Joellen Killion, deputy executive director of NSDC
"The greatest benefit that districts can gain from a benchmarking study is to do a self-assessment and have it compared to other district’s self-assessment to get a sense of where they stand. I’ve talked with a number of people from districts that participated in the last study, and what they realized is that they have strengths they didn’t know they had, even though they struggled in those areas.
They also gain a great network of support among these districts, where together they can talk about some of the challenges they are experiencing and share resources with one another to be able to think about how to address those challenges in a contextually appropriate way. It gives you ideas, strategies, and a picture of reality."
Kirk Vandersall, owner of Arroyo Research Services
"The single most interesting, rewarding part of our work is getting to see dozens of different organizations struggling with similar problems sitting in slightly different places and coming up with different ways to address them. In the benchmarking study you will have a chance in short order to sit where other people sit and see the world the way they see it, from many different perspectives that are not your own. When you then return to your district, you will see different possible solutions to issues that that you didn’t see before, because you now understand there are different ways to do it. That will enrich your ability to do your work."
