BESP – benchmarking of Portuguese secondary schools

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the implementation of a web‐based platform integrating benchmarking and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the Portuguese secondary schools.

Design/methodology/approach

The benchmarking platform is designed around a set of key performance indicators that are displayed using benchmarking graphs. These indicators are also aggregated through the methodology of DEA to provide a summary measure of performance.

Findings

The benchmarking platform developed enables schools to perform internal and external evaluation through a standard model that is based on indicators of school activities. It encourages schools' efforts of continuous improvement and increases society awareness regarding schools' context and results obtained.

Practical implications

The benchmarking platform can be useful for schools and general public. For the general public, there is a tool that allows the construction of user‐defined rankings online and benchmarking tools that allow the comparison of performance of a specific school with others. In addition to these features, schools have in the BESP platform a repository of historical data, and the possibility to see a set of graphs that show for some indicators their evolution over time.

Originality/value

This paper describes a breakthrough in the Portuguese education context. The BESP platform is the first in this context to combine DEA and benchmarking tools in a web‐based environment, designed to enable real‐time performance assessments.

Citation

Conceição A. Silva Portela, M., Santos Camanho, A. and Nóvoa Borges, D. (2011), "BESP – benchmarking of Portuguese secondary schools", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 240-260. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635771111121694