The Power of Data in Education
Today’s largest and most successful organisations use data to their advantage when making high-impact decisions. This can be even incredibly powerful in education, as we can incorporate data analytics into the decision-making process to promote and track student growth.
However, so much crucial data within a school is untapped due to not having the required tools.
Collecting and Analysing Data
From attendance records, behavioural observations, positive recognition to academic results – there’s a world of data to unlock. This data can be especially influential in interpreting student progression and giving an insight to how we can further support this. It can allow us to:
- Monitor negative and positive behaviours
- Track academic progress
- Observe attendance
We can then use this evidence to understand exactly why trends are occurring, make changes, and monitor success collaboratively.
But, sometimes it’s not as easy as it sounds! Data sets can be hard to visualise, as they depend on a school’s goals, challenges and staff roles. It’s also crucial to empower all staff members by allowing them to understand the power of data collection and analysis.
Because of this, we have to make it simple – easy to access, share and understand. If we can do this, not only staff and teachers, but students and the wider community are much more likely to engage with it, and see the benefits.
The Data-Driven Decisions Workflow
When a data-driven process is introduced, it’s important along every step of the way to analyse not only the data, but the initiatives and their outcomes. To replicate success – we need a high understanding of the positive outcomes and how they were achieved.
Using the Making Data-Driven Decisions Workflow below as part of our practices, we can confidently evaluate the effectiveness of our approach – building a cycle of clear progress.
These steps are all great in theory – but if we don’t have the right tool set it’s hard to build that buy-in and see success. Using processes like surveys and spreadsheets is a starting point, however now there are new tools that are simple to use, and even more powerful! This is why we’ve designed Compass Pulse, to dive into the data that makes up our trends. Between dashboards, easy-to-create reports, shareability and real-time automatic updates, it’s the perfect way to start making data analysis part of our processes, in a familiar platform.
Underneath these data sets lie powerful insights, where we’re able to find the trends contributing to these results. For example, we may notice a spike in behaviour issues – but what’s the real reason? Using data, we can pinpoint the root cause – it could be a specific behaviour type, group of students, time of day, location, staff member on duty.
Data in Action – Example
At our Compass school, Greenfields Primary School – there were 20 more behaviour Chronicle* entries for fighting in the junior school playground than last year, mostly occurring from 12:00-12:30 during recess. There are a large number of Year 1 students involved. The pushing appears to be related to getting access to the new playground equipment.
We can record this data super easily by creating Chronicle entries, and spot and share the data through Pulse. This gives us the information we need to develop strategies around improving the behaviour in the junior playground – possibly by introducing a playground access roster.
*Chronicle is our innovative behaviour module that enables staff to effectively monitor and reward positive behaviour, while also managing student wellbeing, safeguarding and detentions. With Chronicle, staff have the opportunity to create a safe, positive and nurturing learning environment for students.
Top Tips
Using these tools, we become empowered to review and analyse our data effectively. Here’s our top tips on making your data matter, by collecting and keeping an eye out for the right information.
If we make data simple and rewarding for staff members to access, we can lead them to a cycle of motivation and action.
At Compass, we’re committed to promoting the power of data, and have introduced a new way of decision making – all in portals at hundreds of schools.
We’ve invested months of development work and over $1 million to optimise Pulse for how UK schools are run. Allowing your school to get quick and easy reports when it matters most, for example when Ofsted come to school unexpectedly or to report back to your MAT or Local authority.
We’d love to help you make the most of your Compass data!
Book a 1:1 session with our friendly consultants to get started with a free trial, and work together on finding powerful insights through the data you care about.
