Determining the type of data to analyze can be accomplished in a variety of ways. 1) ESU Advisory committee is employed to determine data, which will be analyzed, by Superintendents and Principals. (Link to Responsibilities of Advisory Committee) 2) Provide a list of data items in a survey and send to the Superintendents/Principals to determine top data priority items. When analyzing data, it is important to compare aggregate and disaggregate data from a variety of sources.

Determine Data Sources (perceptual and hard data)

1. Perceptual Data: those data pieces that interpret sensory information in order to represent and understand the organization or environment.

   1. Stakeholder surveys

   2. Individual intellectual perception by leadership

2. Academic Data: Student performance data utilized to measure academic growth

   1. Local, District and State 

      1. Formative, Interim and summative

   2. Federal Data

      1. Special Education

      2. Carl D. Perkins

3. Current Program/Services Data: Programs and services that are currently in place, extent of utilization, implementation, and outcome.

   1. ESU previous year service plan

      1. School District Utilization

   2. Local school district internal programs

4. Accountability and Accreditation Data: 

   1. AQuESTT

   2. Cognia

   3. Nebraska Continuous Improvement

Once data sources have been identified, ESU staff creates packets for each district, which include all data items. During the data dig, facilitators will take leaders through each piece of data where they will identify challenges/opportunities (AH-HA’s) based on what they see in the data. If there are data items that are unfamiliar, there may need to have time taken to discuss the intent of the data. This is not a time for problem solving or root cause analysis, that comes later. 

Identify Challenges and Opportunities

5. Instruct the leaders that they will have ‘X’ amount of time to look at the data, as they observe the data they will identify ONE challenge/opportunity on an individual post-it. This process will continue until all data have been observed. (Each person and/or district team will have a large stack of post-it notes.)

6. Table work: ask the table to discuss each of their sticky notes. They will now pile into like-minded themes making sure that they are not losing the essence of the challenge simply to put it into a theme.

Prioritize

Each table will be provided with a poster with a large outer circle of ‘secondary priorities’ and a small inner circle of ‘primary priorities.’

7. Now instruct the table teams to move their like-minded themed piles either the center circle (if their challenge/opportunity is a high priority) or to the outer circle if it is a secondary circle.  Make sure the stickies remain the their pie slice. (10 minutes). 

8. Finally, ask them to choose TWO of the primary priorities. This could be difficult for them to do. You could have them select by table groups OR district. (We ask them to pick two, because we will pull the entire group back together and their may be overlap.

All of this is good information for you.  The primary areas you will want to see if you have reflected in your current services, so you can ensure you are addressing all priority areas.  The secondary priorities are great topics for Superintendent/Principal meetings. 

Generate Theory of Action

This is where they can start problem solving. The sky is the limit here. 

9. Given the priority from the table, they are to fill in the starter “How might we (ESU) …” to address that challenge. Instruct them to generate 2 or 3 solutions for each of their priorities. This can be done as a district team or table teams. Do this on a 5x7 notecard. For example, if the priority was Mental Behavioral Health, they could write “How Might We...provide additional supports for Mental/Behavioral Health.”  

10. The table group then brainstorms actionable activities the ESU can do to address that HMW with regard to each Tenet.  The question would be “How Might We...provide additional supports for Mental/Behavioral Health; with regard to Positive Partnerships?”  That question is asked for every Tenet. This is such terrific information as this chart will be FULL of suggestions for you as an organization.

Hypothesize Impact on Achievement

There will be a poster with four quadrants. The x-axis represents impact from lesser to greater, the y-axis represents resources from lesser to greater.

11. Given the data they have looked at, the challenges, the HMW, and all the discussions, the table group, then takes their priority area and each must first place it on the x-axis (horizontal line). No two priorities can overlap. They must be distributed evenly across the x-axis. 

12. Then the same will occur with the y-axis (vertical line). Without moving their topic to the left or right, have them move it up along the y-axis to identify how many resources will be necessary in order to address that priority.  There can be no overlaps vertically or horizontally. 

13. If the areas are high impact low resources, those are low hanging fruit. Begin working on those within 6 months. If they are high impact high resources, this is a long-term plan.  The other areas will planned somewhere in between. 

Prior to the service planning stage, your ESU will have created posters (11x14) of the services provided in the previous year. It will be up to your ESU to determine what services are up for ‘vote’. For example, you will not put services that are mandated by statute or contracted services. You will also want to make sure the name of the service is descriptive enough that know exactly what the ESU provides. Place the posters on the wall in the room, including any new services that were created based on need.

Determine Key Services

Key services are ones that are currently being offered as well as those that were discussed in the HMW.

1. 1. If additional services were created based on the results of the data, those will be written on individual posters and added to the services list.

   2. Each school will be given a set of dots of the same color (10 fewer than the list of services.) Schools now have the opportunity to vote on the services that align with their needs. They are only allowed to put one dot per service.

   3. Each school will then be given 10 dots of a different color. Each dot represents a million dollars. The schools are then instructed to place dots on the services that they feel will most effectively lead to improved student achievement in their school.

Following the gallery walk, participants will be told that how they voted for the list of services will determine the list of services they will have an opportunity to discuss and approve at the regular meeting. This is a difficult stage for service providers. What you may find is that a service that you have been providing for years does not get the ‘votes’ it needs. As a Unit, you have the option to discontinue that service for the next year, or create a phase out process. It is important to keep in mind, that services that were identified are data driven, based on need.

