Reporting the Intelligence
When deciding who should have access to various data and resulting intelligence, it is important not to make any assumption about a user’s ability to understand what it all means. Educators should ask themselves if they are prepared to deal with the answers they could be getting and recommended a phased institutional rollout that should start with high level administrators and superintendents. As people become more comfortable with the new intelligence channels and more confident in their ability to accurately analyze, synthesize and evaluate intelligence extracted from the system, they should become increasingly involved in the process.
The question “who should be kept informed” is better framed as “who needs to know” with the answer depending on the nature of the intelligence gathered. For example, suppose a high school principal discovers an A student’s grades have dropped significantly from one semester to the next. Who needs to know? Anyone directly involved in the student’s learning, including the teacher, the parents, the student and possibly a counselor. Since intervention may be needed, this intelligence helps frame the questions needed to intervene. Answers to the questions about what has changed for the student, framed in the light of known causal factors, serves to inform interested parties of what action should be taken to correct the problem, which then sets the stage for establishing new goals that drive the data flow framework.
In another scenario, a well-planned robust intelligence gathering system may reveal a pattern. Suppose the same high school principal discovers the majority of students in a course are performing below their historical norm. Who needs to know? Since this pattern is indicative of school-level or teacher-level causal factors, it requires a different intelligence channel that may include instructional designers and course schedulers and requires a different approach to isolate what those factors might be. A deeper review of the intelligence may reveal the course is being taught by a new teacher who is using a new textbook or instructional design. Once again, the results serve as a catalyst for another cycle of goal setting.