Making Your Work Count: Results Based Accountability in

Community Schools

Karen Finn, Senior Consultant

www.resultsleadership.orgkaren@resultsleadership.org

What is Results-Based Accountability (RBA)?

A disciplined way of thinking and taking action that communities can use to improve the lives of children, youth, families and the community as a whole.

It can also be used to improve the performance of programs, agencies and service systems.

Based on the work of Mark Friedman:

WEBSITES:

www.raguide.orgwww.resultsaccountability.com

BOOK and DVD ORDERS: www.trafford.comwww.resultsleadership.org

SIMPLE

COMMON SENSE

PLAIN LANGUAGE

MINIMUM PAPER

USEFUL

Results Accountability is about…

Unified purpose: focusing the energy of multiple partners on continuously improving the most important measures of well-being

Transparency: Using data and effective questions to access facts and the “story behind the facts” to move quickly to action

Communication power: Being able to tell your story in the most compelling and data-driven way

RBA in a Nutshell2 – 3 – 7

2 Kinds of Accountability plus Language Discipline• Population- or Community-Level Quality of Life

• (Results & Indicators)• Performance- or Program-Level

• (Performance Measures)

3 Kinds of Performance Measures• How much did we do?• How well did we do it?• Is anyone better off?

7 Questions From Ends to Means (In less than an hour)

6

FPSI/RLG 7

Starting at the “End”

The well-being ofCustomer

POPULATIONS

The well-being ofWHOLE

POPULATIONS Communities – Cities – Counties – States - Nations

Programs – Agencies-Schools – and Service Systems

Leaking Roof(Results thinking in everyday life)

Experience:

Measure:

Story behind the baseline (causes):

Partners:

What Works:

Action Plan:

Inches of Water

? Fixed

Not OK

Turning the Curve

The 7 Effective Questions of Population Accountability

1 What are the quality of life conditions we want for our children, youth, families and communities? (Results)

2 How will we measure these conditions? (indicators)

3 How are we doing on the most important measures? (baseline) and where will these measures be if we do nothing differently? (forecast)

4 What is the story behind the baseline?

5 Who are our partners with a role to play to help us do better?

6 What works to improve our baseline?

7 What do we propose to do?

THE LANGUAGE TRAPToo many terms. Too few definitions. Too little discipline

Benchmark

Target

Indicator Goal

Result

Objective

Outcome

Measure

Modifiers Measurable Core Urgent Qualitative Priority Programmatic Targeted Performance Incremental Strategic Systemic

Lewis Carroll Center for Language Disorders

DEFINITIONSRESULT

INDICATOR

PERFORMANCE MEASURE

Children born healthy, Children succeeding in school, Safe communities, Clean Environment, Prosperous Economy

Rate of low-birthweight babies, Rate of high school graduation, crime rate, air quality index, unemployment rate

1. How much did we do? 2. How well did we do it?

3. Is anyone better off?

A condition of well-being for children, adults, families or communities.

A measure which helps quantify the achievement of a result.

A measure of how well a program, agency or service systemis working. Three types:

= Customer Results or Outcomes

From Ends to MeansFrom Talk to Action

ENDS

MEANS

RESULT

INDICATOR

PERFORMANCE MEASURE

Customer result = EndsService delivery = Means

From Talk to Action

POPULATIONACCOUNTABILITY

For Whole Populationsin a Geographic Area

On the worksheet…

Define your community (Neighborhood, city, catchment area)

Think about your community and complete the following sentences: We want children who are……. We want youth who are….. We want families who are….. We want schools that are….. We want our community to be…..

Maryland Child Well-Being Results

Babies born healthy

Healthy children

Children enter school ready to learn

Children are successful in school

Children completing school

Children safe in their families and communities

Stable and economically independent families

Communities that support family life

New Mexico Children’s Cabinet

Children and youth will be involved

Children and youth will be educated

Children and youth will be safe

Children and youth will be supported

Children and youth will be healthy

VERMONT’S OUTCOMES

Families, youth and individuals are engaged in their community’s decisions and activities

Pregnant women and young children thrive

Children are ready for school

Children succeed in school

Children live in stable, supported families

Youth choose healthy behaviors

Youth transition to adulthood

Adults lead healthy and productive lives

Elders and people with disabilities live with dignity and independence in settings they prefer

Communities provide safety and support for families and individuals

New York State Touchstones

Economic Security

Family

Education

Community

Physical and Mental Health

Vocational

Economic Security Goal: Youth will be prepared for

their eventual economic self-sufficiency

Family Goal: Families will provide

children will safe, stable and nurturing environments

Physical and Mental Health Goals Children and youth will

have optimal physical and emotional health

Some Suggested Results for Community Schools:

