Just What Exactly is the Educational Scorecard For?

The balanced scorecard method is certainly garnering more fans than ever. In fact, proponents of the balanced scorecard method believe that the managerial tool can be used and applied in just about any given industry - which is why many attempts have been made at perfecting the development and implementation of the educational scorecard. And, mind you, these efforts and attempts have been quite successful. But just what exactly is this scorecard for, anyway?

First off, you need to understand that the students of today are actually the leaders of tomorrow. With that said, it is perfectly understandable to find today's parents browsing as many brochures of many academic institutions as possible. After all, what parent would not want the best education for his or her son or daughter, right? This is why the scorecard has gained much importance in the industry - because it can help point out the different areas that heavily contribute to the efficacy or the performance of a certain academic institution.

However, you also need to understand that there are many factors and areas that contribute to the performance and efficacy of academic institutions. This is precisely why these academic institutions have taken it upon themselves to come up with their own scorecards so that they themselves can monitor the effectiveness of their educational programs and they can make the necessary adjustments along the way.

So, what should academic institutions look for? For one thing, these institutions should determine if their existing curriculums, extracurricular activities, courses, as well as programs indeed provide a healthy mix that paves the way to the development of well rounded professionals beyond the academe. After all, the goal of any academic institution is to ensure the healthy development of their students so that when the time comes that they would leave the four walls of the classrooms that they have long been accustomed to, they would then be well prepared to face the harsh realities that come with being professionals. It is literally a dog eat dog world out there so academic institutions are naturally all for ensuring the well rounded development of their students. The metrics that you plot on your scorecard are then used to ensure progressive and effective performance of these academic institutions.

You actually have two types of metrics that you can work with. These are the qualitative and the quantitative ones. The quantitative metrics are actually easier to work with because they come in measurable form already. A nice example of a quantitative metric would be the assessment of research funding. Academic institutions do find themselves funding research projects every now and then so to ensure the success of these projects, it is then important to keep track of how the funds provided were indeed used for the purpose of research. This is easy enough to determine because all you have to do is follow the stats and figures.

However, qualitative metrics on an educational scorecard just might bring forth biases into play. For instance, you notice that there are more graduates this year than last year. Naturally, universities would think that this means improvement. But if you would take the qualitative aspect into consideration, this just might mean degradation of the course programs last academic year, which led to a lot of students not being able to graduate on time. Thus, the increase in the number of graduates here might be because of last year's fluctuation. And this does not spell improvement at all, which is why educational metrics are vital.