New book covers the ins and outs of doing education data analysis well in public education agencies from the perspective of three analysts with decades of experience in the field.
Boston, MA – October 7, 2019 – Wendy Geller, Dorothyjean Cratty, and Jared Knowles – three data analysts with expertise in public education agencies – have teamed up to write a new book which covers the missing elements that are critical to success in building data capacity in education agencies. The book is intended for education agency data analysts, teams of analyst, and data managers, strategists, and leaders seeking to improve how their agency operates.
Many education agency data analysts come from a social science research background and the transition to work inside agencies can come with a lot of new challenges. This book is a guide through those challenges covering topics such as metadata, data requests, how to work with IT, politics, and descriptive data analysis.
The book covers these topics with wit and humor and a perspective only possible from authors who’ve been in the trenches and gotten the work done. Each chapter was reviewed by another expert in the field who gave valuable outside perspective and broadened the horizon of the book to ensure its relevance for agencies across the country.
The book is accompanied by a website where analysts across the country can get in touch and suggest contributions for planned future volumes. On the website you can also learn more about the biographies of the authors and each of the contributors.
Education Data Done Right (EDDR) is available now digitally on LeanPub with a suggested price of $15: www.leanpub.com/eddatadoneright Print copies available at Amazon.
About the Authors
Dr. Wendy Geller is currently the Director of the Data Management & Analysis Division. There, she leads a team that serves as a centralized resource to the Vermont Agency of Education. Her crew collects, stewards, and leverages the institution’s critical data assets to create and share data products that enable empirically-based practice and policy decision-making.
Dr. Jared Knowles is formerly a research analyst at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (2011-2016) and is currently the president of Civilytics Consulting LLC, which provides training, analytic services, and strategy to education agencies across the country.
Ms. Dorothyjean Cratty is formerly a research associate at the U.S. Department of Education. She is currently the founder of DJC Applied Research, which provides high-quality in-depth data analysis of administrative education data.
Media contacts:
Jared E. Knowles
617.393.1939
Table of Contents
Introduction
Metadata and Business Rules
An Analyst’s Guide to IT
Data Requests: You Can Make them Useful (we swear)
Politics and Data Driven Decision Making
Moments of Truth: Why Calculating Descriptive Statistics is Important
Applying Tools of the Trade: Descriptive Data Commands in Context
Conclusions