Strategic Data Project Convening 2019

When stakeholders ask for data, they often ask questions along the lines of, “can I have test score data for these students between Spring and Fall?” or “I would like a list of students who are behind grade level.” Behind these simple requests are often a more complex set of questions, such as, “Did students who enrolled in my summer program perform better than expected?” or, “Which students should we target for this reading intervention?” These are the “requests behind the requests.” When the Data Strategy and Analytics Team at Tulsa Public Schools set out to launch a continuous improvement focused program evaluation initiative, we realized we had to not only build our analytical capacity, but also build the demand to engage in that work.