Chicago Public Schools - Organizational Review of the Office of Schools and Regions

Client Project Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Organizational Review of the Office of Schools and Regions Solutions Project Management Technology Needs Assessments Project Summary Bronner and KPMG performed an evaluation of the Office of Schools and Regions Department ("OSR") within the Chicago Public Schools Central Office and provided recommendations to improve alignment of activities with the overall mission of OSR.

 

Challenge

The Office of Schools and Regions Department contracted Bronner and KPMG, a global consulting firm, to evaluate the overall performance of the OSR within the Chicago Public Schools Central Office. While each business unit shares some activities that help to meet the overall mission of OSR, each unit has a unique mission and performs specific tasks. Although these units have several methods for documenting their activities, they are not consistently evaluated for efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, units have varying degrees of documentation and may lack the ability to demonstrate and evaluate their performance.

Solution

Bronner and KPMG interviewed key personnel within the units and conducted a high-level FTE assessment based on their core activities. Based on this information, the project team determined whether these activities aligned with the overall mission of the department and the effectiveness of the unit. The team made recommendations outlining ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the department. Bronner developed a monthly reporting template for OSR, or "dashboard report", that would provide a consistent reporting structure. This report would be filled out on a regular basis and delivered to the Director of OSR. Bronner’s objectives included:

• Assessing the organizational structure of the OSR;
• Determining if the core activities within each unit of OSR are in alignment with the department's overall mission;
• Conducting a high-level FTE assessment based on mission and core activities performed;
• Determining methods for monitoring performance and outputs for each division; and,
• Identifying key training topics and work products.

Results

The final deliverable combined the assessment and research completed throughout the project and provided recommendations to improve alignment of activities with the overall mission of OSR, including a monthly reporting template to be used by the business units.

 

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