New guide will help school boards use data for accountability and student achievement

Posted September 3, 2008

School directors in Washington have a valuable new resource to help them become more proficient in monitoring and promoting student achievement in their districts.

Just published by WSSDA, Data Dashboards for School Directors shows school boards how they can distill and interpret essential information about student academic performance and use that data to effectively target policies and resources to improve student learning.

WSSDA AudioCast Listen to an interview with WSSDA President-elect Martha Rice, Vice President Karen Madsen and Student Achievement Task Force Chair Anne Golden about the new Data Dashboard guide (13 min.)

The guidebook is specifically focused on learning how to create and use an information management tool known as data "dashboard." Data dashboards display key indicators of student performance in an easy-to-read format that can be used to measure progress and identify trends.

Data Dashboards for School Directors was developed over the past year by WSSDA’s Student Achievement Task Force with assistance from the Center for Educational Effectiveness. Task Force Chair Anne Golden (Walla Walla) said the panel’s objective is to create a resource targeted specifically to the governance role of school directors.

"Given the vast amount of data available on student learning, it is not unusual to get bogged down or overwhelmed by the numbers," Golden said. "This publication is designed to help school boards learn how to extract and interpret the essentials to guide their decisions about policies and resources needed to improve student achievement in their districts."

The guide emphasizes that school directors do not need to be experts in data analysis, but they do need to know how to choose and make use of data relevant to their role as policymakers. It suggests that school boards set very clear expectations about their data dashboards, such as:

• Determining what data should be collected and routinely presented to the board, and whether the information is appropriate for use at the policy level.

• Determining how the data should be presented so the board can easily make sense of it.

• Identifying the types of data comparisons that will help the board determine the district’s challenges and strengths.

• Identifying what questions should be asked to get to the root cause of any problem or lack of improvement.

• Establishing how the information will be used to determine board options for addressing issues it reveals.

The guidebook includes several sample presentations of data dashboards containing key indicators such as reading and math achievement, achievement gaps for racial/ethnic groups, Adequate Yearly Progress status, district enrollment and demographics, attendance, and graduation rates. It also provides a series of questions boards should ask about the overall selection of data and about specific indicators contained in a dashboard.

The guide complements the task force’s previously issued position paper, The Role of School Boards in Improving Student Achievement. The publication is designed to increase awareness among school directors and the education community about the critical importance of school board governance in assuring continuous improvement in student learning.

A copy of Data Dashboards for School Directors has been sent to board presidents and superintendents in each of the state’s school districts and ESDs. The guide will also be provided as part of training sessions at WSSDA’s Annual Conference in November and at in-district workshops for individual boards. Electronic copies of the guide and the position paper are available on the WSSDA Web site at wssda.org/publications.

For more information, contact WSSDA Policy and Legal Services Director  Marilee Scarbrough.

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