Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Analysis of Data Collection

4. Euclid uses too many databases to store data that are not compatible at all. To find correlations, information must be printed off and consolidated and analyzed by the interested parties. Often, the appropriate reports cannot even be accessed by the individuals who should be able to see the data. For example, if a teacher is interested in which students are receiving the most referrals to the office, he or she must survey the other teachers to get their paper copies of referrals. There is a database that stores referral information; however, this database can only be accessed by administrators and secretaries, who often cannot look up information on repeat offenders because there is no report in that information system to provide that data.
5. Data is collected constantly; however, it is difficult to perceive which data is most important. Data collection is becoming more useless as teachers are inundated with information that has little effect on their current situation. For example, we have spent several staff meetings looking at behavioral referrals from 2005-06, but we cannot look at the behavior referrals from this year because that data is not accessible to us. If the current building climate is a priority, then statistics from students who are currently seniors at the high school is completely void. Therefore, data must be pertinent to a current situation in order to have relevance to decision making.
6. I can access student grades that I have assigned from the past two years. Also, I can access achievement test scores for my current students from all previous years. Finally, I can see student records for all Forest Park students by accessing the paper files. The past achievement test scores are extremely helpful as I prepare my students for the current year's test. I can see which students need more targeted instruction and which ones need more challenges. It would be helpful to access behavioral data in order to understand which students need more behavioral interventions. I can only go by word of mouth to access prior history of students. Often this way of getting background information is subjective because it comes from teachers who may not like the student.
7. The MIS is called InfoWeb. I am able to access certain important information and databases from this system, such as students' grades and test scores, district news, seniority lists, phone extensions, and faculty manuals. This system is okay, but not the most convenient. We are able to access it from home which is convenient. However, as I stated earlier, this system lacks access to databases such as professional development hours, IPDP's, and student behavior statistics. If these systems could be added, the databases would be more compatible and convenient.

http://infoweb.euclid.k12.oh.us/

Monday, October 19, 2009

Data and Information Systems

1. At my school, there is a large amount of data collected on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Here are some of the examples of data collected by teachers, principals, and other staff members: achievement test scores for each student and each test taken in each grade level, quarterly grades, attendance, tardies, number of behavioral referrals, number of in-school suspensions, number of out of school suspensions, number of expulsions, parent contact logs, parent meeting logs, teacher attendance, teacher professional development hours, student educational records including histories of abuse, testing, counseling, repeating grades, etc, book assignments, teacher evaluations, etc.
2. Much of the important data such as grades and OAT scores are kept in the district's WebSys database, which is accessible from home or school with the proper log-in information. Behavioral referrals and other data are kept in both paper form and are input into a separate database which is not accessible to teachers. Student records, book assignments, and teacher evaluations are only in paper form and are locked in the office. Parent contact logs are kept in electronic or paper form by each teacher. Professional development information is kept in a database by the district.
3. The data is managed by many individuals dependent on the category. Teachers record grades and parent contact logs and can access grade and test score databases. Secretaries and principals can access behavior related data. Any certified staff member can access the paper records of students' histories. Administrators in the school and in the central office are in charge of data regarding teachers' development and evaluations, and teacher/student attendance.