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Schmitt states after attending the IASA sponsored ESSA
Academy and Dashboard training in August he returned to
brainstorm with his district’s administrative team, including
principals, technology coordinator, special education
director and curriculum director on setting up indicators and
achievements for the district to include in their dashboard.
The district serves 2,100 students in PreK–12 grades.
“We set up a document for the overall school achievements
so everyone was working off the same framework. Each
of the six school principals developed information that was
included in their own success story, learning environments,
school achievements and extra curriculum for students. That
was their opportunity to highlight what was happening in their
schools,” said Schmitt. “We emphasized the fact students in
our district maintain a 3.0 average at the community college
level. Also, we promoted what we do in the professional
development area for our staff.”
The district dashboard went live on October 30th, the day
before the ISBE School Report Card was launched.
Schmitt issued a press release about the dashboard to the
local news media once it was launched and alerted parents
via the district’s e-bulletin and via Twitter. The Sandwich
Record published
Schmitt reports the Media Club and technology staff is
working on a 2–3 minute video highlighting successes
throughout the district that will be added to the dashboard
in the future.
Jeff Stawick, superintendent of CCSD #146 in Tinley
Park, came back from the IASA/ECRA dashboard training
enthusiastic about implementing his district dashboard. “The
professional development training we received in putting
the dashboard together really got our juices flowing and
we wanted to pursue our vision for areas that still needed
additional attention,” said Stawick. “We recognized the
dashboard is really a contrast to the school report card. It
does a nice job communicating the value of public schools.
It goes a step further in providing that local touch of what our
local needs assessment and strategic plan say we value as a
school district.”
Community Consolidated School District #146 is a PreK-
grade 8 school district serving approximately 2,400 students.
The dashboard is available on the
Stawick affirms the dashboard has a direct connection
with the district strategic plan that was developed five
years ago with ECRA. “The way our strategic plan is
Dashboards...cont’d.
organized is actually the categories of our dashboard. It is a
demonstration of our effectiveness to that end,” said Stawick.
“It is a good overall descriptor of our district, of what we value
and believe in, including our mission, vision and principles.”
In launching the district dashboard, Stawick used
the opportunity to blog about the dashboard on his
and promote the dashboard via social
media. “We want to make sure everybody knows it is out
there,” said Stawick. “We are going to use the dashboard
as a district improvement tool and organizational help tool.”
He indicates this winter the district is planning to refresh
its strategic plan. The dashboard includes a video of the
district serving Tinley Park, Orland Park and Oak Forest
communities.
“We want to be as transparent as we can, but if you are
going to include every detail of everything you do it will be
easy for some of that information to become outdated,” said
Stawick. “We only wanted to go as deep as we would be able
to maintain over time. The dashboard is a living tool that will
continue to evolve as we update it with new data, ideas and
strategies for success.”
#ILSchoolStories —for links to other districts’ dashboards