Social Prophet

The Social Profit Handbook: The Essential Guide to Setting Goals, Assessing Outcomes, and Achieving Success for Mission-Driven Organizations by David Grant
Chelsea Green, March 1, 2015

How does a school measure its success, beyond collecting quantitative data? How can a school community articulate its vision and design useful formative assessment tools to see how well it is meeting its goals? In The Social Profit Handbook, David Grant, founder of the Mountain School of Milton Academy and former president and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, offers an exciting, effective framework for schools to define, realize and measure their core purpose. Grant puts his beliefs out in front, stating that "how practitioners in the social sectors think about measurement and assessment, and how they act upon assessment and evaluation," holds the keys to their success. More concretely, he advocates for creating "mission time," during which constituents gather to ask questions such as: Are we measuring what really matters? How do we define success? He then suggests that teams collaborate to create specific indicators of success and to develop rubrics designed to improve future work. Accessible, purposeful, practical and incredibly helpful, Grant's text offers a process for school leaders, board members and teachers to boost their performance and effectively measure how well they live up to their school's mission.