CODE77 Rubrics for Administrators 2010 Part 4 of 10

I warned you these were coming.

Self-evaluation Rubrics for Basic Administrative Technology Use (2002) 2010

 Not everything that counts can be measured. Not everything that can be measured counts. - Einstein

IV.          Data Use (TSSA Standards I.E, III.A, IV.D) NETS-A 2009 (4b, 4c)

Level One:             I do not use, or have available to me, reports or data produced by information systems in the district to help make operational or policy decisions.

Level Two:             I can analyze census, discipline, scheduling, attendance, grading, and financial data reports produced by administrative systems to spot trends and highlight problems in my building or department. I can communicate the conclusions to staff, parents, and the community in understandable ways. I help my staff access, analyze and use student performance data to design instructional strategies. I have the statistical knowledge to make meaningful and accurate judgements based on data.

Level Three:             I recognize areas in administration for which additional data is needed for the efficient and effective operation of the building, department, or district and can make recommendations about how that data can be gathered, stored, and processed electronically. I can use data mining techniques to draw conclusions about programs’ effectiveness and use such data to create building plans and evaluated their success.



Why leaders need to use technology to analyze data:

For far too long, educational leaders have used only past practice, political pressure, generalized research, and gut instinct to make decisions. It was what was available. But technology’s ability to store, retrieve and analyze large amounts of information is allowing us to begin to make decisions based on real, site-specific data.

A stand-alone, individually created database made by programs such as FileMaker Pro can be used to analyze small sets of data such as the test scores of single grade. But the creation of larger databases of any degree of sophistication is best left to experts. Relational databases (those that use data from multiple linked databases) are very powerful, but very complex.

The thoughtful, combined efforts of curriculum specialists, assessment specialists, building administrators, and technology departments are beginning to ensure that school leaders have the software tools to successfully extract and interpret data to determine program effectiveness or and the need for program change. Special databases are being built that merge and interpret data from many sources over multiple years and can be used to give meaning to this data through what is commonly referred to as data-mining.

Databases that provide data-warehousing/data-mining operations do some or all of the following:

• Keep accurate information about individual student progress.
• File timely, accurate state reports.
• Identify individuals or groups of students who are performing outside the standard performance range as demonstrated on a range of assessment tools.
• Track, identify and isolate the strategies, programs and interventions that may be impacting student performance.
• Judge the total effectiveness of building and district programs and improvement plans.

These databases hold basic student data imported from the school’s student information system, program information identified by the school, and test score data imported from state or commercial testing services. The ability for a database to import existing data already in some digital format saves time and is more reliable.

The concept behind data-driven decision making is that certain sets of data (indicators such as test scores) can be used to determine whether programs or circumstances (interventions such as summer school) have an effect on certain types of students (indicators such as grade level). Information searches for cross-building comparisons as well as individual buildings need to be possible in larger districts.

The database search feature needs to enable the user to find and understand the data through sorting, filtering and summarizing. At a basic level, the user will be able to sort by multiple combinations of each of these areas:

Identifiers            Identification of the person or group. These are factors that are not changeable or controllable. (Name, ethnicity, gender, grade level, date of enrollment, teacher, socio-economic background, attendance rate, etc.)

Interventions             The programs, strategies, or other factors that may cause or may be correlated with change. (Summer school, special reading programs, Title One, special education programs, ESL programs, gifted and talented program participation, etc.)

Indicators            The data that indicate the extent to which change has occurred. (State test scores, standardized test scores, course grades, G.P.A, etc)

Of all the technology skills required of educational leaders, the ability to make good decisions using meaningful data is probably the newest and most challenging, especially since training in statistics may be rudimentary, at best. Yet as budgets tighten, these skills are becoming increasingly important. We need to expend our finite resources on programs we can prove improve student performance or on improving programs that don’t. Using data wisely can help us do just that.

CODE77 Rubrics for Administrators 2010 Part 3 of 10

I warned you these were coming.

