What makes a school great? The answer depends on your definition of a good school. Parents, educators, employers, and policymakers often bring different expectations, from preparing students for the workforce to developing informed citizens. Yet nearly all educational goals share the same foundation: equipping students with the academic skills and habits of mind to think critically, communicate clearly, and adapt in a changing world.
In Quality Check: The New, Best Way to Measure School Performance, FutureEd partners with the Keystone Policy Center to explore how we define and measure school success—and how we can do it better.
Senior Fellow Lynn Olson draws on decades of research to identify the key features of effective schools and the evidence-based indicators that can be used to measure them. She highlights the shortcomings of today’s measurement and accountability systems and presents a new model for measuring school performance, grounded in what research shows matters most for learning. Olson explores how state and local leaders can implement this new approach to school measurement. And she offers insights into commercial school ratings and the concept of “school inspectorates.”