How Big Urban Districts Can Succeed, Part III
Here is the third element that big urban districts need to succeed: They must passionately use data to drive their decisions.
Superintendents, principals, teachers, and, yes, parents need easy access to data that shows them how either a campus, teacher or student is performing. And not just last year, last semester or last month, but now.
Former Dallas Superintendent Michael Hinojosa was passionate about using data. He would have spreadsheets in his office that guided him about what was going on across the district.
Dallas also had new data options for parents to use. The district has started rolling out "parent portals" that give families real time data about how their child is doing in a class, and even whether they showed up for school that day.