Laying the Groundwork for a Data-Driven School Year

Over the course of the past few years, “data-driven” has become a buzzword: one that has been used in the world of education to refer to a wide range of practices, from looking at assessment scores to drive instruction or using attendance metrics to set classroom-level goals. What’s more, being data-driven seems synonymous with being a responsive and responsible educational organization. Unfortunately, the diversity of meanings we attribute to the term – combined with the sea of data educators are expected to swim through on a routine basis – makes it hard for most people to know where to start. This article is meant to help those of you who would like to lay the groundwork for a data-driven school year but aren’t quite sure how. We break down the process into four actionable steps.

1. Identify measurable goals. A measurable goal might include improving attendance rates or increasing attendance during family-teacher conferences. Ideally, whichever benchmarks you choose are decided with the input of diverse stakeholders, such as teachers, families, and even students themselves. Of course, you’ll also want to be realistic and create goals to which people can be held accountable: there’s no point in making “improved engagement” your goal if you can’t specify what that will look like in practice. 

Finally, make sure that the goal setting process works as an opportunity to check back in with your school’s mission and vision. We’ve seen schools develop a detailed vision of a successful year, only to have it fall apart because it’s not anchored in their long term goals. Ensuring alignment across all community members, as well as between short term and long term goals is key at this stage.

2. Build out your data collection process. What data points are you going to use to determine your community’s progress towards your goals? If you’ve completed Step #1 successfully and your goals are measurable, then Step #2 should be straightforward. Here, you want to make sure that you’re paying attention to multiple data points. If you just rely on a single data point, you risk missing out on important nuances. For example, if a school only looks at school attendance and nothing else, it will make it hard to see what might be driving fluctuations in attendance over the course of the year. 

I also can’t stress enough the importance of incorporating alternative, qualitative forms of data into your collection plan. Data sources such as student surveys or teacher comments are going to yield a far richer picture of your school community as opposed to looking at assessment data alone. Finally, you also want to make sure that it is clear who is responsible for managing data collection, whether it’s a person or a student information system. When the collection process is transparent, skepticism and confusion about where the data is coming from will reduce.

3. Set aside time to review your data and check-in with your goals. I’ve seen many schools nail Steps #1 and #2 only to fumble the ball at this one. The most common pitfall is failing to set aside time to actually use the data that’s been carefully collected. If you want data to be a sustainable part of your school’s culture, then you must preemptively build in time to staff schedules for them to analyze the data against the measurable goals you agreed upon at the start of the year. Of course – as any seasoned educator will tell you – it is one thing to create a plan and another to maintain it amidst the chaos of the school year. One way of fighting the inevitable forces of distraction is to identify intentional moments of review before the school year starts. Professional development days are an obvious choice, but options abound. After school meetings and lunch time huddles are more than workable options. Ultimately, it comes down to choosing a time that will work for all stakeholders and using it to determine how well your school is performing vis-a-vis your goals.

4. Create systems that ensure clear, consistent and proactive communication. There is nothing worse than finding out that you haven’t met a major goal right before the end of the year. I’ve seen instances where students have been told that they will have to repeat the year, with no prior warning from their schools. While this is an extreme example, it points to the ways in which this fourth and final step is all too often overlooked. Where Step #2 helps you begin to build trust by communicating the who, what and why of data transparently, Step #4 is about maintaining it throughout the school year through clear and consistent communication. Include communication checkpoints in your project plans! Remember that these moments present an important opportunity to nurture a new relationship to data. 

Indeed, the ambiguity surrounding the term “data-driven” and the reality that data has been used in highly destructive ways mean that, in certain contexts, there’s an understandable mistrust of data. To show stakeholders that data can be empowering, you need to be clear, consistent and proactive in your communication. Share when you are proceeding with what you planned at the beginning of the year (“F&P tests will take place over the next two weeks, and we will share second trimester reading levels on the last Friday in a letter home”) and communicate promptly if you need to make any changes, which frankly is likely (“Report cards will come out a week later than originally planned”). Your community members will thank you.

While some things are much easier said than done, working with a range of schools has shown me that taking these steps are well worth the front-end investment and will be key in ensuring your most successfully data-driven school year yet!