Manual for Data-Driven Management of the Mathematics Excellence Programs in Municipalities

In preparation for each of the 25 local partnerships the foundation has co-created with municipalities, the municipality collected and analyzed basic data on its five-unit tracks. This data included information on students and teachers, as well as parents, programs and other resources, in order to identify trends, needs, opportunities and bottlenecks. In almost all cases, the collection of data required a special effort, reflecting the fact that it had not been done previously on a regular basis. In many cases, the municipality approached each school individually, to download data and to try and figure out how to aggregate and analyze it.

In a special course for the leaders of the local partnerships at Tel Aviv University, the participants emphasized their frustration with this reality. They stressed that they are not experts in data analytics and their municipality is not accustomed to data-driven decision making. In their work as municipal program managers, they saw the benefits of planning that is based on data and predictions, and the value of discussing the data with their colleagues in the course. However, they noticed that they lack knowledge, skills, tools and a supporting ecosystem, for it to become an integral part of the work routine.

In order to take a step forward in addressing this challenge, we approached Nova, a nonprofit organization that specializes in training nonprofits in databased management. Nova is proposing to convene a learning process with the municipalities to jointly develop a manual that would help them improve their data driven processes. The manual will include structured formats and workflows that will simplify the collection process, unify the presentation of results and allow for automatic and customized reports and analytics.

Initially, Nova’s experts will interview leaders from 5 municipalities in order to prepare an assessment of their needs. Then they will convene two workshops for 10-15 representatives to learn what kind of reports, analytics and forecasts they require, and together to begin developing solutions to their needs. Following these workshops, Nova will prepare a manual and present it to the participants for feedback. Nova then will provide individual coaching to each of the municipalities to assist them with the implementation.

A special seminar will be held at the end of 2019 for 40 representatives of the municipal education departments, to present the manual, learn from case studies and discuss the lessons learned.

* The text presented above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation Board / Grant 334