to generate excitement among teachers, but it is another challenge to empower

    faculty across the complete education spectrum. As tools and technology are implemented

    to deliver the data and information to teachers, school leaders should expect many questions

    to be asked and opponents to emerge. It will be necessary for leaders to remain focused on

    their vision, while having access to comprehensive data and welcoming feedback from their

    peers. They will be effective if they concentrate on developing and monitoring the performance

    management implementation and continually seek to improve the data and the processes tha

    make it actionable.

    Denver Public Schools Director of Strategy Jason Martinez remembers fondly the way he

    and his colleagues in Denver approached the task of building support and enthusiasm for

    performance management.

    Getting the word out was actually fun. Within any large organization an informal

    communication network exists its called a gossip system. Ours is highly robust. Within that

    gossip system there are some individuals who are very inuential. Our strategy was to share

    with them the initial concept of performance management and ask their opinion about it. One

    they value that theyve been asked. And two, they value the fact that theyre getting informatio

    and then they share that information with others.

    Even before people had access to the Administrator Portal, there was a tremendous amount o

    buzz among the principals who were ultimately the end users. They were all eager and wantin

    to use the tool. That was extremely helpful. Then we went around and did demonstrations.

    If they had a task to do, we showed them how they could do that task inside the portal.

    It was a very effective way to get early buy-in.

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    ReSUlTS

    Monthly

    AdministrativePortal Usage inDenver PublicSchools

    Built for school administrators by school administrators, the Administrator Portal (website)

    is meant to be a one-stop shop for school administrators to access important applications,

    essential student achievement data, managerial data and reports. The Portal allows school-based

    administrators to spend less time gathering data and more time taking action, increasing the

    opportunity to close the achievement gap between higher and lower performing students.

    For principals, it is an essential and core source for school data for school improvement planning,

    stafng, recruitment and budgeting.

    In February 2010, the number of page views per day per staff member remained at. However,

    the percentage of users increased by 7 percent with the assistant principals showing the biggest

    increase of 11 percent to 81 percent using the portal. The percentage of principals using the

    portal reached an all-time high of 87 percent, a 4 percent increase over January. Average usage

    for principals was 1.16 page views per day per person.

    The principals in Network 2a cluster of schools from across the district--had the highest usage of

    2.51 average page views per day per person. One power user skews the data. However, 100% of the

    principals in Network 2 used the administrator dashboard at least once in the month of February.

    Once leaders can educate faculty and model a belief in the potential of performance

    management, the task of collecting, analyzing and utilizing the data can begin.

    DPS administrators lead teachers toward a belief in performance management by showing the

    how the performance management tool would help them help their students. We knew it had

    to be of such immediate value that they would want to use it, said Martinez. Our strategicapproach was to teach them what was possible not convince them. If you can teach someone

    a way of doing their business more effectively, more efciently and easier, why wouldnt they

    want to use it? And thats what happened in Denver.

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    COMPONENTS OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:DATA & METRICS

    A classroom has 30 different

    individuals, each with his or her

    own unique story. With performance

    management, those stories - as

    found within the data can be

    accurately told and readily available

    to a teacher. Those stories tell

    where the student has been,

    gives insight into ways to help the

    student improve performance, andhelps determine the effectiveness

    of the teachers themselves.

    Every school keeps attendance records, standardized testing results, achievement data and

    biographical information. But teachers looking at individual pieces of data cant be expected

    to draw impactful conclusions. Examining a students previous years test scores doesnt

    provide insight into the students letter grades or attendance records that might have

    impacted the childs performance. Schools cant determine a teachers effectiveness without

    mapping student performance on standardized tests and classroom assessments to lessons

    taught. The data must be aggregated and presented in a format that will expose trends in

    a students performance and help guide the teachers improvement efforts.

    The importance of data quality and data frequency cannot be underestimated. Data must

    be correct and must be delivered in regular increments for effective action planning and

    follow-up to occur.

    Performance management also requires a school to establish SMART goals, and the

    benchmarks can be based on a number of elements the performance management tools

    are designed to identify. When clear metrics are established, teachers can rely on their

    performance management dashboard to ag areas that need to be addressed for a specic

    student and to group students based on common needs. When teachers are able to compare

    a students scores and data to other students at his or her grade level, they can determine

    performance based on metrics such as student participation, academic performance, growth

    or student progress, academic rigor and college and career readiness. This could evolve to ea

    student having a portal with his or her goals, performance, curricular resources, and access

    to help in one place.

    The data tells the story and the tool packages the story in an easy way to use andcomprehend, said Martinez. Then comes the really important, second half of the equation:

    What does knowing the story mean for my kids and me? What am I going to do differently

    tomorrow, now that I know their stories, to help my students? Helping teachers gure this

    out was a big part of our strategic plan.

