4. Communicating Student Performance Outcomes

Develop a Communications Plan

In order to “get the most” for your communication efforts and making sure your message is heard, develop a strategic communications plan that responds to the following questions?

Audience:  Whom do you want to inform about your results?
(Remember:  staff are the most important recipients if we  want them to use data to inform instruction.)

Message: What do you want them to know?

Medium:  How will you get the message to them?

District & School Staff:  Who will be responsible for getting the message out?
(Take into consideration who has credibility with a given audience and whom that audience trusts.)

Communicating the Findings (a template for planning communications.)

 

Bernhardt, Victoria L., (2004).  Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement (2nd Ed.). Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education, Inc.

Talk about Your Local Report Card

The Ohio Department of Education has provided guidance for discussing your Local Report Card and to assist you to deliver key messages about the performance of your schools and district.  This document, Communication Guidance, suggests the following steps to prepare for discussions on your data.

• Know your data;
• Have answersfor questions that are likely to be asked; and
• Prepare key messages and always include then when talking about your results.

(The link to the Communication Guidance http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/DocumentManagement/DocumentDownload.aspx?DocumentID=33735 )

How does your school measure up?- an electronic data tool- is also an excellent resource for explaining your local report card.  This tool can be downloaded from the Ohio School Leaders Web site at http://www.ohioschoolleaders.org.  Measure Up provides visual displays and explanations of all data included in the Local Report Cards for districts and schools.  The data includes the state indicators, adequate yearly progress (AYP) information and performance index scores.

This tool includes explanations of federal and state requirements, critical questions to guide the analysis of the data and trend data when available.  Additionally, it flags areas in need of attention, explains the new AYP calculation and demonstrates how “Safe Harbor” can help achieve AYP.

Present the Data

Graphs are a powerful way to communicate data.  “Appropriate graphs are simple – not complex – can stand alone, and are clear about the information they try to compare.  The most common types of graphs used for displaying school wide data are pie, bar, and line graphs.” 

Consider Ways to Communicate

Your district has a wealth of data and many methods for reporting results:

• Staff meetings
• Newspaper articles
• Newsletters
• Web sites      
• Public meetings (including School Board meetings)
• Presentations to advisory boards, service organization, business groups, school organizations (e.g., PTO)

Work with the Media

The news media can play a vital role in helping your provide information about your district’s successes.  The National Association of School Administrators and the Ohio School Boards Association have published resources that provide helpful tips.

Media Dos and Don’ts on Data
Interview Techniques: How to Handle Tough Media Interviews on Data (451 Kb)

 

 

Don’t stop the presses – work with them!

(Ohio School Boards Association - http://www.osba-ohio.org/Files/OSBAMediaKit.pdf)

Next

Jim Lloyd, Assistant Superintendent for Academic Services and Professional Development
Olmsted Falls City Schools (Click the Play Button to begin)

Remember
"To depend on the local newspaper or reporter to do all of your public relations for you is like depending on the hospital orderly to do your open-heart surgery." -Brian Hale, member, Nebraska School Boards Association from Using Data to Improve Schools: What';s Working. AASA

"A good graph is worth a thousand words" -Dennis Johnson in Data Analysis for Continuous school Improvement. Victoria L. Bernhardt