As a Deputy Principal, I recall how easy it was to get bogged down in the amount of data collected in school. But data doesn’t have to be intimidating. When used correctly, data is a tool to help you make decisions and verify that your strategies are working. 

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To make it easier to look at what data you should assess and why, think about four different types of data, each answering a different question. 

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External quantitative: how is your school stacking up? 

To see how your school is stacking up against others, you can measure:

• Success of your school’s exam results from year to year
• Increase of your school ranking (within the region, state or territory)
• How well your internal assessment marks align to external assessment marks – showing that your teachers and students are aligned to national assessment standards. 

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Internal quantitative: how are things going in your classroom?

Want to understand how things are going in your classroom? Look for:

• Increase in average assessment marks – is it trending higher?
• Is there a decrease in the standard deviation?
• How are your subjects performing? 
• Are students making progress and mastering key concepts?

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External qualitative: what is the feeling out there?

A little harder to measure, but you can look for:

• Are parents and carers happy with what you’re doing? 
• Are your students featuring in local news?

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Internal qualitative: are your students happy and proud?

Assess this through:

• Judgement of the teacher, who can make observations in class
• Student and parent feedback. 

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Gathering a mix of all types of data will best help you gather evidence to tell the story of success in your classroom and your school. 

‍Did you know? With Edrolo, you have access to instant, real-time data on how your students are tracking, and where they might need extra support. We’ll work with you to help you use this data effectively, so you can use it to plan, differentiate and support students to learn – the same way we’ve done with hundreds of schools already across Australia.