The Importance of Selecting the Relevant Data

 An urban school district with ten schools had an abundant amount of data they could use. They shared all their reports and data with each other at every benchmark assessment. However, there was no data discussion or even a common format during these talks. The data was just printed and then passed out. Depending on those results, school leaders would either celebrate or defer from it.

The principal of one of the K-8 schools in this district was overwhelmed by all the data from the district. She wanted to make an impact but struggled with too much data, good and bad. We proceeded to start working through the data steps using their school’s data. We began at Step 1 and clearly defined their school success targets and goals. This served as a filter to identify the most important data to review and discuss.

There is no shortage of data in schools. Often, I see different data and different charts used at every assessment. The most common reason behind this is that leaders want to share every angle of the data and give all the information. It may sound like a reasonable thing to do but it’s doing more harm than good. When a leader lays down all the data, it will be harder to digest. There will be no focus as everyone will just try to do everything.

If you have identified your most important gauges, there is no need to include all available data. It is not about data collection; it is about data reflection and analysis. With that said, it will benefit a lot if you have a proper data profile, an analysis that consists of charts and graphs that represent what goals you are trying to achieve.

In working with data charts and graphs, we need to include all the relevant metrics depending on our goal. To maintain consistency, the District Benchmark and State Assessment data charts and graphs will add a new bar or row of data for each data cycle. This will help you and the staff to easily see changes and progress toward the goal. 

Most of the time, teachers would need more details at the student level. The information they need is among the piles of assessments and reports. The school leadership team will need to determine which will be most useful to teachers. It is important to understand what data should be used in order to achieve the best results. You can ask yourself this question:

What will help teachers identify which students need more support, and which standards need to be retaught?

Am I asking you to write and develop something new to track student and standard performance? Absolutely not. I am asking you to look at the current reports that you have available and determine what will move you closer to achieving your goals. If a data report is not helpful, let it go. If you do not have reports available in your current assessment system for what you need, then a deeper root cause may include an assessment alignment issue.

Are you and your teachers getting the information you need to make informed decisions about instruction and teaching?

Once you have clear data tables and profiles, you will be ready to start your data analysis. 

Continuing our story about the K-8 School, after we identified their school-level data, we also identified teacher-level data. The teachers had a clearer understanding of students’ strengths and weaknesses. As they proceeded to use the data profile and implement the analysis and transformation data steps, the school had the highest growth in the district within 2 years.

The superintendent wanted to see these same strategies replicated across the district. The success of this paved the way for the district to simplify the data. Working with leadership teams from each school, we defined data targets and simplified the school and district data. At the district level, only data in the data profile was shared and discussed.

The next level for Data Steps 2.0 is to reflect on the prior year’s goals and review the data in your data profile. It is asking the same questions that we talked about last week and taking steps to correct gauges and update your data profile.  It is also selecting data to help you determine needs at the teacher and student levels.  

• Did you meet your goals last year? 
• If yes, then you may not need to make any changes or only minor tweaks. 
• If not, why not? Do your gauges need to be updated? 
• If you update your gauges, what needs to change in your data profile? 
• Did the data in your data profile give you enough information to identify strengths and to help you identify what to celebrate? 
• Did your data profile also give you enough information to make informed decisions about the changes needed to achieve the results you want?

Identifying the relevant data is essential for achieving our school goals. Focusing on the most meaningful information will help in making informed decisions, addressing key issues effectively, and tracking our progress more accurately. This can ensure that our efforts are aligned with our objectives and that we’re making the best use of our resources. Understanding relevant data allows us to work more efficiently and ultimately support our students and staff in the best way possible.

If you are looking for support to develop a data profile that aligns with your goals, request a FREE consultation call with me. Fill in the Contact Form Link: https://debradurma.com/contact-us 

Type in “Yes” for “Are you Interested in STAR Leadership Data Solutions?” You will receive a follow-up email with the next step to schedule a phone call to discuss your needs and questions.

Are you unhappy with your results or feeling overwhelmed by data? If so, contact me for more information on STAR Leadership School-Student Data Solutions Training. This training will guide you through the 4 data steps and give you a blueprint for achieving results. This training is individualized and tailored to your data, your needs, your staff, your students, and your best route to achieve results.