by Mollie Murphy Dale
Continuous Improvement Manager, Training and Decision Support
We love data at UWSL! Through incredible relationships with Granite School District, Davis School District, Park City School District, and dozens of community partners we can access, analyze, and then use aggregate-level data to inform and drive the work of partners in our six Promise Partnerships.
Data helps us target individuals for the specific programs and other resources that they need, develop individualized plans and instruction, and predict who is high-risk, so that we can intervene early. Data helps students and families understand where they are educationally, set goals for improvement, and meet them.
One of the tenets of Collective Impact is to develop a shared measurement system. Collecting data and measuring results on indicators at the community-level and across our partners is how we ensure that Promise Partnership work is aligned, and is moving towards our target goals (like every child entering kindergarten ready to learn, or every third grader reading on grade level). We move toward our goals by collecting and assessing data across our partnerships in a cloud-based data management system called ClientTrack. A data team at UWSL works with our partners to build data tracking systems that align with community level objectives, then trains and supports partners as they collect data on the programs in our partnerships that they run. As one can imagine, this is complex work– and we cannot do it alone!
In June 2013, we formed a Data Governance Committee of a cross-section of the partners we work with. Current committee members represent diverse educational strategies and each of the six Promise Partnerships. These advisors come from Big Brothers Big Sisters, City of South Salt Lake, Davis Community Learning Center, English Skills Learning Center, Granite School District, Holy Cross Ministries, Junior Achievement, Salt Lake County Youth Services and the United Way of Salt Lake. Data Governance Committee members are crucial advisors in developing our vision around data, laying the foundation on how we collect and use data, and developing policies and practices that drive data use that result in positive change for kids and communities!
Past and current projects this committee has worked on include:
- Case study review to understand how data is used to drive results in other communities around the nation
- Provide input on our Data Sharing and Privacy Agreement, which provides the framework for protecting student privacy and keeping data safe
- Contribute to policies and procedures around Data Breeches and Accountability
- Identify content for an online partner website, a tool for UWSL partners
- Inform a report summary key and report key that will help data end-users select and use appropriate reports
- Advise the design and content for various data “dashboards” that give the end-user a quick glance at data that is relevant to their strategy
- Revise data-related content for UWSL’s 2014-2015 contract period
The Data Governance Committee meets on a regular basis and works on projects in between meeting times. UWSL would like to give a huge shout out to our 10 members who’ve dedicated the next six months to this important work – THANK YOU for LIVING UNITED!
For more information on the Data Governance Committee please contact Mollie at mollie@uw.org
