Over the past several years, education leaders have gotten really good at collecting K12 data, whether it’s related to test scores, tracking the efficiency of certain edtech tools or measuring school climate through surveys and feedback from your students. The real question is how are administrators putting that data into action?
That’s the primary responsibility of an information systems analyst, a job that may or may not sound familiar to many district leaders. Eric Zigler, who has served in this role for school districts in St. Louis, Missouri, says he and his colleagues are starting to see the fruits of this labor pay off.
Zigler came from the corporate sector, which he says gives him a different perspective on project management in K12.
“My role has evolved,” he says. “My job is to look for opportunities for efficiency. See if there are ways by which we can optimize the way that we work as a team, specifically on the IT side of things.”
That’s where the importance of leveraging data comes into play.
K12 data drives summer prep
“From an IT perspective, when everybody goes home for the summer is when we get to work,” Zigler explains as he reflects on his summer obligations. Much of his time has been spent examining how to upgrade or enhance district systems used in the classroom.
“We’re going through and looking at ways we can be more efficient with our workflows,” he says.
For instance, how can the district meet both his team’s goals and those of teachers and students? “One of the things I looked at this summer was what can we do to do a better job of collecting data that can be used for informed decision making? We’ve adopted a few different tools that I think are going to allow us to do more in recognizing how and what services are being used by students and staff.”
Overall, it was a summer filled with integrations, conversations with vendors and discussions about the goals of the district and what educators hope to get out of the tools they’re implementing.
Addressing ESSER
Districts around the country are coping with the elimination of pandemic relief, which Zigler says won’t have any impact on his team at all.
“We had explored other opportunities for ways of managing our budget and our access to tools,” he explains. “For the most part, it’s about looking for ways to try and focus on improvements for infrastructure and professional development.”
Districts can achieve this through various strategies, he adds, like making investments up front, looking for alternative funding like e-rate and building a strong case for support of these critical initiatives.
“When it comes down to preparing for budget cuts, I look at it from a perspective of data,” he says. “When we’re talking about data, we’re talking about going through and collecting this information by which we can use to support the initiatives we need to follow through on.”
K12 data allows you to go to your board of education and advocate for essential investments, he concludes. Leaders in nearly every district will likely experience budget cuts in some form or fashion.
“Ultimately, it’s going to come down to how you’re able to justify the decisions you’re going to make,” he concludes. “A lot of it will come down to how you’re collecting and presenting that data.”
