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School districts routinely examine "Big Data" sets in order to gain insights into individual student progress, school improvement, district strategic goal attainment, marketing impacts, and more. Most district leaders spend days pouring over massive amounts of data via charts and spreadsheets attempting to gain an understanding of performance gaps and future opportunities. This provides useful historical insights including:
- Identifying patterns and trends
- Providing a foundation for decision-making by understanding the impact of past actions and the factors that contributed to results
- Establishing benchmarks to track progress over time
However, Big Data can also lead to analysis paralysis and the inability to clearly align future strategic plan goals and objectives using this data.
When it comes to K-12 school district strategic planning, relying exclusively on Big Data may not lead to effective decisions because of several key concerns:
- Past performance is not always indicative of future results. Just because something worked in the past does not mean it will work in the future. Emerging educational markets, technology, family preferences, regulations, and different state assessments change continuously. All of these factors can render historical data less relevant for planning purposes.
- Unforeseen events can disrupt trends. Historical data is based on past events, but it cannot account for unforeseen events such as natural disasters, economic downturns, or geopolitical shifts. These events can significantly disrupt trends and render historical data less reliable.
- Missed emerging trends means the data may not capture disruptive innovations that could significantly impact the educational landscape and associated strategic directions.
A Broad Approach for Strategic Planning
Thinking more broadly about data can be a solution to the limitations of relying exclusively on Big Data. Roger Martin's information funnel illustrates how broad sources of information are gathered, processed, and transformed into insights throughout the strategic planning process. This model helps organizations like school districts effectively leverage information to make informed decisions and drive innovation.
At the top of the funnel, organizations gather a wide range of information from various sources including marketing research, student performance, school climate, instruction, and curriculum. As the information moves down the funnel, it is systematically filtered and analyzed to identify patterns, trends, and opportunities.
The key stages of the information funnel are:
- Mystery: At the top of the funnel, organizations are faced with a mystery - an unknown problem or opportunity. This mystery is often a complex and ill-defined challenge that requires creative thinking and gathering a wide range of information from diverse sources. This stage also involves exploring different perspectives, challenging assumptions, and generating a variety of ideas. Thoughts generated during the mystery stage are also influenced by the principles, values, and philosophies of the school district.
- Heuristic: A heuristic way of organizing large amounts of information helps us process it more efficiently. As organizations begin to analyze the information gathered, they develop heuristics - theories of action or hypothesis to move beyond the mystery and guide decision-making. These heuristics are based on past experiences, intuition, and best practices research rather than solely based on hard data. Organizations then analyze and synthesize the information to identify patterns, trends, and insights. This stage involves critical thinking, data analysis, and decisions.
- Algorithm: Once a successful heuristic has been identified, organizations can further refine it into an algorithm. An algorithm is a precise set of steps that can be followed to solve a problem or achieve a specific goal. Evidence, data, and science can help move beyond heuristics to algorithms. Organizations integrate the insights gained from the previous stages into a coherent strategic plan. This involves aligning the plan with the organization's overall goals and objectives, developing actionable strategies, and allocating resources to support implementation.
School district leaders engaged in strategic planning are essentially attempting to be futurists. Historical data and evidence can be a valuable tool during the planning process, but it should not be the only consideration. It is important to consider other factors such as future trends, emerging technologies, and potential disruptions. Developing strategic plans for school communities by only using historical data can lead to less effective solutions. The balance of analytical and intuitive thinking throughout the strategic information funnel process is critical.
While analytical thinking is essential for processing information, intuitive thinking is crucial for generating creative ideas and innovative leaps. By effectively combining both, school districts can unlock new opportunities with forward-thinking analysis to achieve their vision for students.