1B. Capacity review toolkit
A capacity review is a rapid but thorough assessment of a system’s capacity to deliver on its goals. This toolkit contains all the key information and resources you – or an external review team you select – need to run a successful capacity review. It covers:
- Preparing for the review and gathering background evidence
- Conducting a site visit to gather evidence via focus groups, interviews, and a self-assessment exercise with system leadership
- Synthesizing the evidence into a set of ratings against the “delivery capacity framework” and recommendations for improvement
- Reporting out to the system leader
Kit Resources Include:
1B. Capacity review toolkit overview
This document provides a guide through the rest of this toolkit. Read this first to understand the concepts covered in the rest of the kit.
1B.A. High-level summary of the capacity review process
Use this text as a template to create a short note, which you can share with the system leader and key staff to explain the capacity review process.
1B.B. Text for an email setting out logistics
Use this text as a template to create a complete, coherent list of logistical details that need to be resolved before your capacity review site visit.
1B.C. Focus group invitation text
Use this text as a template for inviting internal and external stakeholders to join focus groups as part of your capacity review.
1B.D. Fact pack template
This template provides an outline of the sorts of information you can gather to create a fact pack that will give the review team context ahead of a capacity review. It also provides headings to help structure the pack.
1B.E. Questions to address in an on-site activity plan
Answer these questions to think through how the review team will use their time efficiently during the site visit and create an activity plan.
1B.F. Interview guides
The review team should use this text to guide their questioning during focus groups and interviews. There are several versions of the guide, tailored to different kinds of stakeholder groups you might be interviewing.
1B.G. Evidence worksheet
Use this Excel Worksheet to collate the evidence captured by each review team member during focus groups and interviews in a sortable, easy-to-read format. This allows the review team to easily view and compare their evidence against each element of the delivery capacity rubric.
1B.H. Delivery capacity rubric
This is EDI’s core tool for assessing a system’s capacity to deliver on its goals for students. For each of the 15 elements in the delivery capacity framework the rubric sets out a set of key questions and provides definitions of weak and strong performance.
1B.I. Capacity review introductory slides
This slide deck can be used to provide a brief introduction to the review team and the capacity review process.
1B.J. Individual rating worksheet
Review team members can use this worksheet to capture notes as they review the evidence for each element of the delivery capacity framework.
1B.K. Final report template
Use this template to create a slide deck capturing the review team’s ratings and recommendations for use in the report out to the system leader in the final stage of the capacity review.
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