Good vs. Bad Key Performance Indicators: What Schools Should Track

Every school has goals – improve student outcomes, retain great teachers, boost parent engagement. But how do you know if you’re actually making progress? That’s where Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) come in. KPIs are quantifiable measures that help school districts gauge how effectively they are achieving their strategic and operational goals. The trouble is, not all KPIs are created equal. Some are laser-focused and drive real improvement. Others are vague, unmeasurable, and end up wasting everyone’s time. Understanding the difference between good and bad KPIs is one of the most important skills a school leader can develop.

What exactly is a KPI in a school setting? 🔗

A KPI is a specific, measurable metric that tells you whether your school is moving toward its goals. It’s not the goal itself – it’s the tool you use to track progress and focus on what truly matters. For example, if your goal is to improve literacy, a KPI might be the percentage of third-graders reading at grade level. If your goal is operational efficiency, a KPI might track teacher turnover rate or cost per student.

KPIs serve as a shared reference point for everyone in the school system – teachers, administrators, board members, and parents. When KPIs are clear and well-defined, they create synergy between boards of education, district leadership, and school improvement efforts because all parties understand what is being monitored. When KPIs are poorly designed, they create confusion, misaligned effort, and a false sense of progress.

Characteristics of bad KPIs 🔗

Bad KPIs are surprisingly common, and the worst part is that they often look useful at first glance. It’s only when you try to act on them that their flaws become apparent. Here are the key traits that make a KPI ineffective.

Vague and ambiguous definitions 🔗

The most common problem with bad KPIs is vagueness. A KPI like “improve student achievement” sounds reasonable in a meeting, but it doesn’t tell anyone what to measure, how to measure it, or what success looks like. As The KPI Institute notes, a performance indicator must have a clear and intelligible definition to ensure consistent data collection and fair comparison. Vague descriptions lead to misinterpretation and confusion across teams.

Consider a school that sets the KPI “enhance learning environment.” What does that mean in practice? Does it refer to classroom temperature, classroom technology, teacher training, or student behaviour? Without a precise definition, different people will interpret it differently, and nobody can track progress in any meaningful way.

Lack of quantifiability 🔗

A KPI that can’t be measured with numbers isn’t really a KPI at all. Statements like “build a culture of excellence” or “foster parent engagement” describe aspirations, not measurable indicators. According to Gaussian’s research on effective KPIs, the strength of a KPI lies in its objectivity – it must be crystal clear when a KPI is on track and when it is not. If something is qualitative or based on subjective feelings, it fails this test.

In education, this often shows up as KPIs that describe a desired state rather than a measurable result. “Students will be better prepared for college” is a sentiment, not a metric. There is no number attached, no baseline to compare against, and no way to verify whether it has been achieved.

No clear measurement method 🔗

Even when a KPI sounds specific enough, it falls apart if there’s no reliable way to collect the data. A school might set a KPI around “student wellbeing,” but if there’s no survey tool, no assessment rubric, and no data collection schedule in place, the KPI becomes a line item on a plan that nobody ever checks. As performance measurement expert Stacey Barr explains, good performance measures provide regular, ongoing, actionable feedback – not one-off events or milestones.

A related problem is selecting KPIs that are too difficult or too expensive to track. If pulling the data requires hours of manual work every month, teams will find every opportunity not to pull them. The KPI then exists only on paper.

Not aligned with school goals 🔗

A KPI can be perfectly measurable and still be a bad KPI if it doesn’t connect to the school’s strategic priorities. Tracking the number of newsletters sent to parents, for instance, might be easy to measure, but if the school’s actual goal is to increase parent participation at school events, newsletter count doesn’t tell you whether that goal is being met. When KPIs aren’t aligned with objectives, they lead to misplaced time and effort, and teams end up optimising for the wrong things.

Examples of bad KPIs in schools 🔗

Here are some KPIs that schools commonly set but that fail to drive improvement:

“Increase achievement” – This is too vague. Achievement in which subject? For which student group? By how much? By when? Without specifics, this statement is an aspiration, not a KPI.

“Improve teacher satisfaction” – Unless there’s a defined survey instrument, a baseline score, a target score, and a timeline, this remains unmeasurable.

“Enhance digital learning” – Enhance how? More devices? Higher usage rates? Better student outcomes in digital courses? The lack of precision makes it impossible to track.

“Create a safe school environment” – While the goal is admirable, this KPI doesn’t specify what metrics indicate safety – incident reports, survey results, discipline referrals, or something else entirely.