Self-evaluation Rubrics for Basic Administrative Technology Use (2002) 2010

"A budget is just a method of worrying before you spend money, as well as afterward." — Unknown

III.          Record Keeping and Budgeting  (TSSA Standards IV.B, IV.C) NETS-A 2009 (3a)

Level One:             I rely on a district system with paper reports for keeping track of budgets, inventories, and other financial records. I keep track of my budgets in a paper ledger format.

Level Two One:             I use and prefer a paper system, a spreadsheet or simple packaged record keeping system to track my department or building’s budget accounts. It is accurate and kept up-to-date. I can use my accounting system to cross check the district’s financial system if discrepancies arise.

Level Three Two:             I use the district’s online accounting system to track my budget accounts. I can submit purchase orders electronically. I use networked inventory databases to keep track of my building’s textbooks, supplies, and equipment.

Level Three:             I give access to the accounts I manage to anyone interested in the spirit of transparency. I use shared budgeting tools that allow a collaborative budgeting process working with a wide range of stakeholders.

Why leaders need to be able to use technology for keeping budgets:

I once overhead one of my favorite principals tease our business manager by saying, “It’s my job to spend the money. It’s your job to stop me.”

However, most administrators (if they are to keep their jobs) can’t take quite this cavalier an attitude toward fiscal responsibilities. Whether our budgets are a hundred or a hundred million dollars, administrators are expected to budget, expend and track expenditures accurately. Computer software tools can help meet these expectations.

One of the most simple and versatile tools to use for any accounting purposes is a spreadsheet. By recording a beginning balance, entering the amounts of expenditures, and subtracting the expenditures from the beginning balance, an accurate remaining balance of funds can be easily calculated. Even when the district keeps good accounts for me and reports the balances on a regular basis, I still keep a separate spreadsheet for each account. Because of schools’ complex account coding systems, it has happened that sometimes an expenditure has been mistakenly taken from the wrong account (mine). If the business office and I disagree about an account balance, I have a clear record of expenses that can be used to determine where the discrepancy occurred.

Spreadsheets are also wonderful tools for “what-if” planning. If I know I will have a set number of dollars for a project, I can easily enter and change numbers for individual costs until my projected expenses meet my known budget. The ability to create formulas and cell references makes this task, if not enjoyable, at least painless. (One of the first uses of a spreadsheet I undertook was to help do salary projections as a part of a contract negotiation team.)

For more complex budgets, money management or accounting software can be more practical and faster to use than a spreadsheet. Built in templates, formulas and step-by-step instructions for setting up accounts these programs contain are useful. Quicken, a personal money management tool, is widely used in our district by teachers and directors who manage multiple accounts.

Many Districts are now giving those persons responsible for account oversight the ability to access the district accounting programs directly. Using a work station client or even a web-browser, administrators can view account balances, generate purchase orders, and approve invoices for payment. One advantage that these systems have is that they will not let the user encumber a larger dollar amount to an account than that account’s balance. The business manager referred to earlier does indeed have a means to “stop” that principal from spending money she does not have.

Fiscal responsibility in our educational institutions is an ever growing expectation of school officials. Being able to track and control every dollar of a school budget is vital to the trust the public has in any organization. And being able to authoritatively report how its dollars are being spent in the education of their children is especially vital to every school’s credibility with its community.

CODE77 Rubrics for Administrators 2010 Part 2 of 10

I warned you these were coming.

Self-evaluation Rubrics for Basic Administrative Technology Use (2002) 2010

Finagles 2nd Law: Always keep a record of data - it indicates you’ve been working.

II.          Student Information Systems Use (TSSA Standards IV.A, V.A, V.C)  NETS-A 2009 (4b. 4e)

Level One:             My office staff uses a stand-alone student information system to keep track of basic student data and information needed for district and state reports. Networked access is not given.

Level Two One:             My office uses a student information system to accurately track student information including parental contact information, grade reports, discipline reports, and health records. The system is used to build a master class schedule. Selected building personnel and I can access the system through the network and use it for decision-making purposes. The system is secure and back-up procedures are in place. 

