The Philadelphia SchoolStat Model

Philadelphia’s SchoolStat is a case study of the adaptation of a successful management model, CompStat, developed over a decade ago by new York City’s Police Department. The model has since been adapted by various city agencies in new York; by cities, such as Baltimore’s CitiStat; and by some state governments, such as Maryland’s new StateStat. The School District of Philadelphia is one of the most prominent early efforts to adapt this model to improving the management and performance of schools.

The objective of the various "-stat" models is to make decision making by managers more fact- and data-driven. The authors of this report describe how the model was adapted for a school district, what improvements occurred in the performance of the Philadelphia School District after it was implemented, and which features of the approach seemed to be the biggest contributors to improvement. Managing for Performance and Results