Data and Metrics
Every human enterprise must gauge its progress and establish goals for its achievement with a clear understanding of the data and metrics that record its past, benchmark its present, and give promise to its future. For stakeholders to be meaningfully engaged in planning for an improved future, they must share an understanding of the realities of current performance as well as the goals for improvement. Unless performance can be measured and new programs and initiatives assessed, any effort to improve outcomes will be unsubstantiated and without meaning. The overarching goal in this Sector is to effectively integrate Data and Metrics into all adult and student planning and decision-making processes. Four Interactive Performance Systems (IPS) support the Sector of Data and Metrics.
Component IPS
- Business/Financial Acumen (BFA)—The knowledge and skill needed to guide the financial support of school and district operations, performance improvement activities and accomplishments, and shape the management and control of funds to protect the public’s investment in the educational enterprise.
- Information, Measurement, and Reporting System (IMRS)—An operating system designed to maintain, update, and distribute the organization’s life-blood of data and information about the district, schools, and students to continually focus the attention of employees, students, and other stakeholders on the meaning, characteristics, and health levels of current performance in order to establish new levels of success.
- Student Behavior and Performance Data (SBPD)—All the quantifiable data and qualifiable information about individual students and student groups collected and organized to enhance understanding of present behavior and performance. These data establish the baseline upon which improvements and progress will be measured and are compared with the results obtained in similar and best-performing districts and schools.
- Technology that Supports Programs, Personnel, and Students (TECH)—Computer hardware, software, communications systems, and related technologies that support school and district efforts to accomplish work tasks and communicate with and among stakeholders. These technologies also help board and staff members, students, parents, and public assess current performance levels and support efforts to close the gap between current and expected performance levels.