BESP: Benchmarking of Portuguese secondary schools

• Published in: Benchmarking : an international journal 2011-01, Vol.18 (2), p.240-260
• Main Authors: Portela, Maria Conceição A. Silva, Camanho, Ana Santos, Borges, Diogo Nóvoa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Allgemein bildende Schule; Benchmarking; Benchmarks; Business metrics; Data analysis; Data envelopment analysis; Education; Efficiency; Graphs; Indicators; Legislation; Linear programming; Methodology; Operations research; Platforms; Portugal; Secondary education; Secondary schools; Statistical analysis; Students; World Wide Web
• ISSN: 1463-5771; 1758-4094
• DOI: 10.1108/14635771111121694

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the implementation of a web-based platform integrating benchmarking and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the Portuguese secondary schools.Design methodology approach - The benchmarking platform is designed around a set of key performance indicators that are displayed using benchmarking graphs. These indicators are also aggregated through the methodology of DEA to provide a summary measure of performance.Findings - The benchmarking platform developed enables schools to perform internal and external evaluation through a standard model that is based on indicators of school activities. It encourages schools' efforts of continuous improvement and increases society awareness regarding schools' context and results obtained.Practical implications - The benchmarking platform can be useful for schools and general public. For the general public, there is a tool that allows the construction of user-defined rankings online and benchmarking tools that allow the comparison of performance of a specific school with others. In addition to these features, schools have in the BESP platform a repository of historical data, and the possibility to see a set of graphs that show for some indicators their evolution over time.Originality value - This paper describes a breakthrough in the Portuguese education context. The BESP platform is the first in this context to combine DEA and benchmarking tools in a web-based environment, designed to enable real-time performance assessments.