Build agency analytic capacity by hiring technically skilled staff, partnering with vendors, and providing data-use training¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The report describes three routes education agencies used to strengthen their capacity to use data: "hiring technically skilled staff, developing partnerships with vendors, or providing training to support data use." These actions respond to staff acknowledgment that data use depends on technically skilled employees, and they complement building data systems that link data from multiple sources.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Agency staff must recognize the importance of data use and of technically skilled employees to support it.

Constraints¶

• The report describes these actions as observed among case-study agencies; it does not evaluate their relative effectiveness.

Target Learners¶

• Education agency staff
• School district leaders

Target Learning Goals¶

• Organizational capacity to collect, manage, analyze, and use data

Claims¶

• Agencies built multi-source linked data systems and worked to increase analytic capacity through hiring, vendor partnerships, and training [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Build agency data capacity by supporting, training, and placing additional data staff
• Use university–district research partnerships to build district evaluation capacity and train practitioner-scholars
• Technical assistance providers should plan to work themselves out of a job by building districts' internal capacity
• Provide schools with resources, technical assistance, and well-validated measurement tools to support SEL

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Cassie Pickens Jewell, Libby Makowsky, Kristin Hallgren, Jacob Hartog. (2014). Changing Education Agencies from the Inside Out: Year 2 Report on the Strategic Data Project and Education Pioneers. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/changing-education-agencies-from-the-inside-out-year-2-report-on-the-strategic-data-project