Data Driven Districts (DDD)Pockets of Success

November 2015

Explore the illustrative Dashboard today www.eddashboard.co.za

The Data Driven Districts (DDD) Project aims to improve learner outcomes by supporting the way SA-SAMS data is collected and used by officials in the education system to support schools and educators more effectively.

DDD Project Background

How it impacts education Current project reach

The DDD project works by making key SA-SAMS data

available to officials via the online DDD Dashboard. The Dashboard contains SA-SAMS data

on attendance, achievement, curriculum coverage and promotion from a school level right up to a national

view. This empowers officials to make data driven decisions.

DDD Aim

Mogalakwena’s Submission Success (1 of 3)

IntroductionIn April 2015, Mogalakwena’s DDD project co-ordinator,

Simon Tlhako, and the Data Driven Districts (DDD) project manager for Limpopo began their drive to get Mogalakwena’s

term 2 data on the DDD dashboard.

Simon Tlhako

Deputy Governance

Manager of

Potgietersrus Circuit

Implementation

Following the strong advocacy programme, EMIS officers were trained by DDD consultants to assume the role

of custodians of the DDD project and to train school data administrators and principals. Tlhako commended

the EMIS officers on their efforts and stated that “the commitment from our circuit EMIS officers was fantastic, they were eager to learn, grasped the project with both hands and made sure they ran with it.” Circuit

managers were also drawn on to provide support to the EMIS officers in upskilling the officials in the schools.

Project PreparationKnowing that the DDD project was soon to launch in Mogalakwena, Simon Tlhako began facilitating

management and advocacy meetings to encourage the preparation and promotion of complete and accurate SA SAMS submissions. This communication also generated excitement about the DDD Dashboard’s arrival in the

district. With adequate time to prepare, Mogalakwena was waiting expectantly and was ready to deliver on the requirements of the DDD project.

Process for success

The diagram below illustrates how each of the role players in this success story supported one another in implementing the submission processes for the DDD project in Mogalakwena.

Mogalakwena’s Submission Success (2 of 3)

Strong leadership and communication drives the required action

Mogalakwena’s Submission Success (3 of 3)

The ResultThe combined efforts of district officials, EMIS officers and school staff resulted in 239 of 269 (89%) SA-SAMS

school databases being loaded onto the dashboard in the district’s first submission. As illustrated in the graph below, a comparison has been made to Mogalakwena’s neighbouring district Waterberg where the DDD

project was initially piloted in Term 1 2014. Mogalakwena’s submission success is evident in the district being able to achieve unprecedented speed in getting its schools’ databases on the Dashboard.

239

57

269

164

Mogalakwena Waterberg

# databases at final submission

# SA-SAMS schools

Moving Forward

Mogalakwena is following up its submission success with impressive dashboard usage. While the second highest number of school official logins in October was 85, Mogalakwena showed the most school level logins out

of all the DDD pilot districts with 188 school official logins in October. With this combination of submission and usage, Mogalakwena is on its way to driving improvements in learner outcomes.

Submission comparison between Waterberg (Term 1 2014) and Mogalakwena(Term 2 2015)

Dashboard used to reallocate educators

What was the situation?Mrs Human accessed the dashboard and noticed that

one of her circuit’s secondary schools was performing poorly in maths. She also saw that the school’s ANA

Numeracy pass rate for grade 9 in 2014 was 2%.

What was the complication?According to Mrs Human, “Many principals place their most qualified teachers in grade 9 because this is the

year the learners write the Annual National Assessments. What they do not realise is that the foundation that is

laid in grades 7 and 8 is crucial to the learners’ success in grade 9.” “While the school’s best teacher taught grade 9, this teacher was responsible for picking up the back log as well as covering the grade 9 curriculum. This is

impossible.”

How did she resolve it?Mrs Human advised that the best teacher move to a lower grade in order to

establish a solid foundation for grade 9. She was able to substantiate this recommendation with the dashboard, showing the unprepared learners

coming into grade 9 as a cause of the poor ANA results. Mrs Human is pleased to have already seen an improvement in their SBA achievement in maths.

Wilna Human

Circuit Manager,

Thabo

Mofutsanyana

7%28%

37%

65%

2014 T4 2015 T1 2015 T2 2015 T3

Grade 8 SBA pass rate

Monitoring school progress with the Dashboard

Trevor is the Cluster Leader of

Cluster 2 in Circuit 4 in the

Ekurhuleni North district. Since

he started using the Dashboard,

he can report greater efficiency

in the way he monitors his

schools.

Trevor Kalidheen

Cluster Leader, Ekurhuleni North District

What do you use the Dashboard for mostly?

