Benchmarking in Education

The realities of the 21st century– a world without borders– competitive– creativity, – knowledge – innovation– high level competencies and skills for students

Bender & Schuler (2002): • A process of comparison for

purposes of assessment and innovation.

Schuler (1998)• A structural approach for

looking outside ann organization to study and adapt the best outside practices to complement internal operations with new, creative ideas

Kempner (1993)• An ongoing, systematic process

for measuring and comparing the work processes of one organization to those of another, by bringing an external focus to internal activities, functions, and operations

The Aims of Benchmarking• identify the qualities and characteristics of

education systems that best prepare students for success in the global marketplace

• learn from top performers and rapid improvers from nations and states

• visualise strengths and weaknesses as compared to competitors,

• build on evaluation of performances in own and others’ organisations

Why Benchmarking ?• forces you to examine present processes, which will

often lead to improvement.• accelerates change. It is a way to develop your school

as a learning organization• offers you new ideas for ways to improve your

organization, by looking other schools(systems).• prevents you from reinventing the wheel: why invest

the time and costs when someone else may have done it already - and often better, cheaper and faster?

International Benchmarking;• Three assessments collect international data,

and therefore could provide the data needed for international benchmarks . – TIMSS ( Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study )

– PIRLS ( Progress in International Reading Literacy Study )

– PISA ( Program for International Student Assessment )

TIMSS• TIMSS is an assessment of Grade 4 and Grade 8

students in mathematics and science, PIRLS • PIRLS is an assessment of Grade 4 students in

reading . PISA• PISA is an assessment of 15-year-old students in

mathematics, science, and reading literacy .