Continuous ImprovementFor
Cedar Rapids Community Schools Support Services
Action Research Teams
Susan Leddick, Jay MarinoNovember 1, 2005
Purposes of the Workshop To help administrators in support services
to Choose and use data critical to department
decisions; Use simple and powerful tools for data analysis,
problem analysis, and department planning. To establish a common language and
approach to improvement in both the instructional and support sides of the district—and at all levels. This includes, especially, the action research process.
Key Questions
1. Why data?2. How do you decide what to measure?3. How much data and how often?4. What’s the purpose of data analysis
and how do you do it?5. What are some simple graphs that
are effective?6. What do we need to know about
interpreting graphs?
Connecting to the Instructional Side
Action Research (Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle)Data-driven decision makingQuality tools for group processes
Impact? Implications?
Choosing What To Measure
Customer
System
Variation
Knowledge
Planned Change
People
Definitions…
A customer is someone who depends on your work in order to do his or her work.
A supplier is someone who provides a product or service used by a customer. All of us are both at different times.
Application 1
Choose two products or services you receive Who is the supplier for each?
Choose two products or services you produce Who is the customer for each?
For which of the products or services you listed in either column do you currently keep and use data on a regular basis? Why did you make that choice? If you keep no data on any of these, why not?
Measurement Framework
Processes
Results
Common Database
Decisions on WHAT to do
Periodic results data
Real-time process data
Decisions on HOW to do
Query, Interpret, Compare
Inform Stakeholders
Align, Improve, Redesign
Work in the next system to change what is done.
Work inside the system to change how work is done.
Copyright Leddick, 2004; used with permission
Application 2
Complete the diagram on page 6.
What Customers Care About
Function Cost Safety Delivery Morale/Satisfaction
Your Customer Example?
Stop and Think
What ideas so far today have suggested a change to how you are using data in your work group? How would things be different if you made such changes?
How Much Data Is Enough? … how fast your
process changes and how quickly you want to make changes to it.
…never enough data to tell you what to do…just whether you should do something.
…less data can be more useful. Sampling allows good judgments to be made from small groupings of the data.
Examples of Sampling The director of custodial services learns
about the square root… Percentage of failed repairs in the bus
garage… Use the square root if you are making
frequent measures and want to save time while preserving information quality.
Every tenth invoice… Square root of the teachers observed… Every fifth SPED referral…
Use the square root if you are making frequent measures and want to save time while preserving information quality.
Remember…
When Not to Sample
…there are not a lot of potential data …the process changes very rapidly …you have never taken data on this
process before …it is easy to get “all” the data
Application 3
Where might sampling save you and your work group time and give you better information, to boot?
Using Data to Make Better Decisions
The purpose of analysis is insight.
November
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Bus Departure Times
Silver Bus DepartureTimes
January
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Bus Departure Times
Silver Bus DepartureTimes
Application 4
Suppose that you are the director of transportation. You have the graphs on page 10, as well as others for several months, all showing the same pattern. What questions would you ask? Of whom?
Leddick’s Three Principles of Data Analysis
1. Graph the data.
2. Graph the data.
3. Graph the data.
Application 5High Schools Middle Schools Elementary Schools
17, 012 18, 558 14, 016
18, 768 19, 859 14, 318
21, 389 22,232 14, 845
27, 625 23,751 15, 876
18, 022
18, 854
The Pareto Diagram
Fights and Assaults by Location: Hometown District, 2001
269
18
28
63
98%94%
87%
72%
50%
0
15
30
45
60
75
90
105
120
Parking Lot Playground School Hall Classroom Restroom Gym
Location
Num
ber
of O
ccur
renc
es
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%n=1
Wrapping Up Select data you would like to collect
and bring along next time. Consider
Related to a customer issue Something we need to analyze, anyway Something we need to improve Something that cycles pretty fast (plenty
of data) Reflects repeated measures over time
Our Next Session
Help with data analysis. Introduce the action research
process. Select a learning project.
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