Characteristics of good KPIs 🔗

Good KPIs do the opposite of everything described above. They are specific, numerical, trackable, and directly tied to what the school is trying to accomplish. Let’s break down the key traits.

Clearly defined 🔗

A good KPI leaves no room for interpretation. Everyone who reads it understands exactly what is being measured. “Percentage of Grade 4 students scoring proficient or above on the state reading assessment” is clear. There’s no ambiguity about the grade level, the subject, the assessment tool, or the standard of success.

Clear definitions also make it possible to compare results across years, across schools within a district, or across departments. Without that clarity, comparisons become invalid because external and internal circumstances can differ significantly.

Measurable and quantifiable 🔗

Every good KPI has a number attached to it. It includes a baseline (where you are now), a target (where you want to be), and a timeframe (by when). This is where the SMART framework – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound – becomes essential.

A good KPI also specifies a data source. Where will the numbers come from? A state assessment? An internal survey? Attendance records? Every KPI needs a clearly defined data source so there’s no grey area in how the metric is tracked. As strategy experts point out, each KPI requires a measure, a target, a data source, and a reporting frequency.

Aligned with school goals 🔗

Good KPIs are never chosen in isolation. They flow directly from the school’s strategic plan and priorities. If a school’s primary goal is to close the achievement gap between student subgroups, then KPIs should track proficiency rates broken down by demographics – not just overall school averages that could mask disparities.

This alignment also means that different departments and teams see how their own KPIs contribute to the bigger picture. Academic performance KPIs, operational efficiency KPIs, and engagement KPIs should all ladder up to the same overarching school improvement goals.

Actionable 🔗

A KPI should measure something that staff can actually influence through their work. If a teacher team is held accountable for a KPI they have no control over – such as district-wide enrollment numbers – that KPI will demotivate rather than inspire. As Gaussian’s KPI criteria framework states, if someone cannot meaningfully influence a metric, there is little value in holding them accountable to it.

In a school, this means that the principal’s KPIs might look different from a department head’s KPIs, which look different from an individual teacher’s KPIs – but all should be within each person’s sphere of influence.

Limited in number 🔗

More KPIs doesn’t mean better performance tracking. In fact, the opposite is often true. When a school tries to track 20 or 30 KPIs simultaneously, focus gets diluted and nothing gets prioritised. Research suggests keeping it to no more than four to five KPIs per individual or team, because a large number of indicators splits focus across too many objectives and weakens execution on all of them.

Pick the KPIs that matter most and track them well. It is far better to track five indicators with discipline than to track 25 indicators that nobody reviews.

Good KPIs vs. bad KPIs: side-by-side examples 🔗

Let’s look at some concrete examples from common areas of school improvement to see the difference between a bad KPI and a good one.

Student achievement 🔗

Bad KPI: “Increase achievement.”
Good KPI: “Increase the percentage of Grade 8 students scoring proficient or above in mathematics on the state assessment from 62% to 72% by the end of the 2026-2027 school year.”

The bad version has no subject, no grade level, no measurement instrument, no target, and no deadline. The good version specifies every element needed to track progress and hold people accountable.

Teacher retention 🔗

Bad KPI: “Improve staff retention.”
Good KPI: “Reduce teacher turnover from 18% to 13% (a 5-percentage-point decrease) by the end of the academic year, as measured by HR departure records.”

The good version identifies the exact metric (turnover rate), the current baseline, the target, the timeframe, and the data source. A school leader reading this KPI knows exactly what success looks like and where to find the data.

Student attendance 🔗

Bad KPI: “Improve attendance.”
Good KPI: “Reduce chronic absenteeism (students missing 10% or more of school days) from 15% to 10% school-wide within one academic year.”

Here, the good KPI goes beyond just “attendance” to define the specific measure – chronic absenteeism – and provides a numerical target. This is consistent with how many education KPI frameworks recommend defining indicators with precise targets and timelines.

Parent engagement 🔗

Bad KPI: “Get parents more involved.”
Good KPI: “Increase parent attendance at scheduled parent-teacher conferences from 45% to 65% by the spring semester.”

Instead of a generic appeal to involvement, the good version identifies a specific event (parent-teacher conferences), a measurable metric (attendance percentage), a baseline, a target, and a deadline.

Common mistakes schools make with KPIs 🔗

Beyond just writing vague KPIs, schools often make broader mistakes in how they approach performance measurement.

Treating KPIs as a compliance exercise 🔗

Many school improvement plans require KPIs because district or state policy demands them. When this happens, principals can end up focused on checking off required boxes rather than thinking strategically about whether the plan will actually work. The KPIs get written, submitted, and forgotten – never reviewed, never acted upon.