Create the School Service Plan

This process is conducted with Schools during the spring consultation meeting

1. Select the SCHOOLS tab

2. Filter the schools to display the schools in your ESU

3. In the School column, select a school

4. Select the year of the Service Plan that you want to modify from the top left box

5. Click Edit Plan next to the school name

6. Select Services

   1. All services that are part of the ESU Service Plan are listed and are organized according to the service categories

   2. If the School will not be accessing the service, select Not Implementing this Year

   3. If the School will be accessing the service but it is not connected to a particular goal or initiative, select Implementing This Year, but NOT SPECIFYING a particular implementation objective

   4. If the School plans to access the service to specifically support a goal or initiation, an Implementation Objective (if listed) should be selected:

      1.  Introductory - Educators intend to participate in an initial awareness training session of this strategy/approach, e.g., as indicated through registration, In-service plan. 

      2.  Emerging - Educators attempt to use the strategy/approach, e.g. as indicated by observations or or other measures.  

      3.  Established - Educators will  consistently use the strategy/approach, e.g. as indicated by observations or other measures.

      4.  Optimized - Educators will adapt and innovate the strategy/approach, e.g., as measured by observations, collaboration between peers, and reflective feedback. 

   5. For those services that do not include Strategies IO options, check the box preceding School Plans to Implement this Service if the school intends to access that service

7. Click the Save button when complete; the ESU Service Matrix is now updated to reflect the completed School Service Plan

Implementation is a continuous process that runs the full range of the program year, from August 1 to July 31. This process includes submitting/importing activity logs, indicating school access to those services that do not have Implementation Objectives, periodic monitoring of school service access, and assessing the status of implementation objectives for each school.

Submitting Activity Logs

1. The activity log is where ESU personnel document the service provided to a school. In order to add an activity log go to ADMIN ▸ Activity Logs and then select Add Activity Log. Enter the following information:

   • Topic: short title and/or description of service provided

   • Service: select the service from the dropdown menu

   • School: select the school that participated 

   • Presenters: add single or multiple presenters; time will be automatically calculated

   • Date: enter the date that the service was provided 

   • Hours: enter the time that the service was actually provided, not including planning time 

   • Recipient count: enter the number of those in attendance 

   • Audience: identify the group (e.g., elementary teachers, 4th grade teachers, counselors, administrators, etc.)   

   • Site: select the venue (ESU hosted, School hosted, Videoconference, Hybrid) 

   • Resources: this text box is for any resources you used or provided, including links 

   • Notes: this text box is for noting follow-up ideas, changes for the future consideration,  etc. 

   • Select  Add Activity Log at the bottom of the page to submit the log to SIMPL

2. Once an activity log is submitted, the ESU and School Services Plans are automatically updated.

3. Logs can be duplicated, edited and deleted by selecting the log from the Activity Log page.

4. Instructions are provided on the SERVICES page on how to import activity logs ("?" in the bottom right corner).

Indicating Service Access

5. Services that do not have Implementation Objectives are "highlighted" to indicate when those services are accessed. Highlighting should occur whenever a School accesses a service.

   • Go to the SERVICES page and select your ESU

   • Select the service that has been accessed

   • Click the pencil icon next to the service name to update the usage status

   • Select the school that has accessed the service; it should now be highlighted in blue

   • The service usage has now been updated

Monitoring Access to Services

6. The Service Matrix Report provides a snapshot of services accessed for the current program year. It indicates all services that comprise each school's Service Plan in addition to indicating with a check mark which services have been accessed.

Assessing Status of Implementation Objectives

7. Implementation Objectives "IOs" are set during the spring consultation meeting with each school in the School Service Plan, and refer to the level of implementation that the school plans to achieve in the following year through ESU support.

8. If the school selects Not Implementing this Year or Implementing This Year, but NOT SPECIFYING a particular implementation objective, the service will not be included in the "Objectives Met" calculation.

9. An ESU team should meet periodically, at least quarterly, to discuss and assess schools' IO progress. 

10. Go to ADMIN ▸ Implementation 

    • If a school has met the Implementation level that is specified in the Implementation Details chart, place a check mark in the appropriate quarter

    • A comment box is also provided to use as desired

1. Select the Schools tab on the SMART website, select your ESU, and click the Export to Excel button to download the school information that is needed.

2. Create a copy of the Importing Group Purchases Google Sheet.

3. Populate columns A-C of the Google Sheet with the corresponding information from the Excel spreadsheet: School, City, CDN (County District Number). Note that the order is different than the SMART Excel download.

4. Duplicate this tab within Google Sheets to generate a clean copy for the next time.

1. Add the purchasing information to columns D-H (Purchase Date, Description, Vendor, School Cost, School Savings) for participating schools.

   • Purchase Date (M/D/YYYY)

   • Description (Item)

   • Vendor (from Invoice)

   • School Cost (enter zero "0")

   • School Savings (enter difference between retail/school cost and actual amount paid)

2. Delete rows for schools that did not participate.

1. On the SMART ADMIN tab, select Purchasing.

2. Select + Import Purchases.

3. Highlight all of the cell information from your Google Sheet to be imported starting with cell 2A.

4. Use the copy command on your device to capture this information.

5. Paste the information into the box on the Purchase Import page.

6. Select the Parse Text button.

7. SMART will display a preview of the information and indicate if any problems (errors) exist. If problems do exist, use the Go Back button to make corrections and repeat from step 6.

8. Once all problems have been resolved select the Do Import button.

9. Select any School from the Schools tab.

10. View the uploaded information by selecting the Purchases option.