Working systematically: Your data

How will you know how you're going?

How are you going to prove you're getting better outcomes if you don't collect data? Way back in 1996/97 I had a talk to the community and the staff. If we're saying we're going to get better outcomes we need to collect data to say - what are we measuring against? what are we benchmarking? — instead of just saying generally I think we're getting better every year. How do you prove that? We use that information to encourage kids to get better results… to look at the professional development needs of the teachers and the parents. If we find there is a particular thing that is not working — how do we make it work? It may be that we have to get an expert in to do some workshops. It may be that we visit another school to look at some best practice. It may be that we look at the expertise within our school and use that. So we've collected data over a number of years and we've shared that and I think it's been one of the most powerful things that have happened in the school here.

— Steve Foster, Principal, Badu Island State School

Collecting and analysing data is an essential part of working on improvement.

Here are some essential ideas about data…

Here are some tools for calculating results...

TAKING ACTION: Add performance indicators, data sources and procedures for collection of data to your targets. Include them in your plan.