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The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability
push is on as school districts are increasingly called upon to
substantiate a compelling story for the return on investment
they provide to the communities they serve. In reality, it’s
about how you can tell your own district’s success story
within your local community in a very powerful way.
In order to reach that objective, IASA has partnered with
ECRA Groupto provide a free dashboard to all IASA
member school districts that can be customized with their
own district data. The Strategic Dashboard is a powerful
tool for superintendents and boards of education to tell their
school district’s story and track important indicators and
priorities at the aggregate level.
IASA Executive Director Dr. Brent Clark says that the
evolution of the dashboard came about as a result of
planning discussions with IASA’s partner the ECRA Group,
that school districts needed a reliable process or procedure
to report metrics regarding their district to their community.
“Our role is to help school districts be prepared for ESSA
and the accountability push that is going to intensify in
the future,” said Clark. “We believe the new IASA/ECRA
Strategic Dashboard positions districts to be responsive
in their community and allows them to share a complete
story on their district using both qualitative and
quantitative indicators.”
Through the dashboard components, school administrators
are able to identify metrics they want to report on, keeping
the data points very fluid as districts are able to add data,
charts, video and other useful digital content to visually tell
their story.
To learn how to use the Strategic Dashboard, IASA is
offering training statewide through August and September.
By Mary Schaefer
IASA Director of Communications & Marketing
Dr. John Gatta, Chief Executive Officer of the ECRA Group
and designer of the IASA/ECRA Strategic Dashboard,
indicates the IASA/ECRA dashboard training will walk
superintendents through three phases on the dashboard
design including: 1) How to tell your story, 2) Defining Your
Success, and 3) Monitoring Your Progress.
“For each phase, we will provide guidance and best practices
for how to think about your school district story lines,” he
says. “We will provide a real example of a school district in
your region and provide the time needed for participants
to actively work on your own individual dashboard. The
objective is for each superintendent to walk out with a
completely framed dashboard.”
While the ISBE School Report Card has a contained,
identical set of criteria and data points by district, the IASA/
ECRA Strategic Dashboard is 100 percent customizable,
according to Gatta.
The Strategic Dashboard is
organized into three main sections:
Vision, Indicators and Strategy.
1. The Vision
section allows school districts
to craft a narrative inclusive of videos and
other digital assets to articulate a clear and
compelling vision for student success.
2. The Indicators
section operationalizes the
district’s vision into observable quantitative
and qualitative indicators.
3. The Strategy
section allows districts to
communicate how they intend to accomplish
their vision.
continued...
IASA/ECRAFree
StrategicDashboard
Invites School Districts
toShareTheirOwnStory
#TellYourStory