As part of the AISC Futures Plan 2022-23, we want to take all the incredible data that gets collected around teaching, learning, facilities, and our community, and put it to work for a better future. Specifically, we are working to “develop and evolve systems and processes to facilitate the convergence of data collection and use, assuring that stakeholders have access to beneficial data to make informed decisions.”
What does this look like in practice?
Data is raw, but information is useful. One of our goals is to build systems that transform one to the other, that take measurement and turn it into action. To do that, we need to make data visible.
Hannah Rajendran (IT Systems Manager) and I are spearheading efforts, supported by many other people I will mention below, to provide actionable information to the right people at the right time. Our main platform for visualization is Google Data Studio (now known as Looker Studio), which provides the right mixture of power and security. We’re building a library of dashboards to facilitate conversations around MAP, WIDA, and grades, as well as ES Running Records, curriculum, demographics and admissions, environmental responsibility, and more.
The reason this is a big deal? The dream of every school is to have these systems firmly in place, but few schools are given the tools or have the expertise to make it happen. By committing to it as a strategic goal, we’ve been able to take that leap into reality through professional development and carving out the time to develop our tools.
- Mary Kelly Bello (Curriculum Director) and Chris Galaty (Secondary Associate Principal) are pushing forward dashboards that help teachers make sense of MAP, WIDA, IB and AP scores and grades so they can make better informed decisions about student learning, and so faculty can have more powerful data conversations in general;
- Michele Ness and the student support team are designing new ways to surface actionable insights into individual student growth;
- Ryan McFarland (Director of Student Life) is leading the Environmental Responsibility Council’s project to make our key environmental data visible to the community and to the world, showcasing the great work we’re already doing, and highlighting the areas for us to meaningfully grow as an innovative organization;
- Jodie Sovak (Admissions Director) is pushing us to revamp our use of data in admissions, enrollment, and enhancing the family experience at AISC;
- Our three amazing principals (Lynn Schneider, Jennifer Bertram, and Michael Malone) as well as Joelle Basnight are constantly thinking about ways to make feedback, assessment, and organizational data into powerful tools for school change in areas like DEIJ, wellbeing, recruitment, and student support.
In addition to all the incredible internal work that goes on, I’m building connections to other schools around the world, not just to compare notes on how organizations use data as information, but also to collaborate on technical frameworks, data security protocols, and development projects. We see ourselves as part of a much larger community of international schools, groups of educators often solving very similar problems despite their unique contexts.
Greg Clinton, Director of Technologies and Research & Development