A Lesson in Performance Metrics

Randi Weingarten's bold plan for measuring public-school teachers' success will snag an A+, as long as the metrics aren't used to punish

By Rick Wartzman

In calling last week for wholesale changes to the way public school teachers are evaluated, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten noted that her union had developed its plan in conjunction with some of the nation's leading authorities in the field, including Harvard researchers Susan Moore Johnson and Thomas Kane. But it was hard not to feel in her bold remarks the spirit of another longtime educator: Peter Drucker.

For years, Drucker warned that, in a knowledge economy, there was no choice but to take the kinds of steps that Weingarten is now urging to measure the quality of classroom instruction and, where necessary, to remove bad teachers.

"Schools are…becoming much too important not to be held accountable—for thinking through what their results should be, as well as for their performance in attaining these results," Drucker wrote in his 1993 book Post-Capitalist Society. "To be sure, different school systems will give different answers to these questions. But every school system and every school will soon be required to ask them, and to take them seriously."

Yet Drucker would have appreciated another truth reflected in Weingarten's National Press Club speech: the inherent complexity in devising a measurement framework that is fair and focused on the right things.

Indeed, one might broadly interpret Weingarten's push to make use of "good and meaningful data" as an imperative not just for our sick schools but also for any enterprise. The truth is, no matter what sector they're in, relatively few organizations define and measure results very well.

"A Tool of Control"

For starters, too many corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies fail to look at metrics as resources that employees should use to improve their performances. Instead, the boss mainly wields them to criticize and penalize. "As long as measurements are abused as a tool of control," Drucker asserted, "measuring will remain the weakest area" for most managers.

Even finding the right mix of measures is tricky. In his 1973 classic, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, Drucker pointed out that many businesses use annual return on investment as a key determinant in judging success. He then went on to tell the story of a chemical company that failed to develop a much-anticipated new product for three years. When pressed on why there was such a delay, the executive in charge fessed up: "My entire management group gets its main income from a bonus geared to return on investment. The new product is the future of this business. But for five or eight years there will be only investment and no return. I know we are three years late. But do you really expect me to take the bread out of the mouths of my closest associates?"

Today, teachers are typically evaluated when an administrator makes a quick-and-dirty visit to the classroom once a year—a method that sheds little light on what's actually happening day to day and gives high marks to too many mediocre educators. In her address, Weingarten advocated a far more comprehensive approach: classroom observations, self-evaluations, appraisals of lesson plans, portfolio reviews, rigorous assessments of student work, and test scores that demonstrate real growth throughout the year.

Meeting the Mission

Drucker would have undoubtedly been impressed by Weingarten's instinct to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. "These two types of measures are interwoven—they shed light on one another," he wrote.

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