Districts that establish new virtual and/or hybrid schools should regularly collect data and engage stakeholders to evaluate the strength of their program. Virtual and hybrid schools can advocate for changes with district leadership using proper data.
To foster the right learning environment for students with learning differences, educators must understand the data around how their students learn best, celebrate highlights, explore and problem-solve around gaps, and set up all stakeholders – students, coaches, and families included – to move forward and use data to support student growth.
In this example, the box plot illustrates the number of suspensions issued by each school during each year. The boxes represent the range of the majority of the data, with the horizontal line indicating the mean value. Each dot then indicates an outlier, a variable (or school) that exceeds the rest of the data.
This tool has been created to support teams when using The Learning Accelerator (TLA)’s Data Advocacy Guide. This workbook intends to foster productive dialogue within stakeholder groups to guide the collection and analysis of data to better advocate for the needs of students.
After data analysis, making sense of your findings is a critical next step to connect what you have observed in the data with actionable ideas and strategies for advocating for student needs.
Conducting frequent data checks can help educators examine student learning in real time and provide powerful data for advocating for student needs.
Disciplinary data can be used by stakeholders to understand how and to what extent disciplinary practices are occurring within their school or district and advocate for equitable practices for students.
Collecting data to assess and monitor student learning progress can help address unfinished learning needs and advocate for needed supports.
The ability to access and utilize data for families and community members is critical for advocating for students. While, accessing data as a family or community member may seem overwhelming or complex, there are public sources that are openly available.
Establishing a data story helps stakeholders collect the right data to provide a more accurate picture of what is occurring with students.
