Your data is the driving force of your school. It empowers your software which, in turn, powers your day-to-day operations. That’s why it’s so important to have software and databases that you can rely on. But what else can your data do for your performance, beyond routine processes?
Analytics can be the difference between simply utilising your data, and truly understanding it – and your school as a result. Despite this, there are still many schools that are yet to tap into the potential that data analytics has in the education industry.
For some, key concepts like big data, analytics, or business intelligence, are just buzzwords. So, why are so many industry leaders talking about technologies that support these practices? What do you need to know about data analytics in education, and enabling your data to power your decision-making?
- What is big data?
- The challenges of data analysis in education
- Benefits of data analytics
- Features of the right software
- Drive growth with iSAMS Central data analytics
What is big data?
For those in the education industry, particularly those that don’t work in data management, it might not be clear what exactly is meant by big data. The fact is, however, that it needn’t be overcomplicated. Generally speaking, big data is all the data a business holds within its data stores or software. In this case, it’s all the data that you use to power your school management software.
Initially, student data or staff data comes to mind, but big data goes deeper than that. It’s each individual data point that your software manages or creates on a daily basis. This does include student information, lesson and timetabling data, assessment data, but so much more.
In fact, big data is so vast, that it becomes essentially impossible for any analyst or data manager to manually transform it into anything useful for your teams. Assuming they can work through spreadsheet after spreadsheet of data points, any analysis would be immediately out of date.
That’s why IT specialists rely on big data analytics. Software ultimately has the processing power needed to handle your data stores. However, it’s important to remember that your staff members are still key to contextualising that data.
The challenges of data analysis in education
While data analytics has a variety of benefits in the education sector, it’s not always an easy process for schools. It can be extremely time-consuming, assuming that your IT teams know where to start. You will rely on your software, so it’s important to recognise common pitfalls or challenges as you look to harness your data stores.
Data accuracy
One of the most important elements of data analytics is trusting your data. You need to know that the information you’re putting into your calculations is accurate and organised. In many systems, this isn’t always a given.
It’s common for databases to have varying degrees of data cleanliness, depending on when they were created and how they’re being utilised day-to-day. Integrated systems often work together to keep information up to date, but this relies on there being one source of the truth.
Before beginning the process, you need to confirm your data accuracy and identify your most accurate and consistent data is kept. As a school, this is likely to be within your school management information software. However, you may need to conduct a full audit. This is an opportunity to improve the experience for all departments, alongside preparing for accurate analysis.
Manual processing and inefficiency
The problem with big data is that it’s just that – big. Your full school data stores should be included in order to make the most out of your analytics. However, that’s almost impossible for an analyst to do manually.
When working with spreadsheets, as is the case for many schools that are operating without a dedicated reporting software, it’s likely that any insights are out of date as soon as they are generated. This also requires a huge amount of time expenditure for your staff, pulling them away from other key tasks. Ultimately, manual data analysis in schools is particularly inefficient and often results in little value for time spent.
Compliance and privacy
There is always a risk to compliance and data protection when handling school data, particularly manually. Your school software helps to mitigate that risk, with appropriate firewalls and data security functionality. However, this cannot be guaranteed depending on your chosen analysis process.
Manual handling of data runs the risk of breaking data protection guidelines or regulations. The human element increases the margin of error. Ultimately, protecting your students and their data comes first.
Alternatively, there’s no guarantee that a disparate or third-party analytics tool can offer the level of data security that you require. Integrating a system like this means sharing data and securing sign-off to store sensitive information in a new database.
This is all important to bear in mind before duplicating and transferring data - or conducting any manual analysis in spreadsheets. In the end, the more locations whereby protected data can be accessed, or the more duplications of data, the more chance there is for that data to fall into the wrong hands.
Benefits of data analytics
Well, if it’s so challenging, what really is the point in all that effort? With the right software behind you, data analytics has the potential to truly drive performance for educators.
Whether you’re a school leader looking for the factors impacting your school's overall performance, or an admissions specialist looking for a more detailed understanding of your applications and enrollments – everyone can benefit from insight into what makes your school tick.
Student outcomes: Student academic performance is the driving force of your school. The more your students achieve, the more appealing your school is to prospective parents, encouraging your continued growth.
The key to continually improving student performance is understanding the factors behind your achievements and finding new ways to keep them engaged and maintain that achievement streak. Let data tell your student’s academic story and help you to build targeted action plans when concerns are highlighted.
Overall school performance: Student performance isn’t the only key part of a high-achieving school, though. Your entire school community needs to be working efficiently towards a shared goal. This includes your teaching staff, admin teams, HR department, admissions, and more.
Data analytics can help you to highlight areas for improvement, understand the data points behind performance trends, and use those insights to develop plans that improve processes and performance for your entire school. The more your staff understand the elements that are impacting their progress, the more they can invest in a shared cause.
Accurate insights: With a software that can harness the full extent of your data stores, you can trust that any analytics and insights are as up to date as possible. The more recent your data that informs your anlaysis, the more informed your decision-making can be.
By removing the most time-consuming element of the process, your admin teams can focus on developing an action plan that works – rather than trying to scrape together your databases.
Informed approach to decision-making: Your leadership teams need to be continually steering the ship, with an adaptable approach, in order to maintain a growth trajectory. Informed or not, decisions will be made as a school grows. That’s why it’s important that each decision is backed by data – not guesswork.
Data analytics provides a reference point for all plans and changes within a school, whether inside or out of the classroom, when used effectively. Back up your goals and targets, and benchmark your performance further down the line to understand if further changes are needed. Informed decision-making is more likely to result in success.
Features of the right software
You’re keen to implement some analytics software to harness your growing data stores efficiently and effectively – but where do you start? There are some key components that all schools should consider:
- Cloud-based: Not only does a web-based application offer more flexibility than a legacy system, but, with the right supplier, cloud hosting ensures stronger data security. This should be the priority across all school software, not just your analytics solutions.
- Integrated approach: Working across disparate systems presents a higher risk to your data security. The more individual databases you run, and the more data transfer required, the more opportunity for a data breach. An integrated system requires one database and one source of the truth, ensuring data accuracy and security at all times.
- User-friendly reporting: As mentioned, big data and data analytics is a time-consuming and complex task. While it may fall under the expertise of your IT teams, they aren’t the only users that need access to your school’s reports. A user-friendly platform is key to ensuring all insights have maximum impact, for all parties.
- Multiple data sources: While your MIS handles the vast majority of your school data, the potential for development and growth doesn’t stop there with the right software. Work with a system that can harness data from multiple sources, like admissions or wellbeing, for example - all in one central dashboard.
- Real-time analysis: Data insights are only as useful as they are current. Manual analytics run the risk of providing inaccurate information, since there will always be a length of time between the data and the resulting reports. The right software will enable you to harness your school data in real-time – and consistently update those reports for better benchmarking and progression analysis.
Drive growth with iSAMS Central data analytics
The iSAMS MIS and Central reporting platform are a powerful combination to support your school growth plans. The systems seamlessly integrate, enabling you to harness the power of your school data stores.
Benefit from user friendly reports that empower communication between your admin and IT department, and your leadership teams. The customisable dashboard allows you to create the reports that you need to understand your school performance, while providing the detail to understand individual factors.
Make smarter, data-backed decicions with iSAMS Central for Independent and International schools. Interested in supercharging your school growth? Access a full Central demo below: