Evanston Township High School has just launched a new data dashboard that shows select student performance indicators, including test subject proficiencies, attendance and graduation rates. The dashboard does not include grades or test scores.
The dashboard will be updated quarterly.
Prior to the dashboard’s launch, Pete Bavis, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, presented the draft dashboard at last week’s Board of Education meeting.
“The board will actually have a standing agenda item where the team will report updates on that data, which is a level of transparency we haven’t had before with our board or our community,” Bavis said. “I would challenge any district to do real-time reporting like that.”
The board began discussion on this topic years ago, and several board members shared their excitement about seeing a living dashboard come to fruition.
David Chan, director of instructional technology, and Carrie Levy, director of research, evaluation and assessment, developed the dashboard.
What’s on the dashboard
Currently, the dashboard lists seven categories of graphs with 2023 data: SAT and Illinois Science Assessment proficiencies; attendance and freshman on-track levels; and honors, advanced placement and dual enrollment courses rates.
It also displays graduation rates from 2022.
The data can be segemented into demographics and groups, such as low-income students or students with individualized education plans.
Users can also toggle between ETHS’s metrics and State of Illinois metrics to get a sense of how the school measures up.
The team plans to include previous years’ data in the future, and potentially update the dashboard with data from five, 10 and 20 years ago to provide comparisons over time.
What’s not on the dashboard
“You won’t see grades at the quarter because there’s great variability,” Bavis said. “Also, we feel that grade data is extraordinarily sensitive, and we won’t be including that.”
He explained that because the data will be updated quarterly, and not at the end of the semester, grades might paint an inaccurate picture.
The dashboard also does not include any hard test scores like SAT results and AP exam results.
Board members asked about adding several metrics, including AP success, college readiness indicators and Grade Point Average.
“We could definitely include success in advanced placement, because that’s a data set we have in the annual,” Bavis said, adding that the data would have to be updated once a year, though, and not on the quarterly schedule for the other metrics. GPA would be the same.
Bavis indicated he wouldn’t want to promise GPA at the end of the semester, as the timeline might not align with when the dashboard update would be presented to the board.
ETHS launches quarterly updated data dashboard is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.