Students are ready to enter school

Students are healthy: physically, socially and emotionally

Students are actively involved in learning and their community

Students succeed academically

Communities are desirable places to live

Families are actively involved in their children’s education

Schools are engaged with families and communities

On the worksheet…

Turn you answers to the questions into results statements:

Select one result and write how people in your community would experience this result

Potential Indicators

Students are actively involved in learning and on their community: Attendance rates Early chronic absenteeism Tardiness Truancy

Students succeed academically: Standardized test scores:

Proficiency in reading Proficiency in math Graduation rates Drop-out Rates

Potential Indicators

Students are healthy: physically, socially and emotionally: Asthma rates Body Mass Index Vision, hearing and dental status Suspensions for violent attacks

Sources for Indicators

Child Trends: www.childtrendsdatabank.org

Community Schools Evaluation Toolkit www.communityschools.org

Annie E. Casey Foundation KidsCount: http://datacenter.kiscount.org

New York Touchstone Data: www.nyskwic.org

Criteria for

Choosing Indicatorsas Primary vs. Secondary Measures

Communication Power

Proxy Power

Data Power

Does the indicator communicate to a broad range of audiences?

Does the indicator say something of central importance about the result?

Does the indicator bring along the data HERD?

Quality data available on a timely basis.

Choosing IndicatorsWorksheet

Result_______________________

Candidate IndicatorsCommunication

PowerProxyPower

DataPower

H M L

H

Measure 1

Measure 2

Measure 3

Measure 4

Measure 5

Measure 6

Measure 7

Measure 8

HData

Development

Agenda

Children and youth are healthy

H M L H M L

H H

H L

13

On the worksheet…

For the one result that you selected, list all the potential indicators for that result in the chart provided.

Rate each indicator as to whether it is high, medium or low on communication power, proxy power and data power.

The Matter of Baselines

Baselines have two parts: history and forecast

H

M

L

History Forecast

Turning the CurvePoint to Point

OK?

Results-Based Decision Making Getting from Talk to Action

Population: Children in Buffalo

Result: Children have optimal physical and emotional health

Indicator(s): (measures of our result)

Target

Baselines:

- Asthma rate

Story behind the baselines:The causes, the forces at work…

Partners with a role to play:

What works:Information & research about solutions

Action Plan and Budget

CriteriaSpecificityLeverageValuesReach

Forecast

Turn the curve exercise…..

In small groups of 6-8 people

On the worksheet provided: Write the result you want to work on Write the indicator to measure this result Draw a graph of the indicator (or use the one

provided)

Determine if the indicator is going in the right direction.

What is the story behind the curve?

What are some of the causes and forces at work in your community for this indicator?

Ask the question “why” three times to get at root causes

What are the key contributing factors?

Write these on your report.

Who are the partners with a role to play in helping you “turn the curve”?

What works?

What works to address these causes and forces? Creative Brainstorming:

No judgment; Include at least one low-cost, no-cost idea Include at least one off-the-wall, outrageous idea

Passionate Selling: Each person selects the idea they are most

passionate about and tries to sell everyone else on that idea

Prioritization: Select your top three ideas that have the most leverage to impact the indicator and are feasible and affordable

Write your top three ideas, off the wall idea and low-cost, no-cost idea on your report

ONE PAGE Turn the Curve Report: Population

Result: _______________Indicator

(Lay Definition)IndicatorBaseline

Story behind the baseline --------------------------- --------------------------- (List as many as needed)

Partners --------------------------- --------------------------- (List as many as needed)

Three Best Ideas – What Works 1. --------------------------- 2. --------------------------- 3. ---------No-cost / low-cost

SharpEdges

4. --------- Off the Wall

Acknowledgements: Many of these materials draw from the work of:

Mark Friedman, Founder of the Fiscal Policies Study Institute and author of “Trying Hard is Not Good Enough” www.raguide.org www.resultsaccountability.com

Phil Lee, Founder and President of the Results Leadership Group: www.resultsleadership.org

Other References and Interesting Reading:

Edward DeBono: Six Hats Thinking

Peter Senge (et.al): The Fifth Discipline and the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

Margaret Wheatley: Finding our way: Leadership for uncertain times Margaret Wheatley with Myron Rogers: The uses

and abuses of measurement. In: Finding our way, Leadership for uncertain times (p. 156-162)