Conveying Our Stories - Displaying Our Data (2017)

This document contains resources that are provided for the user’s convenience. The inclusion of these materials is not intended to reflect its importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, or products or services offered. These materials may contain the views and recommendations of various subject matter experts as well as hypertext links, contact addresses and websites to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. The opinions expressed in any of these materials do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any outside information included in these materials.

Resources

State Exemplars

• Vermont’s Family Survey Data Sharing
  This PowerPoint presentation highlights how the Vermont Children’s Integrated Services Early Intervention Family Survey is used to connect with families and improve the quality of programs and services in the State. 

• California: Indicator 7 Reports for Local Education Agencies
  This video highlights how California is sharing their preschool outcome data in a visually appealing and accessible format.

• Virginia: Strategies for Displaying Data to Support Virginia’s Early Intervention Program
  Virginia’s Part C program has created several documents that use infographics or other methods of displaying data to enhance communication and data-based decision making. 

• Wisconsin: An Overview of the Serving on Groups Module
  This video provides an overview of how Wisconsin is creating more opportunities for parents of students with disabilities to build authentic partnerships with schools.

• Connecticut: Data Visualization and Social Media for Stakeholder Engagement
  Connecticut’s early intervention website presents a variety of data about student outcomes and programs serving students. This video discusses how they are presenting this data and using social media to communicate with their stakeholders.

• Florida Positive Behavioral Interventions & Support Project
  Florida Positive Behavioral Interventions & Support Project’s 2015-2016 Annual Report

• Wisconsin Rtl Center
  Wisconsin RtI Center’s 2015-2016 Annual Report

• Delaware Positive Behavior Support Project
  Delaware Positive Behavior Support Project’s 2015-2016 Annual Report

Communication Toolkits and Tips

• Strategies to Engage Stakeholders with Your Work
  This document provides engagement strategies that you may use to reach various audiences. The engagement strategies identified also provide an estimate of effort and cost.

• Effectively Communicating Evaluation Findings
  This CIPP TA product is designed to help grantees effectively communicate information about project progress and results to a variety of audiences. The product includes a discussion of why grantees might want to communicate with a specific audience, and outlines key questions to ask when designing a communications plan for different audiences. It highlights some contextual factors that might influence communications with specific audiences, and presents a brief discussion of challenges and ethical considerations associated with communicating evaluation findings. It also provides an overview of common communication tools and products that have been found useful with specific audiences. Throughout, checklists and worksheets tailored to specific audiences are included to help staff think through how to create a plan to link evaluation data and communication strategies.

• SIGNetwork Marketing Toolkit
  This website contains resources that can help organizations improve communication and marketing to deliver their message to specific audiences. The site includes information about developing artwork, newsletters, presentations, and many other communication and marketing tools.

• SISEP Communication Protocol
  This lesson introduces you to a tool for creating a strategic plan for communication in your organization.

• Communication Module Series
  This series of interactive, self-paced learning modules from the National Resource Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention can support a strategic approach to communication planning that is designed to enhance program success and sustainability.

• HHS Office of Adolescent Health Strategic Communications Toolkit
  This learning module guides participants through the stages of developing a communication plan, and provides a template for creating a communication plan.

• How Great Leaders Inspire Action
  Simon Sinek makes an argument for communicating the “why” in business vs. the how or what. Why are we collecting this data? Why do we do what we do?

• Strategic Public Relations Plans are Essential for Business
  This short article makes an argument for why all companies should have a public relations plan.

• Content Marketing for “Boring” Industries: 10 Tips for Creating Interesting Content
  This blog post offers tips for communicating “boring” information in an engaging manner.

• What Work Media Project
  Results for America is helping decision-makers at all levels of government accelerate their use of evidence and data.

Data Visualization

DaSy Resources

• DaSy Center Data Visualization Toolkit
  This 2016 toolkit is a compilation of resources for creating engaging data displays, as well as tips for effective use. The toolkit organizes key information and resources for Part C and Part B program use and provides considerations for the type of data and audience that best match each resource. The toolkit content provides the depth and specificity needed to learn new skills and apply them directly to your work.

• Using the DaSy-NCSI Data Visualization Toolkit to Create Engaging and Effective Data Displays
  This session introduces the new DaSy-NCSI Data Visualization Toolkit. The toolkit identifies key design principles, data considerations, and accessibility concerns that need to be addressed to effectively present data, and identifies low cost/no cost data visualization tools.

