I have had the opportunity to recently engage with a number of staff from school district central offices and education foundations about the question in the title – who owns student outcomes? Unfortunately the answer I have often received is focused on why a particular individual, department, office or organization cannot, in fact, be held accountable for student outcomes.

This sits squarely at the center of a core measurement question we face with clients – the distinction between contribution and attribution. We fundamentally need to shift our mindset from attribution (i.e. I am not solely responsible for a particular outcome and can therefore take no responsibility) to contribution (i.e. I, along with many other colleagues, partners, and stakeholders, contribute to a set of meaningful student outcomes and therefore I must measure and be accountable for my portion of that contribution).

I fear that too many are focused only on attribution, and therefore retreat entirely from accountability. Rather, we need to be able to use data and performance measurement to understand our relative contribution toward an outcome and work toward improving upon that which is within our control.

From what we observe among high performing schools and school networks, many are responsible for some aspect of student performance and achievement. Smart measurement systems allow individuals and teams to address the part of student performance they are responsible for and also shed light on how others are contributing to a collectively shared definition of student success.