March 23, 2018

ManageBac
Diocesan
Boys’ School
Hong Kong

Data Best Practices Kevin Piersialla

March 23, 2018 ManageBac Director

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 Silo Systems Problems

Key systems’ integration challenges

• There were no “all-in-one” solution for international

schools, resulting in a hodge-podge of systems for
stakeholders (teachers must login to three separate
systems to plan curriculum, create assessments and
submit term grades for report cards)

• Each school made efforts patch together system

integrations, often the only resort was to manually update
data

Legacy systems in a Silo gradually become obsolete

• Assessment & Reporting unable to support the Curriculum

Review cycle (e.g. MYP Next Chapter transition in 2014)
and the Phases model in Second Languages.

• Companies failed to re-invest in product development

• Integration is a fundamental requirement for the future

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 ‘Jobs to be Done’ Framework

Every ‘Job to be Done’ within the School

necessitates a Systems Solution

• Each Stakeholder prioritizes their department

needs to resolve a ‘Jobs to be Done’

School Leadership & Organizational Impact

• Collective Decisions require Trade-Offs because

there is no ’All-in-One’ Solution

• Best of Breed vs. Integrated Approach

Key Challenges

• Competing Organizational Priorities & Demands

• Time & Budget Constraints

• Duplicative & Redundant Systems

• Data flows between systems are Complex

• Master Data Sources may not be clearly Defined

• Legacy Data Challenges require Time & Dedicated

Attention

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 What is good data?

Accurate Correct information

Valid Defined options or formats

Reliable Trust in the data

Consistent Does not contradict other systems

Up to Date Reflects most recent changes

Accessible Available to the relevant people

Secure Locked for those without permission

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 International School Context
Face Unique Challenges with Complex Requirements

Multiple Curricula
Make it challenging to store, track, and
report academic data effectively and
support accreditation requirements

Transient School Population

Large year-to-year turnover among
families and staff

Multiple Languages & Nationalities

Require support for UTF-8, standard date
formats, different naming conventions

Local Data Protection & Network

‘Last mile’ bandwidth issues (China
Firewall) and changing compliance
requirements

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 Role of the Data Manager
An emerging position at schools

Does your school have a data

manager?

If not, who is responsible for

data integrity?

Who is the data controller?

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 Common Demographic Data Issues
What causes poor data?
Human Error
Mistakes when entering, transcribing, or
copy / pasting
Year Group Structures
Inconsistent or misunderstood year
levels
Naming Conventions
First Name, Middle Name, Preferred
Name, Other Name, Legal Name…?
Accent Marks
In names (“Sørina Zoë Nuñez”) and in
addresses cause conflicts
Unique Identifiers
Critical but will create conflicts if not
used properly
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Leaving & Returning Students
How and when are their accounts
deprecated? How are accounts reinstated?
Information archived?
Parent / Guardian Data
Parents often share the same data sets or use
one e-mail address for the entire family
Complex Family Situations
Modern families come in all different shapes
and sizes
Address Formats
Different requirements based on location
Local Requirements & Customs
Different jurisdictions with different
interpretations of “consistent” data
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 Automation

ü Reduces human error and

saves time
ü Validation ensures
consistent ‘normalized’ data
ü Data quality facilitates
improved and more
accurate reporting

But it is impossible to
eliminate human error
entirely, or to 100%
guarantee accuracy

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 Naming Conventions
First Name Middle Name Last Name Preferred Name Other Name
1 Gin-Gin Wu Jenny 吳晶晶
2 Anna Maria Jesus Isabel Perez Annabel
3 Mohammed Irfan
4 Tim Edward SMITH Eddie

1. Preferred Name vs First Name vs Other Name

Is there a clear policy on when and where each name
should be used? Recommendations
ü Create a clear written policy.
2. First Name vs Middle Name
Is there a clear understanding of what goes into each ü Require Passport Name as
of these fields? the legal name used for all
formal documents.
3. Standard Spellings
We have seen “Mohammed” spelled ten different ü Double-check requirements &
ways – for the same child. validation for related systems.
ü Confirm data at time of
4. Diacritics & Capitalization
admissions.
What is your policy on this, and how do you ensure
consistency?

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 Year Levels
School IB Years Grade Levels Key Stages Year Levels Age Ranges

DP Year 2 Grade 12 Year 13 17-18 years

Key Stage 5
DP Year 1 Grade 11 Year 12 16-17 years
High School
MYP Year 5 Grade 10 Year 11 15-16 years
Key Stage 4
MYP Year 4 Grade 9 Year 10 14-15 years

MYP Year 3 Grade 8 Year 9 13-14 years

Middle School MYP Year 2 Grade 7 Key Stage 3 Year 8 12-13 years

MYP Year 1 / PYP Grade 6 Year 7 11-12 years

PYP Grade 5 Year 6 10-11 years

PYP Grade 4 Year 5 9-10 years

Key Stage 2
PYP Grade 3 Year 4 8-9 years
Primary School
PYP Grade 2 Year 3 7-8 years

PYP Grade 1 Year 2 6-7 years

Key Stage 1
PYP Kindergarten Year 1 5-6 years

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 Year Levels

Recommendations
ü Ensure that year labels are
consistent across all systems
at the school
ü Educate parents during the
application process (and if
possible, enforce the grade
selection)

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 Unique Identifiers
How do you ensure uniqueness?

Type Example(s)

E-mail Address tsmith@eduvo.com Recommendations

ü Use two unique identifiers to
Passport # 12345678 serve as a cross-check
ü For Student ID, best to use an
National ID 98765421
auto-generated version
ü Be careful of simple formulas
Auto-generated Student ID TS852 or human-generated IDs

Sequential Student ID 00049

Prescribed formula TIS18

(combining initials, DOB, and
/ or graduation year)

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 Data Checkpoints
How frequently do you refresh or review data?

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 Common Academic
We Recommend
Data Issues
What causes poor data? Best Practice Approaches

Class ID Class ID
Should be unique, consistent, easily Include subject, level, and academic
reference-able year, plus an additional unique identifier
like timetable ID or period

Class Lists & Timetables Class Lists & Timetables

Rapidly shifting teachers and student Lock the class lists and implement a
assignments cause confusion controlled change protocol

Inconsistent Marking Inconsistent Marking

Assessment data stored in different Clear school-wide expectations for
systems or updated by teachers at where, how, and when marks are
different times entered into a system

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 Systems Implementation & Usage

How do you manage system data across the academic year?

What are expectations for teachers & students?
What are ’collective’ vs. ‘individual’ decisions made by school leadership?
Source: Bavarian International School ManageBac Protocol

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 Further Discussion

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 Discussion

What do you collect, when and why?

(And how are you validating it?)

Where is it stored? For how long?

How do you control access?

How do you control changes?

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 Discussion

Does your school have an information

security policy?

What do you need for…?

Legal compliance
Five year reviews
Accreditation
Applications of candidacy

How can we better help you meet these

requirements?

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 Thank you!

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