• Chart with Purpose
  In this first of three 30-minute data visualization talks, presenters defined data visualization and addressed five common pitfalls when creating charts: (1) Not clearly articulating your message; (2) Beginning with the visualization technique vs. the data; (3) Misrepresenting your data; (4) Being dull; and (5) Forgetting about accessibility.

• Powerful Presentations
  The second of three 30 minute data visualization talks, this webinar focuses on effectively presenting data using animation and presentation tools. Presenters will walk the audience through the process of taking complex concepts and data and creating a fun, engaging animation and presentation.

• Infographics for Impact
  The final of three 30 minute data visualization talks, this webinar focuses on how to effectively create and use infographics and answers 3 key questions: 1.) How can infographics be useful? 2.) What are some examples? 3.) What are tips for getting started?

• Improving Programs through Data-Driven Decisions: The Journey from Critical Questions to Data Visualization
  This session provides states with a roadmap for identifying, organizing, and visually displaying the data elements needed to answer state prioritized questions. This process is demonstrated using the Center for Early Childhood IDEA Data Systems (DaSy) Critical Questions and the Common Education Data System (CEDS) Connect Tool. Through collaborative efforts, DaSy and CEDS are developing templates to identify the data elements needed to address critical question, provide suggested analyses, and give examples of tables or graphs for displaying the data.

IDC Resources

• Now You See It: Seeing the Story in the Data
  The session from the 2015 OSEP Leadership Conference demonstrated creative ways data are being displayed to tell the story of IDEA and other data.

• Show Me the Data – Data Visualization and Presentation Webinar Series (Parts 1 and 2)
  These webinars present an introduction to data visualization.

• Assessment Interactive Map
  States and territories can use this interactive map, which features data from every state and territory, to identify other states and territories with similar concerns or similar contexts, with a view to beginning a dialogue around improving outcomes for children and students with disabilities.

Data Quality Campaign (DQC) Resources

DQC is dedicated to building knowledge and developing resources that advance the effective use of education data. DQC’s website contains a variety of resources including the following:

• Time to Act 2017: Put Data in the Hands of People
  More must be done to put data in the hands of people. States have made significant investments in data infrastructure, but data will never be used as a tool to inform continuous improvement and support student success unless parents, educators, policymakers, and students themselves have access to timely, useful information

• Opportunities to Make Data Work for Students in the Every Student Succeeds Act
  This document provides examples and suggestions for how States can use data to meet and go beyond ESSA requirements and support students and schools

• What Every Parent Should Be Asking about Education Data and Privacy
  This two-page resource offers parents critical questions they should be asking about the value of education data and how student privacy is ensured.

Other Resources

• Forum Guide to Data Visualization: A Resource for Education Agencies
  The purpose of this document is to recommend data visualization practices that will help education agencies communicate data meaning in visual formats that are accessible, accurate, and actionable for a wide range of education stakeholders.

• Graphic Design for Researchers
  This guide offers a basic overview on how researchers can effectively use design to create engaging and visually appealing Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) products. It will cover some key concepts behind good design and discuss how to use basic elements like photographs, images, color, tables, figures, and type to create useful publications and digital products. The guide also touches on how researchers can use data visualization to make complex concepts accessible.

• Easel.ly’s Crash Course in Infographics
  This crash course on infographics is itself presented as an infographic.

• Center for Parent Information and Resources Webinar on Creating Infographics
  The webinar introduces infographics, why they are popular, and resources for creating your own infographics.

Family Engagement

• REL Pacific Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Parents and Community as Partners in Education
  The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Parents and Community as Partners in Education is designed to guide school staff in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. Part 4 of the Toolkit focuses on engaging in data conversations with families and community members.

• American Evaluation Association Blog: Involving Families in the Data
  This blog post provides tips for engaging families in data collection, reflection, and use.

• How to Share Data Effectively: Tips for Administrators, Teachers, and Families This resource from the former Harvard Family Research Project contains valuable tips for sharing data with Families.

• Data Driven: Making Student and School Data Accessible and Meaningful to Families
  This webinar—Data Driven: Making Student and School Data Accessible and Meaningful to Families— takes a look at practical examples of how districts and schools are using data to engage families in their children's education. The webinar introduces tools that enable practitioners, districts, and schools to incorporate data into their own family engagement strategies.

• Improving Family and Community Engagement Through Sharing Data
  This 2012 briefing paper from the Southeast Comprehensive Center reviews the literature on how education agencies can use data to drive continuous improvement and engage parents and other stakeholders.

