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interactive analysis of school and pupil performance data for governors, schools, local authorities and school inspectors, and is one of the key tools for institutions looking to measure performance. The secure, web-based system provides information in the form of tables and charts detailing pupil attainment, progress, absence, exclusions and characteristics – and compares them to the national averages. So, with all this data floating around in the ether, how do schools make sense of it all and turn it into real-life improvements in terms of delivery and results? “Sharing data can, in itself, be useful, but it’s
limited,” says Keith Wright, MD of Bluewave Swift. He is a staunch advocate of contextualising the data and firmly believes that without the story behind the numbers, the information is useless. “It’s useful for comparisons, but without that context, the comparisons can be meaningless and even dangerous,” he says. “When teachers talk about Ofsted, they say there’s a much bigger story than the data. When you’ve got this data about your school and others, it’s the comparison that tells you what you need to improve as a school.” Sharing performance data in its simplest form is at
least, according to Wright, a useful way for schools to benchmark themselves and might throw up some useful comparisons about success in certain subjects to shed some light on actual, as opposed to perceived, performance. “Listening to heads, it’s as simple as that sometimes. Everybody’s clambering to be the Manchester United because that’s what the top schools are doing. Everything in big numbers is more meaningful but there can only be one highest performing school, and every other school is underperforming in comparison.” He continues: “When that comparison is made with data alone, it’s not really valid because that highest performing school might be in a very privileged position and that’s why the comparison has to be provided alongside that data.” Wright sees this kind deeper, more informed comparison
as essential to the proper use of the new Data Dashboard as well. He explains: “If you looked at a school’s data dashboard, you could see underperforming and a declining trend on the face of it, but if I was Sir Michael Wilshaw, I’d want to know what the governing body was doing at that school. It might be that there isn’t a governing body at the school and that’s the issue, so they’re not challenging the leadership team. That story has got to come out somewhere.” He warns that when the data is analysed properly, it may transpire that it’s actually a miracle things haven’t been worse, but it’s important to know the root causes, so that schools or governors can go about fixing the problem. He adds: “The trigger for action is the data, but the very next thing that should happen is an investigation into why the data is saying what it is, there’s got to be a place where each school can tell an individual story as well.” Sharing this data can also help with individual teachers’
“There’s got to be a place where each school can tell an individual story as well”
development, by flagging up their results compared to other teachers in local schools, or nationally, to establish which subjects or areas of teaching they may need help with. Open and regular consultation between schools can then facilitate easier resolution of performance issues by, if applicable, sharing training. For example, if five schools analyse their results and all discover that they have one or more staff members that need training on a particular area, they can pool their resources to provide that training or, better still, it may be that one school has a teacher capable of providing it. However you plan to use the data, it’s identifying the story behind it that will give you a far greater idea of how to act.
www.edexec.co.uk / april 2013
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