Educational Strategy Data

How can I evaluate and improve all of my schools' educational strategies?

Overview
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What are all of my educational strategies?
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How do I conduct high-quality educational strategy evaluations?
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Who should I work with to evaluate educational strategies?​​​​​

What are educational strategies?
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Educational strategies are any things you do to improve educational outcomes. Examples include:
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Professional development for staff.
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Instructional practice coaching.
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Curricula by grade and subject.
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Educational practices.
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Educational policies.
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Educational products & services.
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Educational programs & initiatives.
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Other things that may improve educational outcomes.​​​​​​

Why is it important to evaluate educational strategies?
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Evaluation leads to better educational strategies. Better educational strategies lead to better educational outcomes. This includes better:
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​Standardized test scores.
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Attendance & engagement.
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Graduation rates.
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Student behavior.
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College & career outcomes.
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School culture & climate.
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Parent satisfaction.
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Teacher satisfaction & retention.
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Other outcomes.​​​​​​

How do I avoid educational strategy evaluation mistakes & problems?​
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Do NOT rely too heavily on any of the following.​
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Your intuitions and hunches.
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Studies shared by sales representatives regarding their products & services.
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Quick, data dashboard analyses by people who are NOT trained in educational research.
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The assumption that staff buy-in & implementation will happen without significant effort.
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One-size-fits-all approaches that claim to work for every school and situation.

How do I conduct high quality educational strategy evaluations?
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Use your intuition, but support your intuition with data whenever possible (or when people have different intuitions).
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Have an objective third party help you evaluate & improve current and potential new educational strategies.
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Use a team of evaluators with expertise in all relevant program evaluation and data use areas.
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Allocate appropriate resources to evaluating & improving educational strategies and staff buy-in & implementation.
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Avoid cookie cutter approaches that may not work for (or may not be implemented well by) all of your unique schools.

Who should I work with to conduct educational strategy evaluations?
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We suggest working with Sprelp - Program Evaluation and Data Help for Schools.
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Sprelp staff have training from Yale University and other top universities.
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Sprelp staff have decades of experience helping Chicago Public Schools and other districts.
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Sprelp staff have won awards for their program evaluation and data use work.
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Sprelp staff have been invited to speak at the AASA National Conference on Education.
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Sprelp staff can help you evaluate and improve educational strategies now (and not have regrets later).
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