School Improvement: Studying Results

Studying, Communicating, and Acting on Results

Studying Results

There are two basic types of results you should study: data and perception. Following are some suggestions for reviewing these sources of information so that they bear meaning and can be used to generate appropriate goals for continuous improvement.

		Student Enthusiasm for Classes

Control Chart Interpretation

Graphing Basics

To view, edit, and print Excel files you will need Microsoft Excel.

Data

Susan Leddick says there are three rules with data: graph it, graph it, graph it!

When creating your graphs, be sure to include the title, month and year, label both axis, and write a caption for the graph. A caption is not the same as a title, it is a summary statement of what the graph says. Captions are especially helpful when analyzing several graphs at once and when reviewing graphs in previous years. Other tips for graphs include:

When charting student cohort groups, title and/or organize data by "the class of" rather than by school year. It will make comparison of cohort groups over time more efficient.
Graph data so that trends are analyzed, not point to point (i.e. year-to-year) differences.
Use scatterdiagrams or line charts to make comparisons on the same graph—i.e. a scatterdiagram for comparing two characteristics such as attendance and grade point average; a line graph for comparing disaggregated scores of four student subgroups such as white, low SES, Non-white, ELL.
Organize by percent of students rather than number of students (i.e. percent of proficient and above in 4th, 8th, and 11th grades) so comparisons over time can more easily be made.

Perception

Surveys are a popular tool for soliciting feedback but often the information is not organized in a way so it can be used to see patterns. Use an affinity process to organize responses. First, find the themes of what people are talking about, then record the frequency of the themes mentioned in the comments. Finally, use a pareto chart to organize the themes. The pareto chart displays the frequency and cumulative percentage of what people said. The information gleaned from the pareto chart can then be easily used by decision makers.

If you've disaggregated groups when gathering the feedback, again chunk the information into themes and display all groups on a line graph to see patterns in differences and agreement.

School Improvement