“Balanced Scorecard:” A Tool For Better Education Planning

The “balanced scorecard,” developed originally for business, is an approach for measuring an organization’s health that enables its users to employ data not only to measure past performance, but to assess how well the firm is positioned for the future. In an exploration of how the balanced scorecard can assist in developing public education strategy, The School Administrator magazine highlights efforts by Wallace education grantees in Georgia, among others, to incorporate the balanced scorecard into standard management practice. A co-creator of the scorecard idea, Harvard Business School professor Robert Kaplan, co-authors a piece showcasing the Atlanta Public Schools’ adoption of the scorecard to help in work to achieve district-wide gains in student performance. In another piece, a consultant with the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement describes how the “simple, color-coded chart” became indispensible when he was superintendent of a 4,000-student district in central Georgia.