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A “System-Strategy” Approach to K-12 ROI in Education
The traditional approach to return on investment (ROI) in education—tying specific student outcomes data (like proficiency rates) to investments—has limitations and can lead to the loss of already limited time and resources. This unique moment, as district leaders look to measure and communicate the effectiveness of their academic-recovery strategies, requires a more nuanced understanding. By approaching ROI with a different mindset, district leaders can evaluate and assess strategy effectiveness even before outcomes data is available, and scale up or scale back what is or isn’t working.
System Strategy ROI is a simple five-step process that supports district leaders in assessing the impact of their district’s strategies and drives positive changes in practice by guiding district leaders through the process of identifying core needs, exploring a range of strategies, articulating a theory of action, defining metrics to measure success, and considering costs and sustainability. Unlike other educational ROI strategies, System Strategy ROI encourages district leaders to fundamentally explore how schools are organized to change existing structures in ways that support innovation.
SSROI provides a platform for school and district leaders to come together and evaluate whether strategies are having the desired impact on student and teacher experiences and outcomes. And because stakeholders are engaged from the beginning, there’s a shared vision and understanding of the “why,” which helps mitigate concerns and create shared commitment and ownership.
SSROI can support district leaders in improving their practice to support:
- Evaluation and Decision-Making
- Evaluate strategies to decide what to stop, continue, or scale.
- Identify more sustainable approaches to implement the same strategy.
- Stakeholder Communication
- Demonstrate effective resource use to the Board, community, and other stakeholders.
- Communicate and justify the reason(s) for decisions that result in budgetary changes.
- Continuous Improvement
- Identify root cause of why a current strategy is not resulting in the desired outcome and make strategic adjustments to improve outcome.
Learn more about SSROI through our video interviews with district leaders and accompanying visual overview.
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How District Leaders Are Using SSROI to Drive Impact – Video Interviews
Last school year, district leaders across Texas implemented System Strategy ROI in their districts as part of their participation in the Texas Strategic Resource Use Network. We interviewed leaders from Lubbock ISD, Comal ISD, and Edgewood ISD to hear about their experiences applying System Strategy ROI and how it impacted school experiences. Watch the videos and get inspired!
The SSROI Process: 5 Steps to Assess and Evaluate School Strategies
See the simple five-step SSROI process in action in this new overview presentation. Using summer school as an example strategy, we reveal how to evaluate and implement the right strategy to achieve the greatest impact by:
- Identifying core needs.
- Exploring a range of strategies.
- Articulating a theory of action.
- Defining metrics to measure success.
- Considering costs and sustainability.
Read about the key questions you’ll need to ask—and the important pitfalls you’ll need to avoid—to get the most out of this process.
Learn more about ssroi
Want to learn how to evaluate ROI for ESSER investments? Continuous Improvement ROI is a way to assess and improve the use of ESSER funds even now—when the implementation is in an early stage. Learn more here.
SEE OUR ORIGINAL PAPER FROM 2014
There has been growing interest in adapting Return-on-Investment thinking to education—sometimes called educational productivity, academic ROI, or K-12 ROI. But most ROI analysis misses a big opportunity: it often leaves out some of the biggest cost drivers in the district’s budget and never addresses some of the fundamental resource issues that may actually drive student success.
Education leaders need a new approach—one we’re calling System Strategy ROI. This approach is a powerful tool for adding structure, rigor, and data-backed evidence to the difficult decisions a school system must make on behalf of its students.
REad the 2014 report
Excerpt from the paper
To maximize the power of ROI analysis, education leaders need a new approach—one we’re calling System-Strategy ROI. This approach starts with the fundamental student need to be addressed and asks not “Which program is better?” but “What resources will meet this need?” This means considering a wider range of options, including those that:
- Span departmental boundaries (i.e., not just focusing on PD, but considering changes to hiring, staffing, or retention policies)
- Include structural costs and strategies (i.e., compensation reform, student-teacher assignment policies, funding systems)
- May not even exist in the district at present, but are considered promising practices elsewhere 3 (i.e., new school designs that extend the reach of excellent teachers through teacher teaming or use technology with flexible grouping)
To make this shift, school systems must ensure that their strategic planning process can influence the way big resource decisions are actually made—holding budgeting and planning discussions before scheduling and staffing plans are submitted, for example. School system leaders can help their teams to take a System-Strategy approach to ROI in K-12 education by structuring the planning conversation around five key steps…
Acknowledgments
We want to thank the following partners and collaborators for making this happen: Texas Education Agency and Texas Impact Network.
