November 27, 2006

AtD Update #7:  November 27, 2006

Acting on Fact:  Becoming a Data Driven Institution

 

A fundamental goal of Achieving the Dream is to help colleges create an organizational culture in which decisions about student success, learning, hiring, policies, practices and budgets are all driven by data.  Colleges which use data wisely to improve student outcomes begin with at least two central values:

• The core business process of a college is learning therefore the center of community college work should focus on improving student learning, persistence, and success.
• If learning truly is the core business process at the college, then every program, every service, every academic policy should be evaluated in terms of how well it improves student learning, persistence and/or success. If a program isn't producing that desired outcome, the only rational action is to modify it or discontinue it.

 

Colleges that use data wisely are engaged in a never-ending cycle of gathering, analyzing, and most important, using data.  The cycle looks something like this:

1.      The college identifies and prioritizes what is most important.  What priorities are identified in the strategic plan?  What issues are of greatest concern to the college community?  What are the needs of the students?  Questions like these help the college begin to identify its priorities.  Priorities may be broadly focused (e.g. student success) or more narrowly focused (e.g. how can we improve retention and persistence of developmental math students?).

2.      The college gathers baseline data related to its priorities.  Lone Star College System has a wealth of quantitative data available including the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) (2) as well as internally generated reports (3).  More difficult to come by are qualitative data which often provide illumination into the "why" behind the "what" revealed by quantitative data.  Arrangements are currently being made to convene focus groups to help increase that body of qualitative data.   Not all of Lone Star College System's data are disaggregated so it is not always possible to gauge engagement and outcomes among various groups.  Part of the AtD process is to begin assembling the disaggregated data.

3.      College staff review, analyze, and discuss the data.  In-depth analysis and discussion of data requires tremendous courage because the data often contradict fundamental perceptions within the college of what is valued and how policies and practices impede or support student success.  For example, the college may value access and racial equality but data show that minority students succeed at lower rates than equally prepared White students.  Through the pain of such discussions it is important to remember that data is a weapon but a guide for implementing change - and that change cannot begin to occur until those open and forthright discussions begin.

4.      A data-driven college will involve stakeholders both inside the college as well as the broader college community and encourage them to discuss the data and ask questions.  Fundamental questions that should be asked include:

a.       Is the college's performance in these areas what was expected and desired?

b.      Are there noticeable gaps between groups (disaggregated by gender, race and ethnicity, income and enrollment status)?

c.       What strategies do educational research and/or the data suggest to improve the desired outcomes or close gaps between groups?

5.      The college designs strategies that address concerns and sets targets for progress.

6.      The college shares the data, plans for addressing concerns and target goals with a broad range of stakeholders.

7.      As strategies for addressing concerns are implemented, the college closely tracks progress by regularly measuring progress toward target goals.  Disaggregated data, student cohort tracking, program/service evaluations, student focus groups, student learning assessments, and other means are all tools which the college uses to measure progress. 

8.      Strategies for improving student success and closing gaps between groups are scaled up if they are working; modified or discontinued if they fail to generate the desired goals.   Because the college has tracked the effectiveness of intervention strategies, it is able to channel resources into efforts that best serve students and lead to better student outcomes.

9.      The college continues to repeat this process, over time aligning budget, hiring, strategic plans, practices and policies to support priorities.  In other words, data-driven decision making is not a haphazard process but a methodical, deliberate, and on-going approach to improving student learning.

 

While neat on paper, the process overall is often messy with steps overlapping and processes looping back on one another.  Analysis and discussion of data raises more questions, resulting in the need to collect additional data which results in further analysis and discussion before strategies can be identified to address the problem.

 

At Lone Star College System, we are early on in this process but much of the data used in developing our first year AtD implementation plan has already been gathered.  Additional qualitative and disaggregated data are being collected.  At both the district and college level discussion is currently underway to determine the implications of the data we have collected, design strategies to address key concerns and set targets for progress.    We hope that each of you will continue to be involved in this discussion as we move toward finalizing the first year implementation plan and begin implementing strategies to improve student success.

 

The AtD Updates are produced by the Lone Star College System Core Team and distributed to the Lone Star College System community in an effort to inform as well as promote discussions on issues critical to improving student success. Should you have any questions about the information contained in the AtD Updates, need clarification about the data or simple wish to comment please contact Lea Campbell, Director of Student Success Initiatives (832-813-6584, carol.l.campbell@lonestar.edu).

 

1.      The content of this AtD Update is largely based on information found in the 2006 CCSSE Findings, Executive Summary, available at:  http://www.ccsse.org/publications/CCSSENationalReport2006.pdf

2.      Complete copies of the 2005 Lone Star College System CCSSE findings are available through the Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs at each campus.

3.      A large collection of Lone Star College System reports can be found at:  http://www.lonestar.edu/Templates/content.aspx?pid=2593