Activity Directions: Analyze Data System for Effectiveness

1. Prepare resources for the meeting 

a. data collection schedule/calendar

b. examples of data reports and action plans from meeting minutes where data was available and used. 

c. Editable working Action Plan 

2. Invite staff responsible for collecting, analyzing, and using the data. (Some organizations may invite those responsible for IT, procurement, and research and evaluation.) 

3. Schedule enough time to review.

1. Have the team look at the Handout: Decision Support Data System Template

2. For each data source listed in the data calendar, use the following questions to reflect on the effectiveness of the system around it (be sure to record issues that arise):

a. Did the team have the data in time for its meeting?

b. Was the data useful for answering the question(s) and making decisions? If not, what issues were identified?

c. Was the data usable and actionable? 

§ What is to be celebrated? 

§ Were their barriers to getting the data in time for the meeting? 

§ Were there any concerns registered about the accuracy and reliability of the data for action planning? If so, is it a data collection and recording issue or is it a misalignment with the intended use of the data?

d. Have there been action items generated for another team to address? Did those items get resolved? 

§ Note: If an issue remains unresolved for a period of time or the item continues to show up as an agenda item, it requires initiating a plan-do-study-act cycle of its own. One member of the team or administration needs to take responsibility for owning the item and working to resolve it at the appropriate level. Items that go unowned are likely to stay unresolved.  The owner needs to commit to provide progress updates to those most impacted. 

3. In some cases the team doing this reflection cannot resolve the issue alone. Questions that may help resolve action items that lie outside the control of the team are: 

a. Is this an action item that requires more than a year to solve due to budget, buy-in, change in policy,  elevated priority? If so, who needs to be included in the solution, and what steps do we need to take?

b. Who needs to be educated and included in learning about the problem and the importance of resolving it? What is the best communication approach?

c. What information will key decision-makers need from this team? How will this team communicate needs and bring recommendations forward? 

§ Note: Some things that decision-makers may need to know include: what is known and unknown, costs and benefits of solving the problem (include financial implications and human fatigue), and recommended actions. It is not uncommon for administrators or school boards to not have enough information to make a decision. When the homework is done and the details provided, decisions can be made more quickly. 

4. Every action that is identified as part of this reflection process should be added to the working action plan the team has created to enhance the standards based education system.