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    In an academic sense, school-based performance management provides a trajectory of what

    student is able or unable to do. Without data, I dont know what a student knows or needs

    know in relation to state standards, said Martinez. With the data, I can build on what you d

    know and I can address what you dont know. The data tells me that."

    So if I have the ability to look at data, I am not being random and capricious with myinstruction. What ends up happening without data is that we end up teaching to a mean

    sort of middle of the road with the expectation that those who are accelerated will get what

    they need because they are independent and they will do well, and that those who are behin

    will likely never catch up.

    For Lake Middle School Principal Alex Magana, performance management hits home litera

    Yesterday I did three home visits to families of kids with attendance issues, all because we

    have real time data through one access point.

    Dnvrs adminstrativ porta

    incuds th foowing masurs

    and mtrics:

    Student attendance over thelast ve days

    Bottom 10 student attendance

    Tardy Rate Top 10 students

    YTD Teacher Attendance

    by Reason

    Substitute teacher ll rate

    Colorado Student Assessment

    Program (CSAP) data by subject

    and year

    English Learner prociency

    Colorado ACT performance

    3rd grade reading prociency

    Student performance growth

    Advanced placement

    enrollment and passing

    Graduating students

    College enrollment Budget to actual expenses

    COMPONENTS OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:

    PROCESSES & PROTOCOLS

    Most districts and Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) initially focused their efforts

    on making data more readily available to principals and teachers through technology and ar

    now turning their attention to building more intentional processes around how and when to

    use the data and how to capture and share best practices.

    Data and information is only as effective as the processes with which it is used. Structured

    data inquiry protocols and processes for regular reviews of the key metrics at each level,

    a cultural expectation that follow-through and action is valued, and ongoing training

    and professional development must be present throughout all stages of the process

    of implementing and utilizing performance management.

    The implementation is different for every district or school. Most begin with a diagnostic

    assessment to identify gaps in data, leadership, goals, technology, and processes.

    Administrators and teachers must work together to develop a list of critical milestones

    to achieve throughout the development process. They must track their progress against

    the milestones and develop a list of success metrics, such as usage rates, that can be utilized

    once the system has been put in place.

    Most districts or schools already have a way to review data in place because of the No Child

    Left Behind (NCLB) requirements and state-level requirements. But those data reviews are

    often expensive, incomplete, and inefcient. The data is oriented to focus on status rather

    than on the growth needed for a student to be procient. Schools either dissect the limited

    data they have themselves or they hire a consulting rm to help them take inventory of

    whats available and come up with a solution. Schools need to be able to set goals andempower faculty to work as a team to achieve them.

    In Denver, those involved in the implementation of performance management say it

    has succeeded because they started at the end or at least with the end in mind.

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    10/16Denver Public Schools / Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

    The rst steps we took were to set the vision of what was possible, said Jason Martinez.

    As we discussed our goals and strategy, we really started with the end in mind. We asked

    ourselves, when all is said and done what do we want to have happen and what do we hope

    will happen because of our efforts.

    DPS ofcials used the Backward Design planning process, in which the standards andgoals are established then the best ways of reaching those goals are determined.

    Denver North High School Assistant Principal Nancy Werkmeister called Backward Design,

    a great way to implement a plan of action.

    Principal Magana noted that this approach is standard practice in the corporate world.

    Just like a business would, we identied specic goals--in our casea things the kids

    need to learn. Most educators call those standards, but that is too broad, so we call

    them learning goals.

    District Goa (5 yar) Student Performance Goal

    Group Goa (COO/CAO) Improve service and increase efciency in operations

    Dpartmnt / Division Goa Implement Electronic W2 process to improve transaction accuracy rate and service

    to internal customers

    Individua Goa Train customers on W2 Employee Self Service feature to enable employees to retrieveW2 information online

    Team Goal Develop communication and training plan for new Employee Self Service feature

    and opt-in decision to advise employees of implementation and available resources

    Financial stability and transparency

    Maximizing dollars in the classroomAction Pan (Dnvr Pan 2009)

    Examples represent goal alignment, not SMART goals.

    ReSUlTS

    Goal Alignmentfor Payroll OfceSupport Staff

    As DPS implements the employee perormance evaluation project (called employee

    perormance management), everyone goes through training and a rigorous goal alignment

    process. Teachers, principals and central ofce sta establish goals that are then used as

    a basis or individual and department evaluation.

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    In Denver, there is a customer service element to performance management processes that

    has become important to teachers and extremely helpful to parents. Teachers understand

    that performance management helps them at parent-teacher conference time, said Martin

    They understand that ultimately if they cant address a parents question about their child

    in a positive way, we are going to have a group of dissatised parents. And that is not good

    because we need their support to educate their children.