“To monitor the progress of my schools.”

What do you do differently now that you have access to the Dashboard?

“It has enabled me to have first hand information

which I can use to plan my visit to a school. When at the school, I already have all the

information on which to conduct my visit thus

saving time and making me more efficient.”

Does having immediate access to data help you in making decisions or having more effective discussions?

“I recently visited a school where I was able to use the data to identify possible failures in Grade 12 and

use the learner chart to assist in emergency interventions.”

What makes you excited about the Dashboard?

“I am pleased that Principals don’t view it as another tool but rather an assistive ‘device’ enabling them to

identify gaps and close them with planning and interventions.”

The Dashboard used successfully in a school

Chris is a Principal of a Primary

School in the Ekurhuleni South

district. He has been able to

effect improvements in key

metrics in his school through his

use of the DDD Dashboard

Chris Maluleke

Principal - Chivirikani Primary School

What do you use the Dashboard for mostly?

“In all our SMT, SGB and staff meetings, the

Dashboard is our guiding agenda in terms of academic improvements. As the principal I have the whole school achievement from grade 1 - 7 and can

assess how learning areas are progressing.”

What impact has the dashboard made at your school?

1. Attendance has improved now that everybody wants to be viewed with 100% attendance

2. The curriculum coverage has improved

3. The SBA and quarterly achievement has improved

What makes you excited about the Dashboard?

“It makes my job easier in reporting to both SGB and parents through our meetings by simply

putting data on a big screen”

“It has saved me time because in our staff

curriculum meetings, discussions are more real, productive and focused as we are guided by

what we see, and how we want to be seen in the next quarter when the dashboard is updated.”

“It will also promote academic competitiveness by making schools want to be

rated amongst the best in each district.”

Dashboard used to track individual learners

Jeany is an HIV and AIDS

Coordinator. She has found

great value in using the

Dashboard to track the

academic performance of the

individuals with whom she

works.

Jeany Dube

HIV & AIDS Coordinator, Sedibeng East

What do you do differently now that you have access to the Dashboard?

“Knowing that we have data ready to be used through the Dashboard, before I go into

conversations relating to our learners – I ask myself

a question, what data can inform me more about the topic at hand?”

What do you use the Dashboard for mostly?

“I deal with sensitive data about learners in our

schools. I started reaping the benefits of the DDD Dashboard when I wanted to see the

performance data of learners I am working with.”

“Through the Dashboard, I gained quick, convenient access to per subject performance of

the learners and could immediately see who was improving and who was struggling in which

subjects. This information helped me see how our

learners are coping with their challenges.”

What makes you excited about the Dashboard?

“The Dashboard is a key tool in checking the pulse of our learners. The nicest thing about this is

that we can do so from a per learner perspective all the way to a district perspective. This gives us a

really informed picture.”

Bringing efficiency to Gauteng East District

What was the situation?Bongi was requested by Michael Masilela, who is in examinations,

to provide him with the number of learners in Gr 3 and Gr 6 by

school, who currently take English First Language.

What was the complication?

Bongi had resigned herself to at least 3 days of work sourcing the information manually using the paper-based records that she had. However, she knew that the information could be available on the DDD

Dashboard but was unsure about where to find it.

How did she resolve it?Bongi asked a DDD project member if the information was in fact available on the Dashboard. Together, they

downloaded the Learner Chart Report off the Dashboard and set up a pivot table using the data. Within 5 minutes the information relevant to 113 schools and 109,931 learners was provided to examinations.

Michael was subsequently trained on the Dashboard and used the tool to quickly calculate the number of learners in each school in the District registered for Accounting, Economics, Physical Science and Mathematics

(Gr 9 – 11). With this information he was able to efficiently allocate examination scripts.

Bongi Mtombeni

DISM

DDD Project progress indicators

133 188 142 124289 306 288

761220 247 191 130

323443 489

488

353435

333254

612749 777

1249

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug

School Official Logins District Official Logins

Number of SA-SAMS school databases submitted per province

2015 Dashboard Logins by District and School Officials

Following term 1, 2015 has seen strong growth in the number of

officials using the DDD Dashboard

9241223 1300 1099 1159 1308

232

488 491491 504

581

76

74 164164 163

390

71

1232

17851955

1754 18262279

T4 2013 T1 2014 T2 2014 T3 2014 T4 2014 T1 2015 T2 2015

Free State Gauteng Limpopo

The number and quality of SA-SAMS databases submitted to the

Dashboard has increased significantly since project inception

Any questions ?Send any questions you have to the DDD Helpdesk

help@dbedashboard.co.za

Explore the illustrative Dashboard today

www.eddashboard.co.za

&