Cycle Time

Definition: The elapsed time taken for a process to be completed.

What This Means: Reducing cycle time is a significant factor in improving processes. For education, an excellent example has been the reduction in cycle time for scoring and reporting assessment results. If state assessment results are not reported back to schools for months, until the beginning of the next school year, teachers and students have moved on and the results are less useful for instruction. Diagnostic testing relies upon a short cycle time for scoring.

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