I can think of several ways in which data driven decision making is used in my school setting. The first and major example is called "accreditation." We have four standards which basically evaluate the school as far as performance, landscaping, communication with students, communication with staff, communication with faculty, parking issues, governance, the mission statement, course outlines, program reviews, assessments, fill ratios, programs offered at the school, etc. I could keep going on and on with this list of items that I am helping with in the writing of our "self-study" reflection that will be used in our evaluation for full community college status.
One form of data came from the form of a survey which was distributed and currently being collected on our campus. The survey asked for opinions regarding the distribution of course outlines, the beautification of our campus, the parking lot situations, safety on campus during various times of the day, and fill ratios of classes with students. Using the results from the survey, our self study will indicate which areas our campus is doing well and which areas we still need to work on.
My accreditation standard which I serve as chair of our committee is Institutional Effectiveness. I know from our results we wrote our own mission statement and over 82% of our faculty and staff strongly believe our mission statement reflects what we are doing at our campus. Also, a majority of our faculty and staff also believe that our remediation programs are effective in teaching students the basic skills they need to be successful in the next level of courses or in the job market in the future. One of our goals we aim for is a high success rate, not meaning if the student passes our classes, but whether the students pass our class and go to the next class and successfully pass the next level. That is fairly easy to calculate in math, but with other subject like history or physical education, this is not easy to do.
Another example of data driven decision making is when our dean of instruction looks at our fill ratios numbers to determine which classes are filling to maximum capacity and which are barely making the cut. By looking at our fill ratios, the dean along with the department chair usually decide which class offerings to keep the next year and which class offerings should be replaced with a class with a 'higher fill ratio.' This occurred last year with our backpacking and hiking class we offered as a physical education class. Even though many students enjoyed the class and wrote letters protesting the dismissal of the class, we replaced it with a step aerobics classes and filled the same room with more students.
A positive use of data driven decision making would be in assisting which classes bring in the higher FTES (full time equivalent student) numbers and which classes are not filling to capacity, thus lowering our overall FTES. Another positive use of the data driven decision making is in deciding how to offer classes as far as schedules. I know in the past, many classes were offered two days a week (either Mon/Wed or Tues/Thurs) at our college. The students liked these time offerings because it allowed them to pick which days they wanted to attend school and they could work on the other days. Well, the data collected found that we were not utilizing our classrooms to full capacity because every Friday our campus looked like a ghost town. Therefore, now many of our classes changed to five day a week classes meeting for only one hour a day. This I feel hurt our enrollment at the community college because the students simply attend other community colleges that kept the two day a week schedule. Even though our campus has more students now on Fridays and we are utilizing our classrooms better, I still think we should have kept the schedule to two days a week. This decision was made by our administration.
My activity log for the week of February 26th - March 4th
Monday, February 26th: I downloaded and listened to the podcast for week 8
Tuesday, February 27th: I started writing my proposal for project 3. Checked blog sites for comments for this week.
Wednesday, February 28th: I wrote this blog posting. I commented on Denugyen and Cassandra's sites.
Thursday, March 1st: I will continue working on my proposal.
Friday, March 2nd: Continue commenting on my classmates blog sites.
Saturday, March 3rd: Finish writing up first proposal. Cut video sessions down in size. Upload to my website for project 3.
Sunday, March 4th: Comment on classmates' blog sites.
PROJECT 2
This is a link to my web page for project 2.
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10 comments:
Hi James,
It looks like you do a lot of data collection to run a more efficient school. I especially like the information about the student success rate measured not by the grade they obtain but whether they continue on and pass the next class. This is a very good example of positive data use and good interpretation of the data as information and not just as numbers. I am sorry to hear about the change of scheduled days. Even though the result is a more efficient use of resources, it does little to facilitate accessibility for students. This is an example of data being looked at as just numbers without taking in consideration the human element.
Hello James,
I am in agreement with Rosa's comments; Your school does collect lots of data. Another positive thing about your school, is that they do not collect data just for the sake of it; they actually look at it and use it in a very efficient manner.
The behavior the leadership at your school shows, demonstrates their sincere desire to be proactive and offer the best they can provide for the student. Congratulations, your school projects a very healthy and positive environment for everyone.
I can see that you are really known and used this data collecting productively. Personally, I also think this is a good technique providing we have correct information or facts to base on. It makes the final decision looks scientifically and educated.
De Nguyen
James,
College on Fridays is a interesting case study. What do you do when the data tells you one thing and common sense tells you the opposite?
You describe a very healthy and positive use for data--to benefit people andto make the best use of your resources. I wish all schools would use data in this fashion. It could be that colleges do not have the standards pressures that some of us deal with, or you just have better leadership--whichever it is, good for you and thanks for giving us all hope.
I agree that you use data in an appropriate manner. Sometimes those that are in charge of a department or College will use data collection as the final say to any decisions that will effect students or teachers. Seems like your school has factored the human element into the data collection.
Robert
Hi James,
Great example of data driven decision making, I work in a college too and similar to you they try to open communication with students in order to provide them with the best service possible. In order for administration to make a decision they need to collect as much information from students, and like many other cases not every solution will work for everyone involved.
Hi James,
I think that using surveys are a great way to collect data. I look forward to filling out surveys whenever they are avaiable. I am actually going to have my students and parents fill out a survey for me regarding my website and parent communication for my MA project as well and just data to keep. Great post and your project is awesome!
James,
I like the examples you have used for this posting. The most intersting is how they used to data to change the schedule with a focus on "use of classrooms". The community college's mission I am sure is not to use classrooms effectively, but probably is more focused on the succes of the student. I agree with you that it may have been a little narrow minded of them to make such a change. They may have wanted to survey or observe the patterns of the students. I know here at CSUSB, the student prefer to come to school only two days a week.
Davena
Excellent description of DDDM at your location. In many ways you are ahead of many larger institutions that could be named!
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