As part of the Race to the Top initiative, the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) is pursuing the development of an Education Insight system.  The purpose of Education Insight is to enable data-driven decision making throughout the education system that will ultimately result in improved outcomes for Delaware students. 

Part of this effort is the development of web-based “Dashboards” that will provide educators access to timely and actionable information on all students to help manage academic performance and anticipate issues that could arise throughout the year.  These Dashboards will aggregate data from existing sources to show a comprehensive view of each student (including items such as student biographical information, schedule, attendance, assessment scores, grades, and credits) as well as roll-up views of the data for classrooms, schools and districts or charters.

This project is leveraging the public domain design documentation developed by the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) for the Texas Education Agency, and is incorporating results from district and charter interviews conducted in Fall of 2010.  Using this material as a starting point and framework, the project team is engaging Delaware stakeholders in a collaborative analysis process to identify Delaware requirements and develop a Dashboard system that reflects Delaware‘s needs. 

Specifications are being developed for teachers, principals, school administrators and state administrators.  The first priority is the Teacher‘s Insight Dashboard, which will support data driven decision-making by elementary, middle and high school teachers in the classroom.

This website will continually be updated to reflect the state of this project, and will be a repository for the latest dashboard designs.  It will also serve as a communications hub for all Delaware stakeholders who want to learn how to get involved and provide feedback throughout this process.

A series of feedback sessions was held during the week of June 20th to solicit input and feedback on the initial Dashboard design.  A plenary presentation kicked off the sessions, providing an overall view of the project and the importance of performance management systems.  This was followed by breakout sessions in which participants were able to both provide their feedback on their ideal dashboard system, and to react to the initial design of the Dashboard web pages mockups.

175 people attended the stakeholder workshops, including:

• 122 Classroom Teachers
• 4 Principals
• 49 Other Administrators

While the feedback from these sessions was very positive, there was a substantive amount of constructive input provided by the participants.  This summary of findings provides a high level view of the feedback.

The Dashboard team is reviewing all of the stakeholder feedback and is incorporating into the design of the website – both as a whole and down to the detail level on each individual page.

We would like to extend a hearty “Thank you” to all who participated in these sessions, and we welcome your ongoing comments.

We will keep this section updated with examples of the latest dashboard designs.

Interim Dashboards as revised:

• Elementary Student Interim Dashboard Snapshots
• High School Student Interim Dashboard Snapshots
• Classroom Interim Dashboard Snapshots

Dashboards as reviewed in stakeholder workshops:

• Elementary Student Dashboard Snapshots
• High School Student Dashboard Snapshots
• Middle School Campus Dashboard Snapshots
• Elementary Student Classroom Dashboard Snapshots

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

Inspired by their passion for children and by a shared desire to improve the lives of children living in urban poverty, Michael and Susan Dell established their Austin, Texas-based foundation in 1999. To date, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation has committed more than $700 million to assist nonprofit organizations working in major urban communities in the United States, South Africa and India. They focus on opportunities with the greatest potential to directly and measurably transform the lifelong outcomes of impoverished urban children around the globe.

For a closer look at MSDF’s work in similar performance management efforts in education, watch this video.

Double Line Partners

Double Line Partners, LLC works with a broad range of state and local education agencies across the United States to create scorecards and dashboards to improve student performance. For the Texas Student Data System initiative, Double Line Partners is responsible for developing the data standard, dashboard design and metrics, stakeholder engagement and the dashboard prototype pilots.

Wireless Generation

Wireless Generation creates innovative tools, systems and services that help educators teach smarter. With its solutions, educators can feasibly apply research-based, proven practices such as frequent progress monitoring and needs diagnosis, data-informed decision-making, differentiated instruction and professional collaborations across classrooms, grades, schools. The company has helped educators to address and solve some of the most pressing challenges in teaching and learning. Wireless Generation currently serves more than 200,000 educators and three million students.

We encourage you to provide feedback on the Insight Dashboards.  Thank you in advance for your comments and suggestions.

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