Activity Log:
March 3: Downloaded pod cast and browsed some sites on data driven decision system.
March 4: Posted to my blog and posted to classmates blog.
Data Driven Decision Making
Data driven decision making is a pretty good tool to use for making informed decisions when you have useful available data. During my tenure working for a local (loco?) government I was able to see both negative and positive aspects of DDDM, although it is unfortunate that I saw more of the negative during my brief time there. Making a decision requires the best possible information that you can have at the time, unfortunately I saw data misused to make changes that were not in the best interest of the staff and the community it served. Manipulating data to get an outcome is a method that happened more often than not. Having strong useful data can help make changes that will serve to improve or enhance services is a good way of using DDDM.
Leadership, in my situation, was the manipulator of data to make changes that they wanted and that the data would not support otherwise. In other situations leadership is useful in that it can support and make necessary changes more easily accepted.
Here is a website that might interest you:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/2006/RAND_OP170.pdf
Thanks for the website. I found the link on Pain and Gain: Implementing No Child Left Behind in Three States, 2004-2006 very informative. I have an extremely strong view/opinion towards the No Child Left Behind (Yet, No Child Gets Ahead:() However, I will not “go there”. It is sad but true in many cases leadership can become the manipulator of data…
Noemi/Mimi
I was very interested in your experience with the use of DDDM use in local government. It is interesting to note that tools such as DDDM have positive effects as well as negative effects. There are limitations as well as usefulness in the use of each tool.
One of the things that I’ve always said is that statistics are a very dangerous thing when in the hands of the people in control. Everyone knows you can play with them and get them to support almost anything you want them to.
Check your e-mail I sent you something for 544l.
It was interesting to know that DDDM is used more places than just in education. It’s true we might see DDDM used negatively because people usually use data to show things they want others to see. For example, a teacher did not want an RSP student in their class because he would screw up the teachers record of test scores, as I heard it. Thats wrong to base students on data and test scores and its wrong, but it happens. I like when data is used positively than negatively, but that is a rare thing to witness nowadays.