LM Aug.2018

13 / 34

13
“The IASA/ECRA Strategic Dashboard allows school
districts to be more creative and scientific with regards to
data indicators. Schools are no longer confined to metrics
that derive from state mandated data,” said Gatta. “Schools
can now leverage any local data available to define more
meaningful metrics that best measure the outcomes that are
important to their communities.”
It’s not one size fits all for the IASA/ECRA dashboard either,
Gatta added.
“The dashboard is designed to be a highly flexible tool
that districts can freely modify to tell their story,” he said.
“The state report card is only part of the story—unless
the missing parts are told. Absent the rest of the story, the
incomplete story told via the state report cards becomes the
full story. The idea is to provide communities the full story of
their school districts.”
Ideally, districts should be ready to launch their local
dashboard no later than October 31st when the Illinois State
Board of Education launches the Illinois School Report Card
by individual school districts.
Telling the local school district story was originally part of
the initial Vision 20/20 discussions back in 2013 when the
public-policy platform was adopted.
“When the Vision 20/20 framework was first conceived, a
fundamental tenet was that we were going to make sure
districts were telling the whole story with the outcomes that
matter the most,” said Clark. “Information and outcomes
are shifting all the time, but the most important factor is
promoting what matters most to you in your district and
sharing that story. What shapes the definition of success is
more aligned to the actual work you are engaged in.”
Gatta also reports that telling a district’s story is just one
part of the process. Letting students tell their story through
their own learner profiles is also critically important. ECRA
also provides an add-on fee-based component to the free
dashboard should districts want to include that special
feature in their dashboard.
The IASA/ECRA dashboard training is being held as
part of a full one-day package with IASA’s professional
development academy, “ESSA: School Accountability
Under Illinois Plan—AA #1917” because both tie together
in helping districts tell their story. (Please see scheduling,
page 30.)
The ESSA academy is designed for superintendents and
administrative teams, including teacher leaders, to work
together to understand the Quality Framework for Illinois
school districts and to be able to apply each school’s ISBE
Summative School Designation Score to a Continuous
School Improvement Plan for improvement and growth.
The 6.0 hour academy (3 hours in person) will provide
attendees with resources they can use in presenting an
ESSA overview to their constituents.
The Academy course curriculum will demonstrate how
participants can “tell their story” as it relates to what is
happening in their building/district and how those things
tie into ESSA. That same day, administrators can also
attend the ECRA Dashboard training to learn more
about marketing and branding the district’s vision for
stakeholders.
To learn more how to register for the remaining ESSA
Academies and IASA/ECRA dashboard training sessions,
clic For more information on the dashboard go to
To roll out IASA and ECRA’s new Strategic Dashboard and our new administrators’ academy “ESSA: School
Accountability Under Illinois’ Plan—AA #1917,” we are offering two classes as part of a full one-day package in
every IASA Region during August and September 2018. You may attend the Strategic Dashboard seminar, the
ESSA Academy or both, and you may attend on different days, at your convenience. See scheduling calendar on
page 30 of this issue of Leadership Matters.
For more details and to register, please click