Learning Analytics Created By Educators For Educators |
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Monthly Newsletter
September 2021
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What Our Members Are Saying
Learning Analytics has been in use by the AISB for several years now, and we highly recommend it. When we started off using the LAC, we primarily were focusing on the data and conversations around our students' profile pages, as it helped us identify trends for certain individuals and give us a complete picture of a student in one place. From here, we have started to look more in-depth at different uses of Learning Analytics, including identifying trends in certain subject groups or within details collected from external testing, such as MAP. These information points help us focus those conversations not around what we think is happening, but around clear pictures formed by the data itself.
Our most recent use of Learning Analytics was a tool to place students into classes based on many different needs. The LAC team met with us several times to build this engine specifically for our school. They had a similar one for elementary/primary, but we had more specific details needed for a Secondary School, and they helped us throughout this entire process in putting this engine together. We were able to use it to build our class lists for the coming school year, by combining all the necessary data in one place. There are still tweaks we would like to make, and that is what we love about working with Learning Analytics, as they work with us, as we refine what we need in order to best use our data to make informed decisions.
Andy Pontius
Secondary Leadership Team
American International School of Bucharest
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Dear LAC Members,
Welcome to our September LAC Newsletter! We are now well into the new academic year and several schools are looking for the best ways to begin or continue their data journeys and empower teachers to be savvy data consumers. The LAC team is here to help. As a first port of call, you can find all the learning resources that we have compiled to date on our LAC Learning Space. Additionally, you can contact us to schedule a live session with your faculty members.
The LAC is both a platform and a service for schools seeking to harness the power of learning analytics to improve and transform schools. It is the collaborative nature of our partnership that will help you make the most of your learning data assets and grow a culture of data use. I am very excited to announce that our 4th Virtual Meetup will take place on 25th September at 9am CET+1. We have lined up some exciting sessions; you can find more details below!
I am also very happy to announce that we have taken a decision to compile all the best practices on building a data culture from our LAC member schools as well as related guidance into a book. We are working with Suzie Boss, renowned writer & educational consultant, to make this publication a reality. Soon we will reach out to our member schools to schedule a time to talk with Suzie and myself in order to capture best practices and use cases for data literacy.
I would also like to remind you about identifying the Academic and Technical Leads at your school. The Leads work directly with us to set up their school’s LAC sites and use the visualizations with their teachers. We empower them to create, build, and grow cultures of data use. If your school joined the LAC prior to the 2020-21 school year, and haven’t yet identified these key roles, please complete this form.
Please remember to check the latest entries on our LAC Blog where you can read articles about Learning Analytics and beyond! You can find more details below!
I am also delighted to welcome Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro to the LAC family!
Piotr Olczak
Director of Learning Analytics
Consilience Education Foundation
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Our 4th Virtual Meetup is on September 25th. We have two fantastic presenters from our member schools - Carol Jordan from the American School of Warsaw and Andy Pontius from the American International School of Bucharest. Between them, they will talk about their schools’ data journeys, how they have been using data prior to joining the LAC, what processes they have put in place, how the faculty is currently using the LAC as well as plans for the future. Each 20 min session will include an additional time for Q&A at the end where participants can contribute and interact with our presenters.
Additionally, I will run a session on the New LAC Platform. (Our current LAC members will migrate over to the new platform in the coming weeks. New schools that have joined the LAC from this school year are already on the new platform.)
The meetup will start at 9:00 European time (CET)+1hr. Early next week I will send a separate email with all details on how to REGISTER for this event.
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The latest entry in the LAC Blog is about a TED talk by Tommy McCall on The Simple Genius of a Good Graphic
You can also read previous posts including:
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“Engage Parents by using data” - a short video that dives into how the Humboldt Elementary School has decided to engage Parents by using data.
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Atlas Protocol on how to structure and conduct the conversation about data.
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“Using Data to Support Teacher and Student Growth” - an article about a video posted on Edutopia
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LAC School Spotlight - International School of Beijing by Ruth Poulsen, Director of Curriculum and Assessment at International School of Beijing
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“Wellbeing, Relationships and Teaching as a Caring Profession?” Very poignant article for the current conversations taking place on Wellbeing and its place in the school culture, especially among International Schools.
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‘Designing Best-Fit Classes with the Class Placement Engine’ by by Ben Hacking , Deputy Principal at the Vienna International School
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‘Data Journey: Discovering Learning Analytics at Zurich International School’ by Andrew Blair, Head of IT Services and Solutions at Zurich International School
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‘Making Student Data Part of the Conversation!’ A case study of how Humboldt Elementary, a school once on the verge of being labeled under-performing, turned to data to move the bar on student success.
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‘LAC School Spotlight - American School of Bucharest’ by Andrew Pontius, IB MYP Coordinator, and Fiona Moss, Secondary Vice Principal at American International School of Bucharest
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‘How International School of Phnom Penh uses data to inform decision-making within the Student Support Team’ by Jonathan Smedes, Director of Learning, Teaching, Innovation and Impact at International School of Phnom Penh
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‘Building and Leading a School Culture that Values Data Informed Dialogue to Improve Student Learning’ by Megan Brazil, Elementary School Principal, UNIS-Hanoi
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In order to effectively manage data assets and fully realize their potential, any school must first be aware of the location, condition and value of its data. Conducting an audit will provide this information, raising awareness of collection strengths, highlighting areas of improvement as well as potential data issues to improve overall strategy. An audit will highlight duplication of efforts and areas that require additional investment, allowing any school to optimize its resources. It will also highlight shortfalls in data creation and control practices, suggesting changes to minimize the potential risks. Broadly speaking, auditing school’s data assets yields the following benefits:
- prioritization of resources which leads to efficiency savings
- ability to manage risks associated with data loss and misuse
- increasing the value of data assets through improved access and reuse
- enabling effective and efficient learning analytics and data visualization for data-informed decision making
Full information can be found here
If you are interested in conducting such a Learning Data Audit at your school, please contact Piotr.
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Engine of the Month - Student Data Explorer
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Student Data Explorer (SDE) works closely with the Student Data Profiles and allows a school to view their student level data on multiple assessments in the form of an interactive matrix. It allows the screening, sorting, grouping and clustering of students based on subjects, teachers and achievement levels. |
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If you would like to add this engine to your school’s LAC site, please contact Piotr. |
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Data Literacy - Building a Culture of Data Use |
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Please see this full report from the Christensen Institute on how to nurture student networks. As schools develop strategies for supporting students to both survive and thrive, the power of peer social capital is a lesson worth remembering. Across the entire high school to career pipeline, peer networks are an immense, but still latent, resource in the student success equation. Fortunately, a host of tools and programs are helping schools start to leverage peer-to-peer connections as part of a robust, and far more networked, strategy to support learners toward successful futures that they define for themselves. The innovative tools and programs in this report reflect the fact that it is networks—not just diplomas and degrees—that lead to opportunities and fulfilling lives.
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Consilience is a non-profit, global education innovation company that supports institutions and educators to transform teaching and learning. We provide leadership training and professional development in the areas of Innovation Leadership, Technology Integration, Maker Learning, Online Learning and Learning Analytics. For more information about our work, please visit our website: www.consiliencelearning.org
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