School Overview Analysis

OVERVIEW

The School Overview Dashboard is an interactive Excel solution aimed at consolidating critical educational data into an easily digestible format. It addresses the need for a unified platform to monitor key aspects of school operations, including student achievement, teacher effectiveness, admissions, attendance, and curriculum coverage. The dashboard serves as a central hub for stakeholders to gain quick insights into the overall health and performance of the educational institution. 

OBJECTIVES

The primary objectives of this project were to:

• Consolidate diverse school-related data (student performance, teacher performance, enrollment, attendance, resource allocation) into a single, interactive dashboard.

• Provide a holistic view of school performance, enabling quick assessment of key metrics.

• Identify trends and patterns in student achievement across subjects, classes, and schools.

• Track and evaluate educator impact, effectiveness, and engagement.

• Monitor admissions and enrollment trends, as well as student attendance.

• Assess curriculum coverage and digital readiness.

• Support data-driven decision-making for school administrators, teachers, and other stakeholders to optimize resources and improve educational outcomes.

KEY COLUMNS

The dashboard integrates and analyzes data from various facets of school operations, utilizing key columns such as:

• Schools: Name of the educational institution.

• Budget: Allocated financial resources for each school.

• Students: Individual student identifiers or names.

• Score: Student performance scores (e.g., average scores, sum of scores).

• Above_70%: Indicator/count of students scoring above 70%.

• PercentAbove70: Percentage of students scoring above 70%.

• Subjects: Academic subjects (e.g., English, Math).

• Class: Specific class identifiers.

• IsFailing: Indicator/count of students failing.

• Failing Students: Number of students with failing grades.

• student_id: Unique identifier for students.

• teacher_id: Unique identifier for teachers.

• Teachers: Teacher names.

TOOLS

The primary tool utilized for the development and presentation of this dashboard was:

• Microsoft Excel: Employed for data organization, calculation (including pivot tables), visualization, and creating an interactive dashboard experience.

APPROACH

The project followed a structured approach to transform raw school data into actionable insights within an Excel dashboard environment:

Phase 1: Data Collection & Consolidation

• Gathered raw data related to student performance, teacher metrics, enrollment figures, attendance records, and resource allocation from various sources.

• Consolidated this data into a structured format within Excel worksheets.

Phase 2: Data Transformation & Calculation (Pivot Tables)

• Utilized Excel's powerful pivot table functionality to aggregate, summarize, and transform raw data into meaningful metrics and KPIs.

• Calculated key performance indicators such as average student scores, percentages of students above certain thresholds, failing student counts, teacher performance averages, enrollment trends, and curriculum coverage percentages.

Phase 3: Dashboard Design & Visualization

• Designed dashboard sheet within Excel, each focusing on a specific aspect of school overview:

  • Schools Overview Dashboard: Providing a high-level summary of school performance, budget, and key personnel metrics.

• Employed various Excel charts and conditional formatting to create clear and intuitive visualizations.

• Implemented slicers and filters to enable interactive exploration of the data by users.

Phase 4: Review & Refinement

• Reviewed the dashboard for accuracy, usability, and visual appeal.

• Refined calculations and visualizations based on potential feedback to ensure the dashboard effectively met its objectives.

KEY INSIGHTS

The School Overview Dashboard provides a wealth of insights into various aspects of school operations:

• Overall School Performance: The dashboard allows for a quick comparison of schools based on student scores and budget allocation (e.g., Carroll High School with a budget of $156,057.23, Campbell Academy with $153,839.85).

• Student Achievement: Detailed views enable identification of top-performing students (e.g., Desiree Johnson with a score of 761, Paul Willis with 719) and areas where students might be struggling (e.g., "Failing Students" metrics). Average scores per subject (e.g., English average score of 71.09) and class can be easily tracked.

• Teacher Effectiveness: Teacher performance scores (e.g., Michelle Kemp with 4.84, Anthony Kennedy with 4.77) provide insights into educator impact and areas for professional development.

• Resource Allocation & Digital Readiness: Information on "Total Devices" and "Top used devices" can inform decisions about technology investment and digital learning strategies.

• Enrollment and Attendance Trends: The dashboard facilitates monitoring of student enrollment counts and attendance patterns, crucial for resource planning and intervention strategies.

• Curriculum Progress: The "Average of coverage_percent" allows for an understanding of how much of the curriculum is being covered, which is vital for academic planning.

• Student-Teacher Ratios: The "Student to teacher ratio" provides insights into class sizes and resource distribution.

IMPACTS

The School Overview Dashboard delivers significant impacts for educational stakeholders:

• Improved Decision-Making: Provides school administrators with real-time, data-driven insights to make informed decisions regarding resource allocation, curriculum adjustments, and intervention programs.

• Enhanced Student Outcomes: By highlighting areas of student struggle and success, teachers can tailor their instructional strategies to improve learning outcomes.

• Optimized Teacher Development: Insights into teacher performance can guide professional development programs and recognize effective teaching practices.

• Efficient Resource Management: Enables better management of budgets, devices, and personnel by providing clear data on utilization and needs.

• Increased Accountability: Offers a transparent view of school performance metrics, fostering accountability among staff and departments.

• Strategic Planning: Supports long-term strategic planning by identifying trends in enrollment, performance, and resource needs.

DELIVERABLES

The key deliverable for this project was:

• Interactive Excel Dashboard: A comprehensive .xlsx file containing multiple interconnected sheets (Schools Overview, Student Performance, Teacher Performance, Admissions and Enrollment, Attendance, Curriculum Coverage) with pivot tables, charts, and interactive elements.