Employing a tactic used to fight crime, Baltimore school officials plan to begin next month tracking the city system's performance - including dropout rates, teacher and student attendance, suspensions and expulsions, and the time it takes to process bills.

The approach - dubbed SchoolStat - follows Mayor Martin O'Malley's signature method for ensuring that government services are delivered efficiently, CitiStat. It has spawned a slew of spin-offs, including HousingStat, LeadStat, DrugStat and KidStat.

For schools, three rooms on the third floor of the North Avenue headquarters are being combined to create a large conference room for SchoolStat meetings.

At least once a month, about 30 or 40 school district managers will assemble to be grilled while the statistics from their areas are projected onto a large screen behind them.

The cost of the project - which will also track such things as the number of certified teachers and the time it takes to hire an employee - is about $100,000, including furniture, room renovations and the annual salary for a full-time staff member.

The school system began tracking financial data more closely a year ago. With a big budget deficit to reduce, Chief Operating Officer Mark Smolarz wanted to cut costs by tracking overtime and the pay to part-time employees.

The extra scrutiny has helped save about $3 million, he said.

In another area of education, a federal judge has forced better record-keeping of the services provided for children in special education.

'It will get done'

But in many areas, the school system is notoriously bad at producing reliable data. So how will SchoolStat fly with administrators who have trouble keeping track of the simplest facts - even such things as the number of students - accurately?

"We talked about that," Smolarz said. But he believes SchoolStat may be the cure for the problem.

"If we force people to track it, it will get done," Smolarz said.

"People are resisting because they don't want to be held accountable. This will hold people accountable," he said.

Program spreads

The idea for CitiStat was adopted from New York City, where police leaders use their CompStat system to map crime daily on computers to hold officers more accountable. Credited with helping New York reduce crime, it is now used by the Baltimore Police Department.

O'Malley liked the idea so well that many departments in city government now track indicators of efficiency - thus the spinoffs such as DrugStat.

CitiStat has been criticized by managers who object to the amount of time they have to put into it - and the occasional embarrassment it creates. But the program's success has meant wider acceptance. About 100 jurisdictions, including cities in other countries, have requested information about CitiStat, said Matthew D. Gallagher, director of operations for the Baltimore program.

Gallagher's office has provided technical advice to the Baltimore school system, which is run independently of City Hall.

"We have not weighed in on what to track or reporting requirements," Gallagher said. "We were really just trying to be a resource to them."