The results of a “balanced scorecard” was shared with the North Allegheny School Board on Jan. 7, providing a transparent review of both the strengths and areas needing improvement in the district.
This balanced scorecard is part of the district’s 2024-29 strategic and comprehensive plan, with an emphasis on setting quantifiable goals, accountability and transparency, according to Superintendent Brendan Hyland, who introduced the updated strategic and comprehensive plan in August 2024.
The balanced scorecard is a component of the plan and the beginning of reporting the district’s progress, he said.
“(This meeting) can be seen as a report card. One is a reflection of how we’re doing, but it’s also a progress report. We believe in continuous improvement. We’re going to show you the good, the bad and the ugly,” Hyland said.
The balanced scorecard specifically measures the success of five goals: Academic Excellence, Continuous Learning, Empowering Students, Facilities for the Future and Safety and Wellness.
The intent is to set and define district-level and school-level goals and relevant measures, consolidate them into a scorecard and use them as a reference to track progress, according to the presentation.
The balanced scorecard results and measurements will be shared on an annual basis. Specific key performance indicators help to measure each goal.
Each goal’s key performance indicator was marked with a green check, or green dot, indicating whether it met its goal or was increasing toward reaching its target, or a red “x” or red dot, reflecting whether it did not meet its goal or was on a decreasing trend toward meeting its target. A last column will have a percentage of how much that target was met.
Hyland noted they did not include many red x’s as they were giving themselves some “grace” since it was the first year to share data and they have until 2029 to hit their target.
Depending on the goal, responses were reflective of each school building or various staffing levels.
“We were going to make sure we set quantitative metrics to determine where we are meeting those goals,” Hyland said.
Each of the five goals is summarized with strengths and areas needing improvement.
For example, in the Academic Excellence goal, a strength was that North Allegheny students are excelling in advanced placement testing and six of the seven elementary schools tested “above” or “well above” statewide standards for academic growth expectations in English Language Arts, math and science.
But an area needing improvement was in the district’s subgroups, or those students with individualized education programs, the socioeconomically disadvantaged or English Language Learners, who needed more growth academically in the same state testing standards.
This was just one of many areas measured. Community members can view the entire presentation on the district’s website.
Each goal is led or monitored by a district administrator.
Hyland also thanked the board for its support. The board and staff partnered in putting together the NASD 2024-29 Strategic and Comprehensive plan.
Libby Blackburn, who has been on the board since 2011, said the report shows “full transparency for the first time in all of my years on the board.”
School board director Paige Hardy said it was “tremendously obvious how much effort has been going on in the past year, how much progress was made in one year.”
Fellow director, Dr. Jesse Adams, recommended including more goals reflecting the arts, athletics and financial strengths.
School board President Elizabeth Warner commented on the key performance indicator that measured how students feel respected at school. It may be important to weigh in on what their environment is in their schools or what they see is happening to a peer.
“It’s not just how you are treated, it’s on how you see other students treating each other,” she said, adding she was “really thrilled” on having a balanced scorecard.
The community can get a first-hand look at the detailed report and presentation at northallegheny.org by clicking on the School Board tab and then the agenda of the Jan. 7 meeting located under BoardDocs.
A detailed report on academic performance also appears on the Jan. 7 agenda.