Research for Better Education

As of this writing, education new is the media that primarily focuses on failing schools. But failing schools are only one part of the educational system. The goal of any elementary school, middle school, high school and college is not just to be "good enough." It's to be one of the best schools in the nation, improving anywhere it can to compete with other top schools.

If you visit SchoolDigger, search for your area, and click on "School Rankings," you'll see a list of the top schools in your part of the country. These are the highest ranked schools within your state or area. Your next question is what you can do to improve your own educational system to compete with these top schools.

Ask yourself: – What makes these schools better than the average school? – What are these schools doing that my school is not? – Where are we ahead of these schools and what can we change to compete now? In order to have a well-run school, you need to make sure that you're treating it like a business. Find out where you can improve and how you can compete with other schools in your area and across the globe.

Your goal shouldn't just be to try to be average. Your goal should be to lead the state in graduating students of the highest caliber. While struggling schools can also benefit from education analytics, it's the good schools that need to figure out what they can do to turn from good to great.

You need to find out what metrics you can use and what systems you should put in place in order to compete with these top named schools.

The key to being one of the top schools in the nation is to understand that there’s nothing that can't be improved. Whether you're trying to understand student satisfaction, learning abilities, cultural sensitivity and more, you need to get a grasp of every component of your school and see what you can do to improve your student's education both in the short and long term. For the next month or more, we're going to be looking at some of the most important components of education research.

We want you to understand that whether you run a pre-school or an Ivy League college, it's in the best interests of your school, your students, and your teachers to continue to research how you can turn your school from a "good" school to an "excellent" school, and find it atop the rankings in the near future. If you're ready to start now, contact us at SurveyMethods today, and learn how to get started in this type of education research.