Co-Principal Investigator: Robert Meyer

Purpose: This project seeks to create a comprehensive integrated resource information system that will include the key elements of resource use at the school, classroom, and student level. Resources are to be broadly defined as financial, programmatic, human, and social/organizational. The system is to link the resource data to student achievement data so that the use of resources at each level can be linked to effectiveness in improving student achievement. The goal is for decision-makers to be able to evaluate initiatives by their effects on student learning gains and to make budget decisions based on the cost effectiveness of resources in raising student achievement.

Project Activities: The project will develop the integrated resource information system (IRIS) in a large school district in Wisconsin, building on the existing district data system. The development of IRIS will include 5 stages: (1) conceptual design, (2) data element definition, specification, and data mapping; (3) design and improvement of data links source systems, and data quality; (4) design, testing, and validation of the user interface; and (5) training and documentation to support use of the system.

Products: The expected outcome of this research will be the development of an integrated resource information system (IRIS) that will allow school district decision makers to budget resources linked to outcomes and cost effectiveness. Other expected outcomes include published reports on the development, validation, and implementation of IRIS to provide other districts with guidance on developing similar systems.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The setting for this project is a large school district in Wisconsin.

Population: Participants in this study include school district central office personnel, school principals, and teacher leaders. System records on the entire school district, including student achievement data, will be utilized.

Intervention: This project seeks to create a comprehensive integrated resource information system that will include the key elements of resource use at the school, classroom, and student level, and measures of student achievement data so that the use of resources at each level can be linked to effectiveness in improving student achievement. The project will build on the work that the school district has already done in developing a value-added system, a school planning process, a performance-based budgeting system, and a data warehouse.

Research Design and Methods: The development of IRIS is based on a conceptual framework for such a system developed in the literature combined with a knowledge of the decision-making needs of MPS and its existing data systems (supplemented by an advisory panel of MPS data users) and a knowledge of IT development work (to be jointly accomplished by project and MPS staff). Validation of the system will be done through a mixed-methods approach that uses quantitative and qualitative research to identify resources that impact student achievement.

Control Condition: There is no control condition.

Key Measures: Sets of key indicators regarding financial resources (dollars spent by educational strategy), program resources (components of substantive education strategies), human resources (staff who deliver programs to students), and social/organizational resources (characteristics of schools) have been developed for the school-, classroom-, and student-levels. These indicators will be built from data already collected by the MPS and new data collection instruments. This information will be linked to student achievement data collect by the Value-Added Research Center.

Data Analytic Strategy: IRIS will be validated through a series of analyses. First, a three level statistical model (student, classroom, school) will derive estimates of the importance of resources to student achievement and schools/classrooms that do not display the average relationship (outliers). Qualitative research will then be done to examine the type of resources found linked to achievement and the reasons why certain schools or classrooms do not display the average relationships estimated. The outlier research is to check the quality of information collected and identify problems in the measures of resources used. These results will be used to modify the system and then the validation analyses will be repeated.

Products and Publications

Proceeding

Kraemer, S., Geraghty, E., Lindsey, D., and Raven, C. (2010). School Leadership View of Human and Organizational Factors in Performance Management: A Comparative Analysis of High-and Low-Performing Schools. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, Volume 54 (pp. 1287–1291). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Watson, J., Smith, T. J., Kraemer, S., Halverson, R., and Woodcock, A. (2009). Macroergonomics in Education: On Your Mark, Set, GO!. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, Volume 53 (pp. 1042–1046). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

** This project was submitted to and funded under Education Policy, Finance, and Systems in FY 2008.