Making Your Work Count: Results
Based Accountability in
Community Schools
Karen Finn, Senior Consultant
www.resultsleadership.org
karen@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.org
www.resultsaccountability.com
BOOK and DVD ORDERS:
www.trafford.com
www.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 datadriven way
RBA in a Nutshell
2–3–7
 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
Starting at the “End”
The well-being of
WHOLE POPULATIONS
Communities – Cities – Counties – States - Nations
The well-being of
Customer POPULATIONS
Programs – Agencies-Schools – and Service Systems
FPSI/RLG
7
Leaking Roof
(Results thinking in everyday life)
Experience:
Inches of Water
Measure:
Not OK
? Fixed
Turning the Curve
Story behind the baseline (causes):
Partners:
What Works:
Action Plan:
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 TRAP
Too many terms. Too few definitions. Too little discipline
Benchmark
Outcome
Result
Modifiers
Indicator
Measurable Core
Urgent
Qualitative
Priority
Programmatic
Targeted
Performance
Incremental Strategic
Systemic
Measure
Goal
Objective
Target
Lewis Carroll Center for Language Disorders
DEFINITIONS
RESULT
A condition of well-being for
children, adults, families or communities.
Children born healthy, Children succeeding in school,
Safe communities, Clean Environment, Prosperous Economy
INDICATOR
A measure which helps quantify the achievement of a result.
Rate of low-birthweight babies, Rate of high school graduation,
crime rate, air quality index, unemployment rate
PERFORMANCE MEASURE
A measure of how well a program, agency or service system
is working.
1. How much did we do?
Three types:
2. How well did we do it?
3. Is anyone better off? =
Customer Results or Outcomes
From Ends to Means
From Talk to Action
RESULT
ENDS
INDICATOR
PERFORMANCE MEASURE
Customer result = Ends
Service delivery = Means
MEANS
POPULATION
ACCOUNTABILITY
For Whole Populations
in 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
 Children and youth
 Children and youth
 Children and youth
will be involved
will be educated
 Children and youth
will be safe
will be supported
will be healthy
VERMONT’S OUTCOMES
 Families, youth and individuals
are engaged in their
community’s decisions and
activities
 Youth choose healthy
behaviors
 Youth transition to adulthood
 Pregnant women and young
 Adults lead healthy and
 Children are ready for school
 Elders and people with
children thrive
 Children succeed in school
 Children live in stable,
supported families
productive lives
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
 Economic Security Goal:
 Youth will be prepared for
their eventual economic
self-sufficiency
 Physical and Mental Health
 Family Goal:
 Families will provide children
will safe, stable and
nurturing environments
 Vocational
 Physical and Mental Health
 Community
Goals
 Children and youth will have
optimal physical and
emotional health
Some Suggested Results for
Community Schools:
 Students are ready to
 Communities are desirable
 Students are healthy:
 Families are actively
 Students are actively
 Schools are engaged with
enter school
physically, socially and
emotionally
involved in learning and
their community
 Students succeed
academically
places to live
involved in their children’s
education
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 Indicators
as Primary vs. Secondary Measures
Communication Power
Does the indicator communicate to a broad range of audiences?
Proxy Power
Does the indicator say something of central importance about the result?
Does the indicator bring along the data HERD?
Data Power
Quality data available on a timely basis.
Choosing Indicators
Worksheet
Children and youth are healthy
Result_______________________
Candidate Indicators
Communication
Power
Proxy
Power
Data
Power
Measure 1
H M L
H M L
H M L
H
H
H
H
H
L
Measure 2
Measure 3
Measure 4
Measure 5
Measure 6
Measure 7
Measure 8
Data
Development
Agenda
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
H
M OK?
L
Point to Point
History
Turning the Curve
Forecast
Baselines have two parts: history and forecast
Results-Based Decision Making
Getting from Talk to Action
Population: Children in Buffalo
Result: Children have optimal physical and emotional health
Indicator(s):
Baselines:
(measures of our result)
Forecast
- Asthma rate
Target
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
Criteria
Specificity
Leverage
Values
Reach
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
Baseline
Indicator
(Lay Definition)
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
4. --------- Off the Wall
Sharp
Edges
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)