Menomonee Falls School District

To: Board of Education

From: Corey Golla

Re: Setting Benchmark Criteria

Date: December 12, 2016

Executive Summary
Presentation: Corey Golla will present the proposed plan to update our benchmark list of
schools using updated demographic information.

Topic and Background:

An important component of our improvement process is using benchmark comparisons to gauge

our progress alongside districts similar to SDMF. Several years ago we established a list of
benchmark districts using enrollment and percent of students that come from economically
disadvantaged as the criteria. The list included larger and smaller districts as well as districts
that had a student population considered more and less disadvantaged in relation to household
income. That list of districts has been consistently used to measure our progress.

As we proceed with a deep system reflection we intend to develop a series of reports that will
consistently be used to measure our improvement. Prior to beginning that project we would like
to share our proposed plan related to establish our benchmarks.

Proposed Criteria Categories Hypothetical Metrics

Enrollment +/- 1000
Free and Reduced Lunch +/- 8%
Percent minority students >10%

Our primary drive for establishing the benchmark list is poverty as measured by free and reduced
lunch. Our goal is to establish a list that includes an equal number of districts on either side of
our economic status. We will look to the minority population as a secondary driver by only
accepting districts into our benchmark that meet a chosen threshold of minority students. We
will adjust the enrollment threshold to secure our desired number of benchmark districts. We
can also monitor our performance against market competitors using the list of schools in
Waukesha County.

Budget Implications:
None

Recommended Board Motion:

None

Attachments: