Dive Brief:

• A Huffington Post column analyzes similarities between healthcare and education overhaul efforts, arguing that the performance measurement standards in both arenas lack context for circumstances.  
• Matthew Di Carlo, a senior research fellow at the Albert Shanker Institute, believes the focus on raw score evaluations in both education and healthcare leave room for error and a skewed perception of the reality in these fields.  
• While Di Carlo does not believe we should excuse schools or hospitals for poor performance — which setting different expectations sometimes looks like — he does think we should re-evaluate the measures we are using to ensure that they reflect "true performance."  

Dive Insight:

Di Carlo riffs off a recent New York Times story dealing with a report by an Obama-commissioned panel looking into healthcare performance measures. The panel found that hospitals in disadvantaged communities had lower scores because their re-admittance rates were higher. What was not considered was why. Factors such as the inability to afford medicine or take time off from work to recuperate were not taken into account. For Di Carlo, the lack of context is far too similar to education, where a school's test scores don't necessarily take into consideration socioeconomic factors. 

For this reason, Di Carlo writes, "measuring the performance of complex institutions such as schools and hospitals is exceedingly difficult precisely because it requires that we adjust expectations in accord with circumstances."

Not all would agree with Di Carlo. Those supporting current efforts to overhaul education would argue that students can perform —​ and perform well —​ if we hold them to high expectations, regardless of where they come from.  

Recommended Reading:

The Huffington Post : Performance Measurement in Health Care and Education