Therefore, a fully integrated stakeholder intelligence platform is an essential part of a professional setup around public sector quality. This is the case in Norway where 17 of 19 counties engaged Ramboll Management Consulting to develop and deploy a quality management system for all relevant parties in the upper secondary schools in Norway as this responsibility sorts under the counties.
Heart&Mind platform
Ramboll created a tailor-made solution on top of its IT platform called Heart&Mind - a platform based on pedagogical knowledge and research on best practices for school development paired with market-leading technology and security.Some of the key features include:
- displays of relevant, quality-assured data from different data sources on one platform
- an evidence-based foundation for systematic quality development at all levels
- supporting material for dialogue and collaboration across user-levels and users
Further, the stakeholder intelligence platform supports the counties and schools' work in designing goals, designing measures and assessing achievement and areas for further development. The system allows the counties and schools to use a dashboard solution or to design and analyze their own reports and development plans.
Interpret and reflect to develop quality
Put together, the features allow school owners and staff to work with data in a meaningful and action-oriented manner - aimed at supporting dialogues and decision-making in the day-to-day work.
This part is paramount for Joar Loland, County Director in Rogaland and in the project steering committee:
- We need to know where we stand to have a foundation for further development work. No one believes that quantitative information alone is sufficient to conduct school development and create good processes in our schools.
- Data must be interpreted and reflected in the dialogue between teachers, and between teachers and management. Also, the Heart&Mind contains a specific module for creating development plans for the school. Thus, the portal becomes a key tool for developing the quality we deliver which both the school and school owners are required to do according to Norway’s Education Act.
All relevant data made available
In the system, the user can find results that highlight different areas of the education such as the students' grades, well-being, motivation, experience of the learning environment and the quality of teaching. Through the analysis of the data, school owner and user can distill action for further follow-up or professional reflection among staff.The usability and flexibility of the system provide the best prerequisites for developing the working processes that are most suitable usage and context of each school.
It is crucial for the counties that the educational quality is developed by involving all relevant stakeholders in the design of goals, the implementation of measures, the evaluation of the achievement of goals and the adjustment of goals and measures. This is now all made easy.