Academic Performance of Students in Schools

Video Walkthrough of Case

Case Study Prompt

A public school system in a city has 130,000 students in total. The average score of the students in a state wide exam is much lower than the scores of the students from the rest of the state.

The key question is “how do you improve the academic performance of the students in the city?”

There are in total 13 grades in the public school system:

• Elementary: KG to 6th grade
• Junior High: 7th and 8th
• High School: 9th to 12th

Case Study Overview

This is a non-traditional McKinsey case study. A public K-12 school system is facing low academic performance from its students and needs you to determine the root cause of the issue and provide your recommendation for what the school system should do.

Prepping for a 1st round McKinsey interview? We recommend that you use the Profitability Framework to solve this case study, but don’t let your structuring process become so rigid that you can’t work outside of the framework (keyword: flexibility).

There are no math exhibits in this case. This a beginner level case interview you could expect to see in a first round at McKinsey because of the qualitative difficulty score (1 out of 4).

McKinsey Interview Tips

What does McKinsey look for in its case interview candidates? Problem-solving abilities.

Focus on coming away with 1 or 2 takeaways that you can improve on in your next case.

For out-loud practice with an expert, book an hour with an ex-MBB coach.