    In addition to using data to drive more effective decision-making and improved student

    achievement, performance management has been used at DPS to secure additional funding

    for the district. DPS leaders were able to identify processes within the district that were

    highly leveragedthose that require large amounts of manual data entry, nancial resource

    and employee time. In many cases, causes for defective processes have been repaired and

    additional resources have been made available.

    For example, the DPS Process Improvement Team followed a Lean Six Sigma process that led

    them to focus on a Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) process that identied additional funds for

    the district. Technology gave the team the ability to easily search through thousands of FRL

    records and scenarios were established to capture likely FRL- eligible students who were cod

    in DPS as not eligible. Previously, DPS did not submit an FRL-eligible student to the state for

    reimbursement and lost the potential funding of $1,500 per student. During the course of

    this initial data gathering, the team identied 178 such students for the 2009 2010

    academic year, representing additional potential funding of over $260,000.

    But this is only part of the story. DPS had to understand why this potential defect occurred a

    why these students were overlooked. Further investigation revealed that the correct data le

    had not been loaded in the initial phases of the process, which can easily occur if there is not

    proong process in place to prevent it. Discovering this process defect and loading the prope

    le uncovered 1058 eligible students who were ofcially coded as not eligible for FRL. This

    malfunction cost DPS $1,587,000 in available funding.

    Though DPS was not able to recoup the total amount due to the states budget issues, theeconomic impact for DPS is substantial. The greater number of eligible students for 2009

    2010 opened the door for other funding formulas such as the percentage of schools eligible

    for future Title 1 funding.

    ReSUlTS

    Additional Free

    and Reduced LunchDollars IdentiedThrough DenversData-DrivenEnvironment

    The same data-driven culture that allows teachers to plan dierentiated

    instruction and interventions can also utilize a data governance process that

    has helped DPS fnd additional monies or students. Thanks to the diligent andpersistent work o the DPS Strategy Ofce, it was discovered that the schools were

    eligible or an additional $1,587,000 in Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) unding rom

    the state or the 2009 2010 academic year. Going orward, this has opened the

    door or uture potential unding or DPS schools.

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    COMPONENTS OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:TOOLS & REPORTS

    Smart use of technology enables performance management. The amount of data andinformation that must be processed at each campus and district to understand student

    needs, academic achievement, and operational demands is astoundingPerformance

    management technology allows the data to be digested quickly, and easily understood

    and encourages collaboration among educators to improve academic outcomes for

    their students.

    DPS used technology to build performance management Digital Doors. Within the Digital

    Doors were two products: the Administrator Portal and the Teacher Portal. We were trying

    to understand how to leverage technology and help people do their day-to-day work in a

    much more meaningful and important way, said Martinez.

    We know teachers dont teach from behind computers, so performance management isnt

    about the technology. For us in Denver, it was really about what the tool was going to do forthe educators and how it was going to improve student achievement. Thats the brass ring.

    If you can answer that question, youre really on to something.

    Principal Magana is a strong believer in the power of data to help his students learn.

    Before we had the tool, I had to compile spreadsheets on top of spreadsheets. Then I had to

    manipulate them all to make the data usable. I knew this would make my job easier, and it d

    but it also enabled me to quickly give our teachers a big picture view of what was happening

    in their classrooms.

    Of course, the tool also tells us what classrooms we need to visit more frequently, which kid

    we need to talk to, and when we may need to bring in the social worker to help. We can ask a

    student to stay after school for extra work when needed. We now have scorecards of what a

    that looks like.

    The students are aware of the power of performance management as well. Every student in

    the class knows how many learning goals they are achieving. And this is not only monitored

    once. Its monitored throughout the year, which gives accountability to the students and tha

    is really important.

    Assistant Principal Nancy Werkmeister uses the performance management portal to deal

    with attendance issues at North H.S. Everybody has issues with attendance, but before

    the portals, we would have to call a students middle school and asked what had happened

    there. With this tool, we can track a student for years, see patterns, and get good informatio

    It really helps us to narrow our focus: These are the students we need to help and why.

    And unlike the old paper and pencil system, this tool is immediate and a huge timesaver.

    With the help of these tools and processes, student achievement is on the rise in Denver

    and the Board of Education was able to use the tool to dene ve-year targets for academic

    achievement where none existed previously.

    More and more information isavailable in the performance

    management dashboard each

    year. In 2008, none of the district

    curriculum was available online for

    teachers to use for interventions

    or modications to instruction.

    With over 25,000 lesincluding

    curriculum, multimedia, and

    enrichment materialsuploaded by

    2010, 90 percent of the curriculum

    was available via the portal. Now

    teachers can analyze data, create a

    group of students to track, and then

    click to instructional materials that

    will help guide the interventions

    and assessments used in improving

    students performance.

