The key to effective data-driven decision making is knowing what questions to ask.  Performance Matters™ has embedded the ability to answer the "guiding questions".  What are the guiding questions?  They are thoughtful questions that ensure K-12 data is evaluated in a comprehensive manner to ensure good decision making.  The guiding questions are based upon three comparative questions outlined in the table below:

Standard:  This can be any measurable goal that is established within your school or district or one that is set by your state or the Federal Government.  The answer to this question is a measure of your proficiency toward meeting that standard.

Ourselves:  This is a measure of your progress over time which will indicate positive or negative growth.  While making the proficiency target is important, nothing is more important than positive growth in learning.  Performance Matters™ is uniquely capable of evaluating student, subgroup, school or district performance as compared to the "standard" proficiency target outlined above and the "growth" of cohort student populations which is at the heart of the "compared to ourselves" guiding question.  Performance Matters™ measures the learning growth and proficiency of all students, no matter where they fall on the NCLB curve.

Others:  This is a measure of your performance as compared to other students, subgroups, schools, districts and so on.  The difference between your performance and that of others is an indication of your relative productivity.

The following scenario illustrates the importance of using the guiding questions.  To ensure ease of use, Performance Matters™ uses consistent color coding throughout the system.  The example below is based upon the following color codes:

Scenario:  You have just received the high stakes test scores for your school for Math and Reading.  For this analysis you are focused on only the proficiency score for Math and the proficiency score in Reading.  The charts below color codes the results using the guiding questions:

If you were to make a decision on whether to invest resources in Math or Reading, which would you choose based upon this example?  The answer of course would be Math; based upon the color codes, we did not meet the standard in Math, however, we exceeded the standard in Reading.  Now let's look at the same results as compared to ourselves:

Notice the same two numbers now have different meaning.  While we did not meet the standard in Math we are making progress that meets expectations.  And, while we are exceeding the standard in Reading, our progress over time is marginal.  The last comparative question is how are we doing when compared to others?

The picture has changed dramatically.  While we did not meet the standard in Math, we are improving at an acceptable rate and we are outperforming (much more productive) than everyone else!  On the other hand, even though we exceeded the standard in Reading we are not improving at the rate that we should be and compared to others, we are at the bottom of the pack.  If your goal is to improve student learning, there are clear indications here that what you are doing in Math is making a difference but that you could be facing significant deficiencies in Reading.  If we had stopped with the "compared to standard" measure, we would have missed this troubling trend.

Performance Matters in Action:  This illustration should bring to light the importance of the guiding questions to ensure good decision making.  The Performance Matters™ Management Matrix illustrated below consolidates the guiding questions for both lagging and leading indicators into an integrated reporting environment that enables you to slice the data by subgroup, grade level and/or school.  The matrix eliminates thousands of hours of number crunching so that your time can be invested more productively.