A Quick Guide to Data-Driven Resource Allocation
Leverage Data Analytics to Optimize Resource Allocation in Schools
Is your school stuck in the “this is the way we’ve always done it” rut? All too often, school leaders and staff rely on assumptions when making decisions about resources and learning, and the effects on teachers and students can be detrimental.
As schools face increasing financial and operational pressures, leaders must embrace data analytics in allocating resources. It’s the only way K-12 education will overcome the current pressures to exceed academic goals while also ensuring that leaders efficiently allocate resources, spend each dollar in worthwhile ways, and give each student the equitable and high quality education they deserve.
Prioritize Your Resources
Nearly every type of resource at your school can be optimized. But some of the resources that can have the biggest impact when optimized are:
- Staffing: Ensure that teachers are properly staffed according to the ideal number of students per classroom.
- Materials: Distribute the right amount of materials to each classroom – no more and no less than what is necessary to ensure smooth and engaging lectures.
- Facilities: Make sure that there is a sufficient and variety of spaces necessary to keep teachers and students safe and to allow for different teaching styles.
After assessing which resources are important to your school, you should consider what data points to track and what analytics techniques to use in ensuring that resources are allocated correctly.
The Data Points to Track and How to Analyze Them
When it comes to data, schools should start with readily available, yet high impact data points that will give leaders immediate insights and an idea of areas for improvement. You might want to start by gathering data around:
- Student attendance
- Supply usage
- Technology adoption rates
- Facility maintenance needs
Predictive analytics is a type of technique that allows school leaders to anticipate and address potential issues before they get out of control by analyzing current and historical data. Using data analysis, machine learning, and statistical models, predictive analytics can help identify the most impactful resource issue on the horizon.
Not only does this mean resources will be optimized in the most efficient way, but they will also result in improved outcomes among students.
A Quick Guide to Data-Driven Resource Allocation
The first step in data-driven resource allocation is committing to the effort. You’re already there – congratulations. Now, where do you and your school go from here? Here’s a quick, step-by-step guide:
Collect Data
Identify the data points that are relevant to the resources you need to optimize and start gathering that data.
Set Goals
Put goals in place that you can measure and that are reasonable for your school. For example, maybe you know that your school spends more than it should on textbooks, so you plan on reducing new textbook orders by 15%. Or maybe there’s an inconsistency in staffing, so you plan on setting the teacher/student ratio to one to 28.
Analyze
Use the data points to analyze how your school is performing against the goals you set. Plan to analyze your data on a cadence that makes sense, like once a month or quarter.
Implement Your Data-Driven Plan
Pull your staff and, if appropriate, your students, into the process. Get buy in by letting them be a part of the decision-making process where it makes sense. When you and your staff conduct analysis reports, share them with staff so they feel engaged in the progress being made against the goals and data-driven decisions. Together, celebrate wins and learn from the “failures.”
How These Schools Harnessed Data Analytics
Schools across the nation are seeing incredible results in their resource efficiency by embracing data.
In Georgia, new teachers work under a probationary license before receiving a teaching certificate from the state. Some principals in the state have started measuring the percentage of teachers at their schools with probationary certificates versus teachers with state-issued credentials to measure the levels of expertise in general and within certain classrooms to determine where improvements should be made.
In Montana, one school district was struggling with getting students proficient in reading. In fact, only 50% of students in grade three through eight were proficient in reading, and there were significant achievement gaps between the white students and those from other backgrounds.
The district partnered with the Institute of Education Sciences to develop a rubric that asked educators to reflect on evidence-based practices. Using the data, leadership was able to find that teachers were skipping a couple of tiers of interventions and fast-tracking students to special education. Plans have been put in place to keep that from happening, special education programs are not having to juggle students who don’t need their specialized training, and students are getting the proper intervention to become literate.
Implementing Analytics on a Budget
The education sector as a whole lags when it comes to investing in technology. In fact, less than 4% of overall expenses in education go to digital tools. That might be because technology is expensive. Understand the importance of data analytics, but think that technology is cost prohibitive? Consider open source software, like TeacherEase.
Don’t be discouraged by a lack of data expertise or a sparse tech infrastructure – there are helpful options. Think about leveraging partnerships with area universities or hosting training sessions for your staff.
Looking Ahead
The capabilities of data in schools are endless. We can personalize each student’s curriculum to ensure we’re meeting each student’s unique needs. We can use data to inform efforts to revise or reform curricula. We can even use predictive maintenance to reduce equipment downtime, avoid reactive maintenance, and optimize resource allocation.
Students’ learning needs are as diverse as the students themselves, and they need an environment that is operating efficiently and distributing resources in a fair way. Do what’s best for our learners and harness the power of data analytics at your school.
Content created and provided by Extu.
