National Tracking Project Data for School Improvement

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National Tracking ProjectData for School
Improvement
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Whos Involved?

• Standards of Excellence and Learning (SEAL)
• Brock University
• Coral Mitchell, Department of Education
• Brock Business Consulting Group MBA students
• 41 SEAL schools across Canada

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Motivation for the National Tracking Project

• Canadian independent schools declare themselves
  to be excellent university preparatory schools
• Most schools have detailed data on university
  acceptance but little or no concrete information
  on post-secondary performance
• SEAL standards require schools to track graduate
  performance
• SEAL defines its member schools as providing
  outstanding academic preparation for higher
  education

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Why quantitative data?

• For reflection
• To confirm or refute our predictions
• To establish trends and drive decision making
• To build community discussions
• To improve teaching and learning in our schools

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What data is being collected?

• Academic achievements of graduating class
• Extra-curricular participation by graduating
  class
• University and college transcripts for past
  graduates each spring
• National data comparing results between SEAL
  schools

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History

• Two pioneer schools
• Rothesay Netherwood School
• Balmoral Hall School
• 2006 - Pilot Project
• 19 schools from across Canada
• Creation of the NTP Advisory Group
• Donna Alexander (BHS) - NTP coordinator
• Partnership with Coral Mitchell, Brock University
  Larry Sackney, University of Saskatchewan
• Development of a comprehensive support manual and
  training programme for data collection for
  participating schools

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History

• 2007
• 40 schools involved in tracking
• 2008
• Kim Tulloch (LCC) appointed NTP Coordinator
• Brock Business Consulting Group joins in to do
  data collection and analysis
• Preliminary cross-Canada data analysis results
  are shared with NTP schools
• 2009
• 42 schools across Canada involved in tracking
• Brock Business Consulting Group providing data
  analysis for individual schools

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Process

• Graduating students ( parents) are asked to sign
  five/six transcript release forms
• School submits transcript release forms to
  receiving universities beginning 13 months after
  secondary graduation
• School collects transcripts, enters data and
  submits aggregate information to NTP coordinator

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Process

• National trends are identified and reported back
  to participating schools for comparative purposes
• Soft data on extra-curricular and co-curricular
  participation also collected and correlated
• Schools maintain confidentiality of data for
  first five years of project

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Timeline for NTP

• Fall 2010
• Speak to students and parents, about the intent
  of project. (This will be on-going throughout the
  school year)
• Spring 2011
• Ask students to complete on-line survey link
  sent to you by NTP coordinator. Survey results
  will be sent back to you as an Excel worksheet.
• Ask graduating students to sign transcript
  release form with their full name and date of
  birth
• University name and ID number is not necessary.
• Requiring parents signature is at the discretion
  of each individual school.
• Enter graduates final high school marks in the
  Excel worksheet once the students complete the
  survey and it is sent to you.

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Timeline for NTP

• Fall 2011
• Speak to students and parents, about the intent
  of project. (This will be on-going throughout the
  school year)
• Spring/summer 2012
• Separate 2011 graduates transcript release forms
  by university
• Determine cost of transcripts (use hyperlinks
  from NTP manual)
• Arrange payment and send transcript release forms
  to universities
• Once transcripts are received, enter the
  university results in the above worksheet for the
  2011 graduates
• Enter the 2012 graduates high school marks in
  their worksheet
• Fall 2012
• Send your first year (2011 grad) results to
  SEAL/Brock Business Consulting Group

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Student Involvement
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Where are the resources?
http//www.seal.edu/
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Resources
NTP manual and templates are available from the
SEAL website http//www.seal.edu
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Resources

• Brock Business Consulting Group
• Doing data collection and analysis for all
  participating NTP schools
• Individual school data analysis
• Cross analysis with national data
• Providing technical support for data entry
• Will complete data entry for NTP schools for a
  small fee

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Resources Support

• Kimberly Tulloch-Wynn,
• Project Co-ordinator ntp_at_seal.edu
• Lindsay Ireland ,
• Administrative Assistant SEAL
  lireland_at_seal.edu
• David Bungay,
• Brock Business Consulting bcs_at_brocku.ca

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Outcomes

• Early results have been tabulated, shared and
  compared with published, aggregate university
  data
• Schools have been reflecting on programme needs
  and university selection process

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NTP in the future

• In conjunction with Brock Business Consulting
  Group, were working to make the NTP process more
  user friendly for individual NTP coordinators
• Streamlining of data collection
• Providing analysis of data that is relevant for
  each individual school
• Student surveys that are shorter and more
  specifically relevant for each individual school

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Conclusions

• Reputation built on good news stories and
  alumni profiles will come under greater scrutiny
• Schools that collect concrete data on graduate
  performance will be able to
• accurately assess the success of their programmes
• have the data they need to effect significant and
  targeted school improvement strategies