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    ReSUlTS

    Denver Public Schools

    Colorado AssessmentProgram (CSAP)Scores 2005-2009

    District

    Stat

    10%

    8%

    6%

    4%

    2%

    0

    -2%

    -4%

    Gains in % Prociency and Achievement 2005 - 2009

    READING MATH WRITING SCIENCE

    Formalization of training and support is another critical component of building a performan

    management culture. While the desire for continuous improvement exists in the principal

    and teacher corps, most need additional support and guidance on how to initiate such chan

    Without ongoing training, using performance management to improve student achievemenwill fail. Without continuous communication around uses for data, districts create technolog

    tools that go unused. Educators trained in all of the tools available are able to help students

    more because theyre able to leverage all of the tools at their disposal and apply the data

    available in the dashboard to curriculum, resources, and processes.

    DPS administrators made a conscious decision to roll out performance management on

    a deliberate pace, ensuring the end users had time to get comfortable with the tool and

    understand how it could help them aid their students.

    Our implementation was a slow roll and that worked well for us, Martinez said. We began

    by introducing the concept in an informal way. Informal conversations took hold even before

    any tangibles were shown to people. We shared the concept broadly with those who wouldultimately use it.

    We asked for their feedback and what specically would be most helpful to them. We then

    built on that by giving more information, ultimately giving demonstrations, while continual

    asking for feedback and asking the teachers and principals to tell us if we were on target.

    COMPONENTS OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:TRAINING & SUPPORT

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    Assistant Principal Werkmeister was among the end users who had the chance to provide

    useful feedback. The performance management tool was set up in a pilot and presented

    at a Principal Institute, she explains. There were strong people involved in the Administrato

    Portal pilot who represented the users point of view across the board, from elementary

    through high school. Everybody has different needs and we were able to put ideas up on

    the wall and rate them to give the team putting this together focus regarding what wewanted this program to do.

    As performance management was being slowly implemented across DPS, of course there

    were some tech savvy teachers who were eager to dive in deeper. Those who were less

    comfortable with technology were nurtured through the process in a hands-on manner

    with help on websites, with assistance from the central ofce a phone call away, with videos

    they could access when they were ready to learn more, and with drop-in ofce hours wher

    they could learn from experts and peers on ways to use the tools. We understood that some

    teachers would be uncomfortable at rst, said Werkmeister. We helped them get to a

    comfort zone and expand from there.

    Werkmeister found virtually no resistance from her teachers at North H.S. The biggest sellin

    point is that you can log on and pull all of the information we use from one place. All the dat

    is instantly accessible and really saves time, which is why it is so helpful to teachers.

    She agrees that the informal rollout was the right approach, but suggests one way the early

    training could be improved. It would have been nice to be able to manipulate data and

    reports in the portal during the training. We werent at computers during the early instructio

    The casual intro was good, but some time on a live computer would have been benecial.

    And Werkmeister also suggests follow-up training to check in with users to answer any

    questions and help them take their use of the performance management tools to the most

    advanced level possible.

    ReSUlTS

    Net Change inPrincipal Satisfaction

    with DPS OperationalDepartments

    Mean customer service rating o all

    departments has improved rom

    48% to 86% rom 2008 to 2010

    Mdiansatisfactionhasrisnfrom48%inApril2008to55%inApril2009

    12-Month Improvement in Principal Satisfaction

    120%

    100%

    80%

    60%

    40%

    20%

    0

    -10%

    -20%

    110

    45 45

    34 34

    2725

    21 2117

    Difference of Strongly

    Agree & Agree minus

    Strongly Disagree &

    Disagree from April

    2009 over April 2008

    survey administrationHumanResources

    Facilities

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    EnterpriseMgmt.

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    DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS THE IMPACT OFSCHOOL-BASED PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

    ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

    Performance management is still in its early stages, but a profound impact is being seen across

    Denver Public Schools from the central ofce to the schools and into the classrooms. Data-driven

    cultures can and should be created to guarantee the academic success of each and every student

    From my schools perspective, scores are up and any growth were showing we attribute to the

    data we collect through the data portal and other assessments we use, said Werkmeister. It he

    us focus our instruction so when scores go up and more students are learning, we know it has to

    have played a signicant role.

    Principal Nicole Veltz attributes an increase in her middle school attendance to the ability to

    track data. Whatever your energies are, whatever you need to improve, you need data to do it.Otherwise, you are shooting in the dark, she said.

    Martinez reminds us that performance management is all about the students. It has made

    happier classrooms and it has created opportunities to help students learn in a very positive way.

    In Denver it has accelerated the increase of achievement across our system. It works and it bene

    students, families, and communities.

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    Michael & Susan Dell FoundationP.O. Box 163867Austin, Texas 78716

    www.msdf.org

    Special thanks to Connie Casson and

    all of the educators at Denver Public Schools.