ND Community CallData Dashboards: Part 1September 20, 2012

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Dashboards vs. Report Cards

What’s a dashboard? A navigation system that can graphically

represent current program performance—highlighting key areas of strength and weakness—as well as predict or forewarn of programs that are not on track to meet program performance goals at a glance

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Dashboards vs. Report Cards

What’s a report card? A concise presentation or snapshot of

accountability data and other information about a school or program that assesses or evaluates its performance by focusing on outcomes and drawing comparisons (e.g., across time, across sites, against benchmarks)

4Culminating Activity: A Performance Dashboard

How is a dashboard different from a report card? Both can easily identify programs that are

performing well, above expectations, or poorly A dashboard supports decision-making A report card supports accountability

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Culminating Activity

For Discussion: Are you currently using some sort of dashboard to drive your

decision-making and/or technical assistance efforts? If so, how? What might you change about your current

dashboard and why? If not, what key barriers or challenges prevent your use of

dashboards? How might a dashboard inform your work as a Coordinator?

How can dashboards support CQI at the SA and LEA levels? Are there key indicators that you currently use to flag a

program that is in need of targeted technical assistance? How do you currently determine when to cut off funding?

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Essential Steps

1. Define program priorities2. Explore existing data 3. Map current and potential data sources 4. Select performance indicators 5. Set performance targets and threshold criteria6. Conceptually group indicators7. Design the dashboard interface8. Develop the dashboard 9. Implement the dashboard

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Step 1: Define Program Priorities

For Discussion: What are your program priorities and existing and

potential data sources? How do you currently assess these priorities? What is challenging about assessing these

priorities? How could a data dashboard help you assess

these priorities?

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Step 2: Explore Existing Data

What story is the data telling you? What jumps out at you about the graph? Are the data telling you something that is timely

and actionable? What questions arise? What is the graph not

telling you that you wish you knew? What data could help answer those questions?

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Average Daily Enrollment

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Average Per Pupil Spending

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Demographics: Age

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Demographics: Gender

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Demographics: Race/Ethnicity

14Ratio: Special Education Staff to Youth with IEPs

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FTEs by Staffing Function

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FTEs by Instructional Area

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Academic and Vocational Outcomes

18Students Demonstrating Improvement in Reading

19Students Demonstrating Improvement in Math

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Step 4: Select Performance Indicators

Things to Consider: Good dashboards need good data; good data is:

accessible clean timely comprehensible actionable

21Step 5: Set Performance Targets and Threshold Criteria Things to Consider:

In terms of your priorities, where do you want your subgrantees and facilities to be in one year? Two years? Three years?

What performance benchmarks might you set to measure their progress along the way?

How will you know when to target a subgrantee or facility for technical assistance? At what point might you sound the alarm?

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Next Steps

For Discussion: How can NDTAC support your efforts to develop (or refine)

and use dashboards? What kind of dashboard activity follow-up would be helpful for you?

What could you reasonably accomplish before our next data dashboard call?

Step 3: Map current and potential data sources? Step 4: Select performance indicators? Step 5: Set performance targets and threshold criteria?