Last fall, I spent significant time working on a data tool for schools that gathered information from many different sources. To create the tool, I had to develop reproducible code to gather information from our student information system,  develop an intermediate data warehouse, and then have the data tool grab information from the intermediate warehouse, and have it update every night. Developing just the warehouse took over a month, and that was the easy part.

I think the hardest part of developing any data tool is making sure it drives stakeholders to action. That means moving beyond group-level summary statistics. Side note: Admittedly, below is a screen shot of summary information, but the meat of data tool contains information that is private and much more actionable. Getting to action means not thinking like a data analyst, but in this case thinking like a school principal, administrator, and teacher — If I was a principal, what information would I need to decrease referrals.

Our team’s work lead to two answers: First, what is the collective context of referrals? Knowing the who, what, where, why, and when could get principals to know how students are being referred. Schools could then develop school-level plans and/or student-level plans. So the first question gets at decreasing referrals, but doesn’t answer questions about actions. Second, what happens after a student is referred? The decisions made about what do with students after a referral by school leaders can significantly affect the amount of instruction missed and opportunities to learn. Giving data back to school leaders regarding their disciplinary actions of students gives the staff a chance to reflect and improve their practices.

To learn more, contact me at [email protected].

[image src=”http://stanke.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/referral-dashboard-screen-shot.png”]