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Building Data Culture Through Dashboards in SFUSD: Abstract and Introduction
Building Data Culture Through Dashboards in SFUSD: Abstract and Introduction
Dashboards in SFUSD
Written by Ben Glazer (ben.glazer@gmail.com) for The Broad Residency.
Last updated April 26, 2010.
than strategic considerations, data systems are often unlinked to one another,
and district staff frequently lack the time and sometimes the training they need
to effectively compile and interpret data. In this paper, I will present my efforts
District Background
SFUSD comprises about 56,000 students and 7,000 staff, and covers the entire
city of San Francisco, roughly seven-by-seven square miles in area. The district
has an Information Technology Department with about 55 full-time employees,
Goals
dashboards that high school principals could review for 30 seconds each day to
get both a big picture overview of the trends in their schools and a detailed
Principals weren’t using data much at all. Our goal was to change that by:
district staff, all of whom make decisions in their daily jobs that ultimately
affect students.
Outcomes
believe will kick off with a new position and department next year.
Situation
and analyzed data, and made decisions based on these analyses. After learning
about SFUSD’s context, other district and CMO approaches to the same
wikis, best practice catalogs, video capture and sharing systems for teachers,
and analysis—the systems and structures that supply staff with the data they
data entry was sporadic and rarely verified, leading to inconsistent and
In speaking with colleagues and IT managers in other districts, these gaps are
hardly unique to SFUSD. Rather, there are a multitude of efforts across the
work with data in SFUSD, which poses a more significant change management
challenge.
Impact
staff. However, those principals oversee about 580 teachers who teach nearly
20,000 students, and thus have significant influence over student achievement.
Funding
We are currently applying for additional funding to finalize the design and
complete a product implementation. To date, the only money spent has been the
Contribution
approaches. For example, SFUSD had established formal PLCs for principals
but offered nothing for teachers; as such, classroom expertise was largely
siloed. Across the organization, many policy and strategy decisions were made
research.
In June, 2009, Natasha Hoehn, Executive Director of the Silver Giving
Foundation, led four sessions to discuss data that brought together about 50
leaders from across the district. I led a group discussion on data dashboard
interface design during one session. Following the four data sessions around the
• They work with the most politicized and visible data in the district:
• More data is available about high schools than other divisions, making
as many current and previous high school principals as would talk to me (about
frame questions in a way that would make it easiest for them to find answers. In
person stood out as the authoritative expert on the subject. I decided to contact
him to see whether he could help with the project. Serendipitously, he was a
Bay Area local with a passion for education. He donated his time to helping me
figure out how to frame the interviews and better design the interface.
Shortly thereafter, when the designs were about 70% complete, we had spent
all of the money from the planning grant. I submitted a report for inclusion in a
high-quality.
creating data governance structures in the district, and in collaboration with our
Several best practices aided in achieving the outcomes we have realized so far:
• Be relentlessly user-centric. Solicit frequent feedback from users at
Design. Based on a passion for education, Steve donated his time to the
project pro bono, and his book taught me everything I know about
dashboard design.
• Focus. Keep the scope of work as tightly focused as possible, and define
improve it.
influence in the district. Demands from principals are much more likely
Timeline
and end-users.
Barriers
• User time. Principals, teachers, and most other district staff are
• Funding. The current context for funding has been particularly bleak,
in many cases; even a minor update may significantly affect staff in IT,
Research, and schools. Buy-in across the system—from a committed
Outcomes
I had a year to make this happen but received less than half a year’s worth of
project funding. As such, the dashboard project is currently stalled at the design
phase, but some of the more aspirational outcomes around data system reform
are already happening. Principals are eager to have dashboards, though, and
I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to generate the additional political will and
Please see the attached files, which contain the following contents:
designs.
development process.
structures).