{"id":15768,"date":"2019-12-02T14:31:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T22:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devwww.3cloudsolutions.com\/post\/building-an-analytics-practice-for-primary-and-secondary-education-sharing-some-thoughts-and-experiences-3\/"},"modified":"2024-01-04T15:01:21","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T23:01:21","slug":"building-an-analytics-practice-for-primary-and-secondary-education-sharing-some-thoughts-and-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/resources\/building-an-analytics-practice-for-primary-and-secondary-education-sharing-some-thoughts-and-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Building an Analytics Practice for Primary and Secondary Education: Sharing Some Thoughts and Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past several months, I\u2019ve been working on a project in the primary and secondary (K-12) education space \u2013 my first in that domain. In a lot of ways, I\u2019ve found the experience to be quite unique when compared to some of the other industries that I\u2019ve worked in, and I wanted to write this as a follow up to a Solution Brief<\/a> that BlueGranite did on the subject, and to share some of my thoughts and experiences stemming from my time working in the education field \u2013 as it\u2019s been a journey that I\u2019ve found to be singularly interesting, often challenging, and ultimately, very rewarding.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Analytics<\/i><\/u><\/p>\n

To help set the stage a bit with some technical specificity \u2013 this project is about building a data warehouse in SQL Server<\/a> from the ground up, incorporating three primary domains of data from within a fairly large school district with approximately 30,000 students:\u00a0 student data, financial data, and HR data.\u00a0\u00a0 With the data structured and consolidated in one place, Microsoft\u2019s Power BI<\/a> is then used to provide insights to staff throughout the district using sophisticated analytical logic, powerful aggregation capabilities, and centralized web-service hosting and deployment for ease of collaboration and consumption.<\/p>\n

Holistic Process, Structured Data Are Key<\/strong><\/p>\n

Something I\u2019ve written about in the past (if I can be permitted to go ahead and climb atop my soap box right out of the gate) is that properly structuring data<\/a> is absolutely paramount for an analytics project \u2013 and education is no exception;\u00a0 if anything, it only underscores the importance.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t to say that the data we worked with started off unstructured (though it can in some cases, as with sentiment data drawn from survey feedback), or that insights can\u2019t be drawn from raw data, just that the state and structure of our source data is seldom ideal to an analytics practice \u2013 both in terms of what is most performant in the analytics tools being used, but also with regard to what is most conducive to imparting meaning and insight to our data consumers.<\/p>\n

So how is such an important thing attained?\u00a0 Aside from the technical particulars of what constitutes a \u201cproper\u201d data structure for analytics \u2013 which represents a body of nuanced information far greater than what can be placed into a blog format \u2013 I\u2019d like to focus more on the holistic process that needs to be established as a prerequisite to building an analytics solution.\u00a0 In summary, that process is about garnering understanding, which itself is contingent upon something far more interpersonal and organic than technical:\u00a0 the establishment of a dialogue between those who work within the day-to-day processes which generate our intended source data, those who are tasked with collecting and structuring that data, and those who will become consumers of the analytical insights which are the essential output of the project.\u00a0\u00a0 This represents no small feat of coordination, and often defies some manner of technological \u201csilver bullet\u201d for remediation.<\/p>\n

In education, a lot of data is generated by human beings entering data about other human beings; there is margin for error, bias, and assumption.\u00a0 There are contextual qualifications, such as assessment scoring, \u00a0that do not fit neatly into universal schemas.\u00a0 So it is absolutely critical that the processes which generate source data are understood fully. This is the foundation to any analytics solution, and like anything, the soundness of the foundation represents the stability of everything built on top of it.\u00a0 As an analytics practice matures, the necessity becomes more apparent than ever.\u00a0 Advanced analytics, like those on offer in Microsoft\u2019s Azure AI<\/a> suite, absolutely require a high degree of confidence in the data inputs that they draw upon. The process by which data is structured for analytics is also one in which such confidence is built and standardized across an organization.<\/p>\n

Breaking Down Siloes Boosts Shared Goals <\/strong><\/p>\n

If those tasked with building and maintaining an analytics practice draw the foundation of their understanding from those that oversee the generation and curation of source data, then we can say that the building plans are drawn from the perspectives of those that will be consumers of the data.\u00a0 This is the source of our big picture, and the sophisticated logic that crystalizes it.\u00a0 This is the perspective that provides the basis for breaking down the silos in which our source data is often stored, and the impetus for finding value in the exercise itself.\u00a0 In education, every facet of a school district\u2019s operation bends ultimately to a single common goal:\u00a0 improving student outcomes.\u00a0 This means that a truly holistic view involves not just the data about students and education directly, but also about the district\u2019s function across the board. This includes everything from how budget is allocated to program management efficacy \u2013 from staffing of open positions to credentialing and qualifications of those staff.\u00a0 In terms of structuring data for analytics, this particular process is often referred to as \u201cconforming\u201d, or tying disparate sources of data to a single common form for the sake of deeper, more complete insight.<\/p>\n

As a technologist, I\u2019ve always been drawn to the way in which new tools help facilitate old tasks.\u00a0 Or, more specific to Business Intelligence, how new technologies can ease the turning of the gears of discovery and implementation which drive an analytics practice along its path to greater maturity and, by extension, greater insights.\u00a0 However, as a consultant, I am also fascinated by the more organic nature of problem solving, and the elemental facets of such which seem to defy the passage of time \u2013 largely I think because they stem from our strengths and weaknesses as human beings.\u00a0 There\u2019s a certain resonance to that when working in the education space, which is fundamentally about advancing human understanding \u2013 an endeavor which requires a certain measure of due diligence,\u00a0 an open dialogue among those with something at stake, and a spirit of breaking down barriers if it is to succeed.<\/p>\n

We Build Solid Foundations<\/strong><\/p>\n

BlueGranite can help your organization implement a holistic, thriving analytics practice, too. Whether you\u2019re considering an Azure-based modern data warehouse<\/a>, or how to put AI and machine learning to work for your enterprise, we can help. Contact us<\/a> today to learn how we can implement a strategic analytics framework tailored to your needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Analyzing data in primary and secondary education, starting with a holistic process that develops into analytics solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":13146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[318,316],"class_list":["post-15768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-ai","tag-education","tag-public-sector","topics-blog","industries-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}