On Tuesday night, Nashville’s Metropolitan Board of Public Education met for a work session, where they learned about Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools’ data warehouse, also called LEADS (which stands for “Longitudinal Educational Analysis and Decision Support”), a database that provides a consolidated view of the whole child through academic data, attendance, discipline, supports and interventions, and other information. The district has been able to implement this data warehouse using federal Race to the Top funds.
The topic of this work session was of particular interest to the Chamber because of our focus on the data warehouse in our 2011
Education Report Card, released December 20. One of the Report Card’s five recommendations relates directly to the system: “Use the MNPS data warehouse to help determine the effectiveness of resource allocation to drive improvement in the classroom.”
So how close is MNPS to making this a reality?
While the data warehouse has opened up powerful opportunities for teachers and staff to adjust their instructional support and interventions for individual students, the capabilities of this tool are still far from being reached. As MNPS Director of Enterprise Data Systems Vicki Philpot and MNPS Director of Information Management and Decision Support Laura Hansen described at the meeting, the data warehouse is only as strong as the content it includes and the people who use it. Still, MNPS is working very hard to increase the capabilities of the system – both by adding new information and by continuing to train every teacher in the district.
At the meeting, Hansen presented some information that will be added to the data warehouse over the next year:
- Teacher and staff data, including professional development, certifications and evaluations
- Financial and payroll information
- Value-added assessment data from the Tennessee Department of Education
- Student health information
- Data from community organizations that support students outside of MNPS
School Board member Cheryl Mayes asked if it was possible for information from the data warehouse to be automatically updated in GradeSpeed, the district’s online parent portal for student progress and assignments. The district hopes this will be possible in the next two years.
While the data warehouse is already a great resource for teachers and staff, the real power of the tool will be evident when these additional data sets are added. We look forward to these changes leading to more informed decision-making about resource allocation in Metro Schools.