The EDDS Project Onboarding Training Series

Last week, the Equity, Disproportionality & Design team finished onboarding the first SELPA cohort of the Equity Dispro Data System (EDDS) project. The EDDS (we pronounce it ED-ees)  project is a group of services, including our EDDS disproportionality data tool, that helps SELPA leaders achieve their equity goals by using disproportionality data early and often. Shout out to our first group of SELPAs that kicked off our learning and community building: Antelope Valley, Irvine, East County San Diego, and Sonoma. 

We believe what SELPA leaders do when they walk away from the data is just as important as what they do when they’re in front of the data. So we’ve designed three sessions, each an hour long, to onboard busy SELPA leaders meaningfully and efficiently. In this post, I share what SELPAs can expect from our onboarding experience. 

Talking About Data in a Person-to-Person Way 

Educators have had data for a long time. We have all kinds—state testing scores, attendance data, student work samples, suspension data, and even data about staff demographics. But if we have data and no common language to talk about it, we can’t share it with others. To promote equity in our schools, we need to raise awareness about unequal outcomes for students in some racial subgroups. And to raise awareness, we need the ability to talk about disproportionality data with each other.

In the first session of our EDDS Project training series, we focus on using person-to-person language to make risk ratio scores understandable. Doing this empowers us to have conversations with each other and with new audiences about unequal outcomes in our schools. 

Use the Power of Routines to Normalize Equity Conversations

Ok, so now we have data and the person-to-person language that empowers us to raise awareness about disproportionality. To make use of these new skills, we need to share regularly so that change can happen. Educators face a barrier to acting on the data they have—it’s hard to find the time. In a 2018 survey conducted by the Data Quality Campaign, teachers reported not having enough time to use the data available to them. How can we promote regular sharing of EDDS data without adding too much to an already long list of to-dos? 

In the second session of our EDDS Project training series, we focus on finding the routines we already have and attaching our data sharing to them. Maybe you have a monthly meeting with special education directors. Or maybe you have a quarterly email newsletter that goes out to staff. If we share disproportionality data during these opportunities, we can share at a frequency that matches the existing routine. 

Committing to Our Data Ethics 

As educators, we chose our profession because we care about the success of students. But when we use data to inform decisions that affect many people, there’s a new element of risk to the students and staff we’re in service to. These risks are there even if we’re not aware of them. For example, policies and practices could change in ways that influence who gets special education services. When we use data that affects many students, it becomes even more important to clarify our ethics around student level data use. 

In the third and final session of our EDDS Project training series, we focus on identifying our ethics around how we use data. We also focus on identifying the practical behaviors that express those ethics. The topic of ethics in any field is complex, so during this session we discuss three approaches: using data to maximize benefit for our students, using data to preserve relationships in our community, and using data to align with the values of our organization. 

Join An Upcoming EDDS SELPA Cohort

We’re scheduling sessions with new cohorts of SELPAs. For now, we’re keeping cohorts to around five SELPAs at a time to encourage community building and also help us keep up with improvements to EDDS. But there’s plenty of space in upcoming sessions. If you’re a SELPA director, have a SELPA administrator SEIS account, and are  interested in joining an upcoming onboarding series, please contact Wilma Johnson at wjohnson@sdcoe.net for more information. 

References 

Means et al. “Use of Education Data at the Local Level From Accountability to Instructional Improvement.” U.S. Department of Education Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, 2010. 

“Teachers See the Power of Data – But Don’t Have Enough Time to Use It.” The Data Quality Campaign, 12 Sep. 2018, https://dataqualitycampaign.org/resource/teachers-see-the-power-of-data-but-dont-have-enough-time-to-use-it

Sherer, J.Z. & James P. Spillane. “Constancy and Change in Work Practice in Schools: The Role of Organizational Routines.” Teachers College Record. Mar. 2011, pp. 611-657. 

O’Neil, Cathy. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. Crown, 2016.