Data is a rich, rewarding, renewable resource. Once we can temper and control its flow and presentation, that is.
What comes next is a detailed look paired with immediate understanding of achievement, behavior, attendance, (and more) across a single or multiple building sites.
Unlock this secret library with us. Instead of dusty pages, your living library is built from thousands of streams of student and school data: bountiful, energetic, swarming, bursting kaleidoscopic out of dashboards, every story too complex to digest at a glance—or are they?
A dashboard has flash, but visualizations inspire vitality
Think of it this way: if one of your favorite authors wrote a series, eventually the picture in your head of the characters, setting, history, and lore would encompass multiple volumes. Student data tells a similar series of connected and ongoing stories in a beloved book series. Seeing students’ data stories, you see their world come into focus.Each educator wants to help students grow and succeed, and everyone has their methods of igniting curiosity in young learners. Capturing motivation, intrinsic or extrinsic, is difficult. Showing students a picture of their own growth is revitalizing: whether the student is enthralled with their own growth and wants to see more, or the student is inspired by the feedback they get from grownups around them—perhaps they too want to create more now.
Predictive education insights can help create an action plan to get students from their starting point to their goal, whether that is grade-level standards or improvement on their intervention plan. Imagine sharing a vision of progress with every student, one that leaves grids of grades and numbers behind and instead shows a trajectory up, up, up toward growth.
Time is of the essence, as the library is still being written
Next, know that educators have precious little time to prep and less time to think. The best benefit administrators can give to teachers is their own working brainspace (and time) back. When trustworthy and secure student information system (SIS) data meets appropriate and engaging visualization, student success tracking narratives are easier to communicate to students and their families.Districts have tried it before with school budgets, forecasting financials for the student business office with predictive analytics. Predictive education insights can mirror that enterprise resource planning (ERP) experience, if only to show the galaxy of possibilities forward for kids. After all, student success tracking boils down to self-directed and open-ended: each kid’s future depends on their own choices, and the student is in control from day one. As students reflect on the visual stories their data tells, guided by expert educators, they build a vision of their individual futures.
And, as always, funding is on the line
Not only is this latent library lurking data-wise in minds and software and sticky notes but getting it all organized and distilled into insight is also a path to better allocating funds. Now, K–12 success is WAY deeper than standardized testing and budget calculations, but every hard-won bit of success helps keep your district’s culture, experience, and achievement inertia strong. Being able to make personalized plans in a fraction of the time helps everyone at any level in K–12—yes, even for funding. (Psst… K–12 funding comes from many places, none more special, secret, or exclusive than the next.)It's easy to see how student data from an SIS can be instructive, but what about ERP data for school finance and human resources? Visualization helps them too.
Predictive analytics, formulas, and spreadsheets all transformed the way SBOs manipulate and harness data to work for them instead of adding headaches and stacks of paper. Marrying visuals with deep, longitudinal data takes budgeting to the next level and helps ensure school business officers make the most of every penny available to their school districts.
Edtech needs to be a workhorse, not a novelty
Getting your return on investment for the hundreds of edtech solutions schools choose is top of mind for all responsible school administration teams. As it should be. In an industry that consumes $30 billion of school funds, student and ERP data is a miraculous byproduct too few leaders are mining for insight. The way to a steadier, deeply connected, and successful school district are already hidden in the halls of your schools. The right edtech—aka your reference librarian in this secret library of data—can help you blaze a more efficient path to success.WHAT'S NEXT FOR YOUR EDTECH? The right combo of tools & support retains staff and serves students better. We'd love to help. Visit skyward.com/get-started to learn more.
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Erin Werra Blogger, Researcher, and Edvocate |
Erin Werra is a content writer and strategist at Skyward’s Advancing K12 blog. Her writing about K12 edtech, data, security, social-emotional learning, and leadership has appeared in THE Journal, District Administration, eSchool News, and more. She enjoys puzzling over details to make K12 edtech info accessible for all. Outside of edtech, she’s waxing poetic about motherhood, personality traits, and self-growth.
