Product Description

This practical book helps senior management teams of schools or colleges to undertake their own benchmarking, with an aim to increase effectiveness and improvement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #916667 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 184 pages

Review
'Critics would say that it comes close to saying that if it can't be measured, it's not improvement. And what about context ...? Kelly defends himself on both counts. Schools into benchmarking will want to read him.' - Michael Duffy, Times Educational Supplement

From the Back Cover
In educational management benchmarking measures a school's performance against a national or localised average. This is not the sense in which the process has been used to great effect in the commercial sector, where benchmarking is a comparison against the best, not against the rest. In this, the first book to consider this form of benchmarking in an educational context, Anthony Kelly argues that measuring effectiveness against a notional median performance, as opposed to against another organisation which is acknowledged to be effective, is counter-productive.
Benchmarking for School Improvement develops comparative benchmarking as a tool for self-assessment in schools and colleges. It is a step-by-step guide to forming profitable partnerships with other organisations and is based upon what national and international school effectiveness research tells us makes for a successful school. It is a practical guide to 'doing' benchmarking , linking the process to target setting as a means of being able to gauge self-improvement.
The book covers:
The importance of critical, as opposed to functional, processes.
Mapping and prioritisation.
Forming a consortium.
A code of practice for school benchmarking partnerships.
Collection and use of data for effective comparison.
Introducing and maintaining quality systems in organisations.
Notions of wastage, inspection, involvement and reward.
The shifting location of value in networks.
Suggested benchmarking tables for comparing performance.

About the Author
Tony Kelly works at the University of Cambridge, School of Education. He was formerly a Headteacher, where he was involved in developing new systems of school governance. His academic interests include effectiveness in management and organisations

Customer Reviews

Benchmarking in schools
Book is theoretical so a bit dry. But very well written for those who want an insight into what benchmarking REALLY is (or could be) for us teachers / school managers.
I'm a headteacher in the UK and will use this book to dispute what I have been told to do re comparing my school with others in my LEA.
The book takes you through the different types of benchmarking and how they could be adapted from their original homes in the business sector to not-for-profit sector like education. A friend who works in FE college liked the book too.
Very interesting last chapter on using benchmarking information to network and the theoretical intrinsic worth of a network. A bit advanced maybe, but worth a read.