Level Three Two:             Appropriate student information is used by all staff as well as by building leaders. Teachers are trained and proficient in its use. The system is integrated with a district census database that is also tied to finance, transportation, and personnel/payroll records. I know the philosophy of SIF (School Interoperability Framework) and use it as a criterion when selecting new or upgraded information systems. The district information plan has these attributes:

• record and maintain basic student contact information including address, parent-guardian information, and telephone information
• track student attendance
• record and maintain student course grades, credits and completion of other graduation requirements
• calculate grade point averages and class rank
• create transcripts
• maintain discipline records
• develop class schedules, register students for classes, and create class lists
• maintain student health records
• generate reports
• generate report cards, progress reports, letters to parents and mailing labels

Level Three:        The information system is used as a communication tool to inform parents/guardians and students of real-time student work reporting. Using a secure portal, parents/guardians and students themselves can access demographic data, attendance, grades, schedules and gradebook infomation including test scores, quizzes and daily work completion information. The data in the student information system is used with telephone calling and e-mailing systems to communicate with households. The system integrates with state reporting systems and with data warehousing/data mining programs.

Why leaders need skills in using technology to use administrative student information systems:

Schools gather, store and use a lot of data. Large databases designed for just that purpose have long been an integral part of the educational landscape. And their integrity and accuracy are important since the reports of student population, daily attendance, and other data are often used to determine state and national funding formula.

Current student information systems such as NCS/Pearson’s SASIxp, Skyward, Apple PowerSchool and a variety of other commercial and home grown programs can do these tasks and administrators need to understand these functions and use them to efficiently and effectively run their buildings/departments:

• record and maintain basic student contact information including address, parent-guardian information, and telephone information
• track student attendance
• record and maintain student course grades, credits and completion of other graduation requirements
• calculate grade point averages and class rank
• create transcripts
• maintain discipline records
• develop class schedules, register students for classes, and create class lists
• maintain student health records
• generate reports
• generate report cards, progress reports, letters to parents and mailing labels
• integrate with telephone calling systems and e-mail systems
• provide parent and student portals to student data securely and accurately
  

One use that goes beyond the storage of information about students is the ability to create queries that can help administrators find data that can guide decision-making. Spotting trends in drop out rates, grade inflation, gender or racial gender biases, and truancy are possible using properly created and interpreted reports generated from the data a student information system can hold. (Rubric Four will deal specifically with this use.)

While the school secretary, guidance counselor and principal have primary access to entering, changing and reading data from these systems, access to the information in these systems is growing in three important in three other ways:

1.             Access from teacher’s desktop computer. Many Full-featured student information systems now have a module that allows teachers using networked computers in their classroom to report attendance and to enter course grades either by hand or from an integrated electronic gradebook. Access by teachers to some student data such as parental contact information, health records and discipline records can also be given. Data-privacy laws need to be fully understood and followed in such instances.

2.             Access by parents. By allowing parents access to view the information about their own children (and only their own children) that the student information system contains, schools can help parents be partners in the educational process. Parents can check the accuracy and completeness of the contact and health information, monitor their children’s grades, and check daily performance of their children in “real time.” Some systems even e-mail parents when their children have an unexcused absence, miss completing an assignment, or receive a failing test score. While some educators may be initially reluctant to participate in a project that allows parent access to student information, we have found in our district this reluctance passes and parents are universally enthusiastic about having such access.

3.             Access by other databases. Good databases share information with other databases. Compatibility of shared data is increasing because of the School Interoperability Format. Basic information about students can be imported into library automation systems, school lunch programs, and special education reporting databases. Such data sharing both decreases the clerical time needed to maintain such systems and makes the data more accurate. For more information, visit the SIF website at <www.sifinfo.org/>.

One of the oldest acronyms in the computer world is GIGO: Garbage In Garbage Out. School administrators need to understand not just how to access and use the information in school information systems, but how to write and enforce policies that maintain the integrity of the data they contain. Administrators need to understand the advantages of a district-wide centralized system and of an externally hosted and supported system where appropriate.