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Trustee urges district data dashboards; board weighs staff capacity and vendor options
Summary
Trustee Al Jaffee proposed creating business-intelligence dashboards to consolidate student- and program-level data for trustees, staff and the public. Other trustees raised concerns about bylaw limits and IT workload; a trustee recommended engaging an external firm to audit data sources and build dashboards while the superintendent noted some state dashboards already cover portions of the needed data.
Trustee Al Jaffee urged the Dearborn Board of Education to pursue districtwide data dashboards that would bring together multiple data sources (MiSTAR, WIDA, i-Ready and others) so leaders, teachers, and the public could more easily access and actionable data.
"We have a lot of data at the district... we just need to find a method to put the data together," Al Jaffee said, arguing a business-intelligence approach (for example, Power BI) would allow leaders to "slice and dice" data and help diagnose low proficiencies.
Another trustee cautioned that a board bylaw governs requests for significant amounts of staff work and warned that requiring continuous dashboard maintenance could place an unsustainable burden on IT and staff across 34 buildings and roughly 20,000 students. "It could be something that could be insurmountable for an employee to produce," the trustee said, urging care about scope and resource implications.
A trustee with software development experience suggested the district engage an outside firm to inventory data sources and build dashboards rather than task limited internal IT staff. "You would need to engage a third-party firm that will come and look at all of your data sources and then they can combine them and... show them in presentable dashboards," the trustee said.
Superintendent Dr. Malayko and staff noted that the state provides some parent-facing dashboards (for example, M-STEP results) but does not port internal systems such as i-Ready or WIDA into those displays. The superintendent referenced district vendors and products used previously and recommended a cautious, phased approach: identify required data elements first, evaluate existing products and state feeds, and then consider external development if necessary.
Board members broadly supported exploring options; the conversation ended with direction to the superintendent and staff to look into available platforms, identify the data points needed and report back with options for a phased approach rather than an immediate districtwide rollout.
Next steps recorded in the meeting: trustees asked staff to identify the data elements needed, opportunities available from state or existing vendors, and whether a third-party contractor should be engaged to build the dashboards.
The discussion concluded without a formal motion to commit funding or select a vendor.
