Measuring a school’s progress and impact continues to be a difficult task for many principals taking part in our strategic leadership programmes. Deciding what to measure, how to do that, and the best way of reporting on it all depends on your unique school, community, team and of course your strategic plan.
Balanced Scorecard for Schools Aotearoa (BSSA) is a Springboard Trust initiative designed to tackle these challenges head-on.
Express your interest here for Balanced Scorecard for Schools Aotearoa 2023
Next intake:
July/August - December 2023
Based on Kaplan & Norton’s framework, BSSA helps schools understand their performance goals and begin developing a measurement framework that is unique to their school and strategic plan, and that presents impacts and progress in a way that is clear to all stakeholders.
“This is a completely new way of thinking – it has connected and aligned our leadership team and given them a wider appreciation of the strategic priorities of our school”
Balanced Scorecard for Schools Aotearoa: Learning Objectives and Outcomes
The Balanced Scorecard for Schools Aotearoa (BSSA) programme aims to:
Improve the way in which a kura understands its overall performance, better enabling it to achieve its vision through effective understanding and action
Develop evidence of the relationships between inputs, outcomes and impact
Tell the story of the kura, incorporating Māori storytelling elements where applicable
Use traditional forms of measurement and ways of knowing
By the end of this programme, participants will:
Understand the principles and benefits of BSSA for use in their school
Be able to clearly articulate BSSA objectives and measures relevant to the school’s context
Confidently tell the story of their kura and explain performance data clearly to key stakeholders
Have developed a balanced scorecard that is unique to their school’s context
Be able to apply information from the BSSA into wise action that improves the performance of a school and supports student outcomes
How Balanced Scorecard for Schools Aotearoa works
Through BSSA, principals will take their vision and strategic plan, and work with our team and cross-sector volunteers to identify, capture and utilise the most important information in the school – much of which already exists. Broadly speaking, it will focus on these areas:
People, tools and resources - The adequacy of your facilities, personnel and curriculum and the level of improvement needed.
Teaching and leadership - Your team’s abilities, skill sets, needs and capacity to grow, including whether they have the right support, current classroom practices and ongoing development.
School culture and community - In particular, the degree to which the school environment is a safe space for students, physically, socially and emotionally.
Academic learning - Students’ academic identities, progress, performance and readiness for further education.
“Balanced Scorecard has identified gaps in practice between what the school says it values and the actual ability to measure this and demonstrate achievement"
