The Oklahoma Legislature created the Oklahoma School Performance Review (OSPR) program in 2001. The program was designed to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the budget and operations of school district and to improve the management and finances of individual school districts. It is the intent of the Legislature that any cost savings that is directly attributable to implementation of performance review recommendations be spent by the school district for classroom expenses. OSPR completed and released the report of its first school performance review in October 2003.
The purposes of these reviews are to develop recommendations regarding (1) containing costs, (2) improving management strategies, (3) promoting better education for Oklahoma children and (4) to offer commendations when notable practices are identified. The review also identifies opportunities to increase revenues. Exemplary programs that can be replicated are also identified and will be made available to all districts in the state.
To realize these purposes OSPR has broken down the operations of a school district into five functional areas including, (1) district organization, management, and personnel, (2) instructional delivery, (3) business operations, (4) facility use and management, (5) and support services. These five areas can be viewed in their entirety in the OSPR Protocols Manual.
To identify commendations and recommendations, OSPR forms a team of experts that gathers and analyzes district information relating to the twelve functional areas. The team spends one to two weeks in the district gathering information. The team holds public meetings and focus group sessions with community leaders, school organizations, parents, school administrators, teachers, district personnel and students to gauge community attitudes and expectations. The team collects detailed information on how each district process works or falls short. OSPR also identifies exemplary programs and practices that can be replicated and documents them for other districts to consider. Once the public input phase is complete, the OSPR team begins its analysis of the district's operations. OSPR's findings, commendations, recommendations and implementation strategies are compiled in a comprehensive final report.
The final report is released at a public meeting held in the district and is available to interested members of the local community. Each report also is posted on the Office of Accountability's Web site for easy access.
OSPR staff is available to district personnel to elaborate on recommendations and offer guidance toward implementation. Finally, OSPR staff members return to each district that has received a performance review within 12-18 months to make a progress report.
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