Ensuring Data Quality in a Multi-Academy Trust
There’s little point in data aggregation and analysis solutions when you’re unable to feel confident in the underlying data. Although we all now understand the importance of analysis, many data leaders aren’t confident that their schools are recording consistently which hampers their attempts at using the information in the most valuable way – to improve life chances for their young people.
What Steps Can Trust Data Leaders Take to Ensure Data Quality and Integrity?
Ready to take some positive steps to improve your data quality?
- Outline and prioritise your key areas; assessment, attendance, staffing, behaviour and demographics. Start with the area you feel most comfortable with which helps build confidence in the process.
- Talk to stakeholders about the data they require for their role. Any reporting should help people in their role, and not simply tick a box for governance, boards or inspectors. Don’t underestimate the power of engaging with stakeholders, they are your consumer after all. Make your engagement regular and formalised– termly is a good starting point and will allow you time in between to revisit what you’re producing, iterating towards the right balance of effort vs impact. Keep the meetings focused and of course always come prepared with an agenda to make the most of precious time.
- Be reasonable and realistic with goal setting for your project. For example, if you’re thinking of standardising aspect names you’ll need to secure buy-in from the data managers and ensure they have time to make the changes alongside their other responsibilities. Breaking down the project helps everyone to celebrate incremental wins and reduces the risk of feeling overwhelmed. Areas like attendance involve large datasets and every teacher in every school so take it one step at a time.
You can book a free session with Charlotte Harling or another member of the team to talk through your data strategy. They have all experienced these challenges first-hand and are always happy to help.
