Dashboards are common tools for institutions to use, especially at the board or executive level to assess the overall health of the organization and to use the information within it to inform decision making. Independent schools have varied ways of engaging with dashboards. In my twenty years of serving in independent schools and working with leaders in schools, I’ve seen a range of polish to dashboards, everything from simple spreadsheets to the more sophisticated tools made specifically for boards. I’ve also seen a range of engagement with dashboards, from checking it constantly to forgetting it even exists. But I’m convinced more than ever that dashboards and the data behind them are crucial to informed decision making from the board down to teachers and staff.
Dashboards at a high level
One thing I’ve often found to be true in organizations is that people base their conclusions on a lot of anecdotal evidence. Take for example, a board member who’s interacted with a frustrated parent on the soccer field determines that their complaints are widespread and brings that to the board or the head. Or, the complaint from a faculty member who says students are less capable than they used to be. Or, after a bad admissions year, the board starts to think the school is doomed. Now all of these examples are worth digging into and understanding more thoroughly, but they are not a good foundation for decision making, and that’s why data and dashboards can be helpful.
At the highest level, a dashboard tracks things of interest to the board: enrollment and retention, revenue, expenses, the state of the endowment, staff, and often race and ethnicity data. It’s important to look for trends in this data rather than focus on anomalies. A school might ask, “Are we making progress on the goals we set with regard to enrollment or retention? Are we healthy financially or are we losing money or revenue someone?” After these questions, it’s time to use the data to decide how to move forward from a challenge or how to set new goals.
In addition to a school’s internal data, it’s also important to look beyond the school at the demographic information of the region, the economics and market, enrollment in public and competitor or feeders schools. These can all be indicators and inform decision making. (For an example of this kind of macro level work, see this NAIS article.) Board members with business development or executive level experience can be helpful in collating this information. But heads and other members of the executive team should also understand this external data.
Using data and dashboards at lower levels
Dashboards are mostly, as I mentioned, used at the board or executive level, but I would argue, smaller and more focused dashboards or data visualizations can be helpful in other areas. Think about the examples I mentioned above. In the case of the faculty complaint, it would not be difficult to track placement tests or standardized test scores or devise another measurement to track student capacity from year to year. I’ve created data for just that kind of thing, looking at ERB scores for the last five years, with a goal to keep tracking into the future.
Another area where a dashboard can be useful is in hiring. Many schools have goals to diversify their faculty and leadership teams. Using data from searches, a school can see what their hiring funnel looks like and make adjustments accordingly to improve the pool of candidates applying. Or maybe a school wants to draw a more national pool or have more faculty on staff with certain kinds of degrees. Looking at the data can help schools make better decisions and change behavior to get better results.
Going down a level, search committees can use data to ensure a less biased hiring process, taking applicants and removing identifying information and screening those that meet the goal criteria rather than going with your gut. Surveys and other data gathered during a search process can likewise inform a hiring decision in a way that removes certain kinds of biases.
In the classroom, teachers have a plethora of data and with new course management systems and student information systems of have easier ways to access and analyze that data. Teachers might make decisions on instruction based on students’ performance on a recent test, choosing, for example, to repeat some topics as test results indicate students’ lack of understanding.
These lower level data analyses may not be considered dashboards by some, but if you think about dashboards as indicators and as the presentation of data such that you can assess situations, I think these lower level uses of data can be considered dashboards and can help improve different areas of the school.
Why schools don’t use dashboards and what to do about it
Time is the main factor keeping schools from implementing more data-informed decisions. Most schools don’t have the staff to put these kinds of dashboards together or to teach others how to do it. Schools might consider hiring an external consultant to set up dashboards that are easy to maintain or invest money in easy to use tools. Alternatively, schools might invest time and money into a staff member who takes on this responsibility, who can then help others at lower levels set up good data analysis tools.
It’s also true that sometimes even if a school has the time, they might not have the right person on staff. In that case, they can either get the appropriate training for an interested staff member or again, could hire an external person.
As I mentioned above, board members might have the expertise needed to help schools build a high-level dashboard or they might be able to find someone willing to volunteer their time to do so. Additionally, board members might have resources to support developing data skills within the staff of the school.
Schools are swimming in data. Using that data effectively in decision making requires creating dashboards or other data visualizations that allow decision makers to easily see trends inside and outside the school. It’s worth the investment of time and energy to help your school meet their goals.