A KPI is only as valuable as the attention you give it after it’s written. Schools need regular review cycles – monthly or quarterly – where data is examined, progress is discussed, and course corrections are made.

Tracking too many indicators 🔗

It’s tempting to measure everything, but tracking dozens of metrics buries the most important data under a mountain of noise. School leaders should resist the urge to add KPIs for every department, programme, and initiative. Instead, focus on the handful of indicators that most directly reflect the school’s highest priorities.

Confusing activities with outcomes 🔗

One of the most common traps is measuring activities rather than results. “Conduct three professional development sessions per quarter” is an activity, not a KPI. It tells you something happened but nothing about whether it had any impact. A better KPI would track the outcome of that professional development – for example, the percentage of teachers demonstrating improved instructional practices on classroom walkthroughs.

Ignoring leading indicators 🔗

Most schools rely heavily on lagging indicators – end-of-year test scores, graduation rates, annual survey results. These are important, but by the time you see them, it’s too late to change course. Effective KPI frameworks in education include both leading and lagging indicators. Leading indicators might include weekly assignment completion rates, monthly formative assessment results, or the number of students receiving targeted interventions. These allow schools to adjust strategies in real time.

How to build better KPIs for your school 🔗

Creating effective KPIs doesn’t require a complicated process, but it does require discipline and intentionality. Here’s a straightforward approach.

Start with your strategic goals 🔗

Every KPI should trace back to a specific goal in your school improvement plan. Ask: what are the two or three most important outcomes we want to achieve this year? Your KPIs should measure progress toward those outcomes – nothing more, nothing less.

Apply the SMART test 🔗

For each proposed KPI, ask these five questions. Is it Specific enough that anyone can understand what’s being measured? Is it Measurable with a number? Is it Achievable given current resources? Is it Relevant to a strategic priority? Is it Time-bound with a clear deadline? If a proposed KPI fails any of these tests, revise it until it passes.

Define the data source and reporting schedule 🔗

For every KPI, document where the data will come from and how often it will be reviewed. Will it come from your student information system? A staff survey? State assessment results? Who is responsible for pulling the data? How frequently will it be reported – weekly, monthly, quarterly? These details turn a KPI from a planning document element into an operational tool.

Review and adjust regularly 🔗

Set calendar dates for KPI review meetings. Use a dashboard or a simple tracking document that makes progress visible at a glance. When data shows that a KPI is off track, don’t wait until the end of the year – investigate, discuss with your team, and adjust your strategies. KPIs are not set-and-forget measures; regular monitoring and evaluation is crucial to meaningful improvement.

Why getting KPIs right matters for school leadership 🔗

Effective KPIs do more than track data – they shape behaviour, focus attention, and create accountability. When a school tracks the right KPIs, teachers understand what’s expected, administrators can allocate resources wisely, and the entire community can see whether the school is moving in the right direction.

On the other hand, overemphasising poorly chosen KPIs can lead to tunnel vision, where schools chase numbers instead of genuinely improving teaching and learning. The goal is not to create a perfect set of metrics – it’s to create a useful set that informs good decisions.

School improvement is complex work. But the difference between schools that make real progress and those that spin their wheels often comes down to measurement. Schools that track clear, specific, measurable KPIs aligned with their goals are in a far stronger position to identify what’s working, fix what’s not, and demonstrate their progress to every stakeholder who needs to see it.

What do you think? Take a look at your school’s current improvement plan – are your KPIs specific and measurable enough that any staff member could explain what success looks like? And if they can’t, what’s the first KPI you would rewrite?

References

1. https://ecragroup.com/2023/07/06/a-guide-to-understanding-and-using-key-performance-indicators-kpis-in-a-school-district/
2. https://progresslearning.com/news-blog/kpis-in-education/
3. https://smartkpis.kpiinstitute.org/kpi-101/characteristics-of-good-kpis
4. https://gaussianco.com/insights/7-criteria-for-effective-kpis
5. https://www.staceybarr.com/measure-up/good-bad-and-downright-ugly-kpis/
6. https://equalparts.co/blog/distinguishing-between-ineffective-and-effective-kpis/
7. https://onstrategyhq.com/resources/27-examples-of-key-performance-indicators/
8. https://www.cascade.app/blog/higher-education-kpis
9. https://kappanonline.org/school-improvement-plan-not-enough-you-need-strategy-stevenson/
10. https://www.simplekpi.com/Blog/5-Examples-of-KPI-bad-practise
11. https://www.spiderstrategies.com/kpi/industry/educational-services/