• Data Resources for Families
  This webpage provides links to a variety of data resources for families.

• Demystifying the “D” Word: Making Data Meaningful for Families
  This presentation demonstrates the key uses for data in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education and shares strategies for helping families feel more comfortable having data conversations. This is important because, in order to effectively partner with practitioners, families need to understand what data are collected and how those data are used to inform decisions.

• How Data Empowers Parents
  This infographic highlights the ways in which a data dashboard can help parents better understand their child’s academic progress and access additional resources.

• Using Data for Collaboration and Advocacy
  A webinar from the Center for Parent Information and Resources highlights how data can be used for collaboration and resources, as well as the data available from the Office of Civil Rights in the US Department of Education. The landing page includes additional resources.

Social Media Resources

• Social Media Audits
  This short article explains how to assess your social media efforts and determine what you're doing right and what you could do better.

• Social Media ROI: 14 Formulas to Measure Social Media Benefits
  For those looking for a way to justify the costs and efforts associated with social media, here is a quick overview of Return on Investment and Cost Benefit Analysis and how to apply them to social media

• 9 Social Marketing Metrics That Actually Matter
  This post addresses items that are harder to capture in return on investment numbers. It looks at added value through stakeholder engagement and people taking action on your posts, not just viewing the posts.

• This webpage from the U.S. Department of Education includes links to several resources designed to support SEAs use of social media to engage stakeholders.

• Social Media Tip Sheets:
  The Reform Support Network created social media tip sheets to help State and local education agencies expand their efforts to communicate and engage with key audiences on reform topics via social media.

  • Tip Sheet #1: Innovative Engagement
  • Tip Sheet #2: Building Capacity
  • Tip Sheet #3: Driving Success
  • Tip Sheet #4: Measuring Success

• ​Using Social Media to More Effectively Communicate Reform Efforts: A Case Study on the Ohio Department of Education’s Use of Twitter
  Ohio is one of the leading State education agencies embracing and experimenting with social media. This publication details how the Ohio Department of Education used social media, including Twitter and a WordPress blog, to drive interest and engagement in its 2012 statewide educator conference, Connecting the Dots, and how this strategy resulted in creating a network of educators statewide.

• Measurable Success, Growing Adoption, Vast Potential: Social Media Use Among State and Local Education Agencies
  This report presents data collected through a questionnaire of State education agencies and local educational agencies on the growing use of social media to reach key stakeholder groups and engage with primary audiences.

• Building Enduring Race to the Top Education Reforms: Using Social Media to Engage With and Communicate to Key Stakeholders
  This guide describes emerging social media practices among State education agencies and other governmental organizations and suggests key steps and considerations for those interested in using social media to advance education reform.

• Social Media: New Low-cost Tools for Effective Outreach
  This session from the 2017 OSEP Leadership Conference focuses on how to engage diverse communities using new, low-cost tools through social media networking.

• Social Amplification
  This article explains what social amplification is and how organizations can use it to create greater engagement and influence around a topic.

• 26 Creative Ways to Publish Social Media Updates

​Examples of Effective Communication

• Teaching Exceptionally Podcasts
  CEC produces two podcasts that aim to support special education teachers by providing resources and evidenced-based information in an engaging format.

• Reality 101 Blog
  This blog is for new special education teachers to share their stories and connect with other special educators.

• CEC’s Tool of the Week
  This resource is aimed at enhancing the work of special education teachers by providing free tools that can be used in the classroom to support student learning.

• NCII’s Ask the Expert Videos
  Ask the Expert videos are short video clips of experts in the field addressing frequently asked questions about intensive, individualized interventions in academics and behavior.

• Examples of infographics from REL Midwest
  RELs develop a wide variety of infographics to display information from their work in graphical form.

• Vermont’s Early Childhood Data Reporting System (ECDRS)
  This website is an integrated online toolbox that equips Vermonters to leverage meaningful data for the well-being of children, families and communities.

• School Improvement Explained: How GIS Mapping Can Help Improve Schools
  Location can play an important role in school improvement efforts. In this video, Trent Sharp, AIR senior technical assistance consultant, talks about how geographic information systems (GIS) data can be used with school and other demographic and social information to better inform school improvement efforts.

• NCSI State Snapshots and State Spotlights
  These resources from NCSI highlight the technical assistance work that the center is engaged in and provide information in an accessible format.

• National Center for Learning Disabilities
  The NCLD website contains a variety of engaging resources including a blog that highlights recent work and new resources.