In many school systems, each school individually tracks its performance. Other districts use a centrally designed School Performance Framework (SPF), an action-oriented data tool that measures schools according to key metrics selected by the district, authorizer, and/or state and creates a shared definition of success. While the information in the SPF varies, it will usually include multiple measures such as school climate and culture, student academic performance and growth, and postsecondary readiness. Across the city leaders we interviewed, an SPF was often one of the first steps a district took toward a new kind of system improvement strategy.

SPFs are often described as school report cards, but they are designed to provide more than just a snapshot “grade.” An SPF can support systemwide strategic decisions and accountability, keep families and community members informed, and/or shape school-level continuous improvement. All these uses could support improved student achievement in different ways. Some SPFs are entirely locally designed, while others use and adapt aspects of state school accountability systems where available.

But while conducting interviews for the Eight Cities project, and the follow-up project SchoolPerformanceFrameworks.org, we found that these uses are often in tension. Some cities had SPFs that were more effective at system accountability, while others provided strong guidance for families selecting their school of choice. Design decisions that make an SPF more useful for parents might make it less useful for school leaders. For that reason, it is critically important for education leaders creating or revising an SPF to be clear about their primary goals and users.

SPFs can be controversial if they are perceived as biased against certain schools or if they lack buy-in and understanding from the community. Denver is an example of a city where every school is evaluated using a common SPF, but this system is under review as of the 2019-20 school year, in part because of the SPF’s complexity and oft-changing formula. Other cities, such as Oakland, had an SPF in the years our story focused on but have since rolled back their local SPF.

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