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Communicate your story through data visualizaƟon
By Eric Smith and Steve Miller
The financial and strategic data that a school
district collects and reports to the state board of
education on an annual basis is no longer just a
collection of spreadsheets that meet a compliance
requirement. Those same disparate data sets are
now part of a process geared toward helping school
district leaders paint a much clearer picture of their
district’s story through the use of interactive data
visualization.
We’ve all heard the saying that ‘
A picture is worth
a thousand words
.’ But for school administrators that
are communicating with a diverse group of
stakeholders, the stories that data visualizations can
convey are worth far more.
The nuances of school finance are often difficult
even for seasoned board members to understand;
imagine the layperson attempting to grasp the
intricacies
of
the
district plan in one
sitting. To be effective,
a
presentation
to
convey the position of
your district must be
more than a recitation
of numbers. Balancing
the varying levels of
fiscal acumen within
your audience can be
a challenge. By using
graphs and visuals you
can
prevent
the
layperson from being
overwhelmed by tables
of numbers, but you
need
to
provide
enough detail to satisfy the CPA-types on your board
or in the audience.
Beyond the function of communicating your story,
data visualization is also a key tool in demonstrating
the successes of your district. Graphics that show an
increased service level where it was previously
lacking, test scores on the rise, or cost control in a
key area of the budget are all examples of stories
that need to be shared with your community. The
impact of these stories is much stronger when a
telling visual is displayed for everyone to see.
For example, look at the budget through a new
lens using a multi-dimensional visual that allows you
to accelerate the budgeting process and identify the
“needle movers.” This new way of looking at a
budget depicted by colors, shapes, and sizes of line
items allows you to quickly identify what has
changed significantly. Are new resources being
directed to areas that best support the district’s core
missions? Are resources being redeployed to better
meet the goals set by the board? By looking at this
new picture of your budget, districts are able to
“command their data.”
Through a joint partnership with IASA, IASB,
IASBO and Forecast5 Analytics, Illinois school
administrators now have access to these USA Today
-style visuals that combine financial, enrollment,
salary, salary survey, EAV, live birth data,
transportation data, health insurance data and
student achievement data into a multi-dimensional
format, allowing each district to clearly tell their
unique situation to the
community and other key
stakeholders.
The product that makes all
of this possible is 5Sight™--
a Business Intelligence
platform built by Forecast5
that is providing school
districts a brand new look
not only of their own data,
but the data of every district
in the state. Through the
use of data visualization and
a powerful query engine,
districts are able to apply
custom filters for a view of
their data that has never
before been possible. This
approach is allowing school district administrators to
spend time analyzing rather than gathering relevant
data.
In the current climate, transparency isn’t just a
buzzword…it is the reality. School districts, their
boards and their administrators are expected to
share much greater levels of information with each
other and their constituents. Look at your next
presentation to your community and other key
stakeholders as an opportunity to satisfy this
demand and tell your district’s story in high definition.
For more information about Forecast5, contact
National Sales Director Scott Smith at
or call (630) 955-
7601. Visit the company’s website at
or follow @Forecast5
on Twitter.
