Check out this virtual cornucopia of examples of data making itself useful for students, educators, the workforce and civic life. Join us in saying #ThanksData!


Tis the season for gratitude! IEBC is thankful for... data! But not just any data, the kind that leads to improvement and student success. Here's an ode to several examples of data in action to better serve students and our nation's future.

Help keep the conversation going on Twitter using #ThanksData. We will maintain a running list of your contributions on Medium. Join us in this Thanksgiving fun!

O*NET

O*NET  (Occupational Information Network) is a mother lode of data sets that have the power to transform higher education's ability to respond to marketplace and student needs. The  database is sponsored by the US Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). This robust resource, a solution for linking employer expectations with student learning outcomes, is hiding in plain sight.

Oxnard President Richard Duran

With the clarity and liberty that comes with retirement, former President Richard Duran  called on community college leaders to not cave to pressures to protect programs that aren't contributing to student success. How did he know whether programs were working? 

Duran and Oxnard faculty reviewed student data and 
identified a troublesome bottleneck in remedial courses . To better serve students in developmental ed courses, the school embedded tutoring into math and English basic skills classes to create the intensive support students needed, when they needed it. Instead of requiring students with jobs and families to get help outside of class time, the approach  effectively moved students into credit-earning work faster, saving precious time and money.

Linked Learning

The Obama administration recently recognized the power of California's Linked Learning as a model that provides strong academic and career preparation by connecting learning time and teaching to real-world experiences.

Effective data use is at the heart of Linked Learning's efforts and is helping expand the work to serve even more California students. At a recent White House summit on next generation high schools Linked Learning pledged to nearly double the number of students it currently supports. 

With support from the James Irvine Foundation, IEBC developed a suite of data solutions to support Linked Learning districts. These products and services are designed to generate data reports that guide continuous program improvement. This approach allows the Foundation and Linked Learning Alliance to monitor progress as it expands, and respond with midcourse corrections and adjustments. 

Data Quality Campaign 

The Data Quality Campaign has come a long way in 10 years. As champions of education data, they've provided guidance to state policy leaders, educators and parents on the role data can play in guiding school improvement. 

We are particularly grateful for Aimee Guidera and Paige Kowalski's work to spotlight the importance of data literacy training and protecting student privacy. 

Impact Giving Evolves

The philanthropy community's approach to "impact giving" is changing and it is creating more effective, responsive organizations. IEBC's Jordan Horowitz highlighted the growing number of foundations, nonprofits and education organizations that are committed to  well-designed evaluations to measure the results of their giving  in time to make a difference. 


Meeting Students on Their Terms

Mobile research tools are helping higher education institutions uncover the kind of changes and support students need to have an optimal college experience.

Understanding the student experience from the student perspective leads to dramatically more effective policies and practices.  


Hawai`i Data Exchange   
 
The Hawai`i  Data  Exchange Partnership is enhancing data infrastructure to better  track performance and improve student success from K-12 through college and into careers.

This IEBC work will help Hawai`i understand what happens as students progress through K-12 into college and careers. Too often data sets remain siloed in separate sectors - K-12, higher education and workforce. By building an infrastructure that allows users to reliably join them, state leaders will be able to see a student's entire education journey and how and whether students are prepared for success in career and life. 
 
Gulf Coast Partners Achieving Student Success

In the Texas Gulf Coast region, community colleges and school districts worked together to identify gaps in teaching and ways to address them. Just one year into the effort, the results from the Gulf Coast Partners Achieving Student Success (GC-PASS) are impressive: 
  • College going rates increasing 10%
  • Success in developmental math improving 18%
This  simple act of K-12 and higher education faculty and administrators together reviewing student performance data and what it says about student needs delivers huge benefits.  Student learning is made more relevant. The transition from K-12 to higher education is made smoother. Faculty understand more about what students need to succeed. More students earn degrees.

IEBC's Brad Phillips calls efforts to bridge K-12 and post secondary sectors, education's   "pea in the mattresses."  Results like GC-PASS show this a college completion effort that makes so much sense, every one should be doing it. 

Is Your Data Making Itself Useful?

IEBC's data use workshops and webinars in Hawaii, California and across the country answer questions about data that get at the heart of improvement efforts. To learn more about student success and data use, contact us at bphillips@iebcnow.org or call us at 760-436-1477.

April 15-16, 2016 | Save the Date!

IEBC-ETS Cultural Competence Workshops will be held in San Diego, Friday and Saturday, April 15-16, 2016.  Cultural competency efforts that have been in effect in health care and K-12 for nearly 20 years are just getting started at many colleges.
 We hope to see you there. 

Institute for Evidence-Based Change | ( 619 ) 252-8503 | www.iebcnow.org
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