Developing a Performance Measurement Plan

What is a Performance Measurement Plan?  

A Performance Management Plan outlines how to assess a program’s progress towards making the desired Impact defined in its Logic Model, complete with key benchmarks to hit by specific dates. It is a reusable, consistent roadmap for finding rigorous answers to questions like “Are we on track?” or “What are we doing well?” or “How can we improve?” 

Why is a Performance Measurement Plan important for a tutoring program? 

A clear Performance Measurement Plan lets you make improvements in a targeted, strategic way. It allows your program to:

• Measure progress towards tutoring goals and build in opportunities for reflection.
• Make important information more accessible and digestible by gathering it all in one place.
• Avoid reinventing data collection strategies every year.
• Know exactly how to structure and populate your data collection tools (e.g. what survey questions to ask).
• Set up an integrated way for your organization to intentionally review, tweak, learn, and improve its entire tutoring program year after year.
• Make annual updates to improve upon the program’s underlying Logic Model.
• Preserve information architecture and maintain implementation quality as your program expands and/or founding staff are promoted from their original roles.

What are the prerequisites for designing a good Performance Measurement Plan?

Before developing specific measures for a program, it is critical to clearly define your Logic Model, which articulates with specificity how the design of a program relates to its goals. Metrics should never exist for their own sake. Instead, every metric your program measures should shed light on whether a specific Action laid out in your Logic Model is being implemented effectively enough to actually create its intended Outputs and Impact. Make sure you check out the resources for Developing a Logic Model before going any further into this toolkit.

What are the components of a Performance Measurement Plan? 

• Logic Model Element:  The specific aspect of your program you’re measuring; either the Short-Term Impact or the Outputs outlined in your Logic Model.
• Measures: The criteria that define success; your indicators of whether a step in your Logic Model was implemented and achieved the expected results.
• Tools: The methods you’re using to capture information for analysis; your procedures for collecting the data necessary to assess progress towards measures. 
• Performance Expectations: The benchmarks you want to hit by a certain date; your prediction of expected progress towards measures at each stage.  

How to Develop a Performance Measurement Plan

• Start with your completed Logic Model.
  • Extract the intended Impacts (Short-Term, Intermediate, or Long-Term) that will measure End-of-Program Impact. Use these for impact measures.
  • Extract the intended Outputs that you will use to track progress and performance throughout the program. Use these for monitoring measures.
• For each element (whether it is an Impact or an Output) determine whether you want to gauge the quality of that element and/or the quantity of that element. List measures that would define success in this aspect of the program, potentially by formalizing and systematizing those that are already in use by your team.
• Delineate the tool that you will use for tracking progress and performance. See a list of types of data collection and analysis tools here. 
• Note the time and/or frequency (or cadence) when you anticipate reviewing performance on each of the listed measures.
• With reference to past performance, performance of peer organizations, or cited research, set expectations for each indicator at each relevant time interval.

Checklist for Assessing a Performance Measurement Plan

• Are your measures aligned with the actual information you want to capture? Will they give you a complete overview of everything that matters to you?
• Are your measures feasible to implement? Are they efficient to collect, embedded in regular work routines, and minimally disruptive to everyday work? 
• Are your measures consistent and accurate in their ability to reveal variation in the quality of your program’s implementation and effect on students?
• Are there any redundant measures trying to capture the same information? Are all of them actually necessary? If not, which ones could you cut?

Example Performance Measurement Plan: End-of-Program Impact

A core function of a Performance Measurement Plan is assessing your program’s impact after it ends. If your program takes place throughout the school year, its End-of-Program Impact goal will usually align with your Logic Model’s Short-Term Impact goal. Below is an example portion of a Performance Measurement Plan outlining impact measures for a tutoring program serving 9th grade students (the same program featured in the example Logic Model).

Students have increases in test scores, GPA, and other academic achievements this year

Example Performance Measurement Plan: Progress Monitoring 

While End-of-Program measures can illustrate effectiveness retroactively, far more important are the monitoring measures (aligned with your Logic Model’s Outputs) that help your program stay on track towards its goals. Below is an example portion of a plan outlining ongoing, more frequent monitoring measures.