Strategy, Development and Impact of the Foothill De Anza Early Alert Project
This project involved facilitating a community college district in their design of a virtual collaboration and feedback system that bridged the needs of academic instruction and student support services in one centralized information system. This Early Alert System (EAS) electronically identified, tracked, and provided feedback for students who were at risk for not completing a particular course.
The team worked with student services and academic instructors to develop language and processes around assigning alerts to students within the EAS, and facilitated multi-channel communication and documentation around student performance and interventions. They also worked to implement the EAS within the existing information system at the district. Ultimately, the purpose was to enable the district to track and assess successful and unsuccessful interventions over time and to improve the institutional memory and learnings around student intervention.
Anatomy of Schools System Improvement: Performance-Driven Practices in Urban School Districts
This study examined how urban school districts across the country have begun to adopt performance-driven practices that aim to raise student achievement levels. Specficially, it looked at the exisitence of clear and rigorous student achievement goals, efforts to gather and assess information, action plans based on performance results, and the existence of ongoing feedback loops to improve their effectiveness.
ISKME studied 28 medium and large urban school systems. Selected districts had relatively high poverty rates and relatively large populations of English Language Learners, and they were identified by others in the education sector as having used performance-driven decision making within their organizations. The research team conducted 112 interviews with four members of senior-level leadership from each of the 28 selected school districts.
The study found that performance-driven practices offer states useful insights as they engage in rigorous improvement efforts that are connected to statewide standards but are driven by local context. The study found that becoming a performance-driven organization has as much to do with managing people and processes, that is, shaping the culture and practices of the organization, as it does with the particular goals,and policies that they have in place; that professional development is a crucial tool in the adoption of performance-driven practices; and that discontinuity of leadership, fragmentaion among departments, lack of technology infrastructure, and the organizational culture of many school districts has not been geared toward the sharing and analysis of student achievement results in order to improve instruction and programs.
Landscape of Online Developmental Education Courses for Community College Students
This research mapped the coverage of existing online courses and modules used by community colleges. It provided a general understanding of the current landscape in terms of identifying online courses that were available for community college students, specficially courses that have the greatest potential for impact, such as developmental and basic skills courses, and other courses important in the 2- to 4-year college transfer process.
The project began by first establishing criteria for surveying online courses within CA community colleges and CA State Universities (CSUs), as well as surveying individuals and organizations that led these types of intiatives in order to understand the types of development underway. The project also looked at course development and implementation in terms of how courses are vetted for quality and where some of the most innovative work was currently taking place.
Information Audit of the Field of Education Philanthropy
ISKME conducted an information audit for Grantmakers for Education (GFE), seeking to develop a better understanding of GFE members’ information needs prior to the design and implementation of an internal knowledge management system.
ISKME conducted a series of 30 interviews and 2 focus groups with a subset of GFE members in order to determine the various outcomes and objectives for such a system; to identify what information people most desire in their work; to assess their potential need for the system and the extent to which they would use it; to determine how these needs differ by segments; and to identify existing or emerging communities of practice that could be used to build support for and use of the system. Additionally, findings from the audit were used to inform the design and architecture of the system and identify the need for, and design of, possible taxonomies.
Grantmakers share several common patterns in information gathering and use. They share a wide variety of needs for information, as well as some pressing needs for expanding their networking opportunities. In general, they appear to be driven by an appreciation of learning, and there appears to be a trend toward greater partnering and collaboration in the field, though this trend is not as pronounced as many in the field would like to see.
The knowledge management system is much more than a technology initiative; it is an initiative to shape the culture of a field.
Data and the Decision Support System at City College of San Francisco (CCSF)
The purpose of this research was to understand how the integration of the new Decision Support System (DSS) at City College of San Francisco (CCSF) had impacted data retrieval at the college, and specifically, how decision making had been affected in various divisions and among a variety of users. There were several initial questions that the college’s Office of Research, Planning and Grants (ORPG) sought to answer, such as: How are people using the DSS, and what are they using it for? Has the DSS changed people's perception of how data and information are used at the college?
A total of 27 interviews were conducted with administrators, faculty, and staff at CCSF, from a sample which included a cross-section of those who had used the DSS during a specific nine-month period, for people who had been employeed by the district for at least two years, and across departments and positions within the college.
This research showed that the introduction of a Decision Support System (DSS) had considerable impact on the way that decisions were made at the institution. Specifically, we found that due to the decentralization of data, moving it from the Office of Research, Planning and Grants (ORPG) to individuals’ desktops, there was a shift in 1) how people perceived thinking through a problem on their own; and 2) invited a new level of inquiry to develop because people could access data on their own instead of waiting for another office to provide it for them.
The Use of Information Systems for Decision-Making in the Community College
This three-year research study, which focused on one community college district, looked at the combined effect of the increased demand for student accountability measures mandated by the State of California (called Partnership for Excellence) and the need for internal research that informs decision-making at the community college level. It examined needs and behaviors around information sharing as well as the relationship between access to information and decision-making.
Over a three-year period, the research team took part in more than 200 meetings as participant/observers; conducted 70 formal and informal interviews with a cross-section of administrators, faculty, and staff; conducted 49 in-depth interviews with administrators, faculty, and staff ; and surveyed 250 administrators, faculty, and staff about their use of data and information.
Teachers Get Resourceful With 'Open Content'
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