A half day in the Life of a Data Manager

[databird]

Dear fellow Data Managers,

 

I am hoping for some input from those of you who have been in the job longer than I. I am 6 months into being a Data Manager at a large busy secondary school. My hours are only 20 a week (term time only) with no options to increase hours. I have 15 years experience in IT as an analyst programmer/systems analyst/application support engineer so I am aware that there is a lot more to SIMs than just a repository for grades. BUT! In my limited hours, I am totally bogged down in producing students reports and data churning spreadsheets and reports (not by choice!) for SLT and Governers meetings. I want to be a good Data Manager, but at the moment, there is no time to manage anything.

 

What I wanted to ask was if you were in my situation, where should I concentrate my precious few spare hours here and there in order to get to grips with SIMs, what more it can do for me/the school, and what more my role as a Data Manager should include in your experience?

 

Thank you in anticipation

 

Databird

[CyberNerd]

If I was personally in your situation (and believe me when I say I have absolutely no intention of doing so) I would be investing any spare time in automating the processes, or finding a system that did. If SLT want a report SLT should be able to get that report without intervention from you. If they can't the system isn't fit for purpose.

[kennysarmy]

What's a analyst programmer/systems analyst/application support engineer doing as a data manager in a school? Did you know what the job really entailed before you applied?

[ITBadger]

Have a look at SISRA (https://www.sisra.com/). It's completely changed the nature of the job here and staff at all levels (even PE teachers) feel comfortable using it.

[kennysarmy]

Have a look at SISRA (https://www.sisra.com/). It's completely changed the nature of the job here and staff at all levels (even PE teachers) feel comfortable using it.

 

Can you expand on how it's changed the School Data Managers job?

[ITBadger]

It's empowered staff to view / analyse / manipulate their own data rather than relying on someone in the support team to do it for them. She concentrates on ensuring that data is accurate before uploading to SISRA.

[bwfc_nottingham]

Databird

 

I am three years into a Data Manager's post is a secondary school (1300+ pupils) Y7 to Y11.

 

My background before ending up here was mainstream IT (Analyst Programmer / Systems Analyst / Business Analyst / PM / contractor etc.), before I opted out of the industry to downsize my job, so I can understand you dilemma as you are now package managing a system rather than designing it.

 

Like a previous poster, try and build some reports that teachers and SLT can run themselves (report writer is very powerful), but having said that I don't always practice what I preach and teachers don't seem to like taking ownership of running reports.

 

We use SISRA, but there is quite a lot of time spent exporting and keeping data aligned.

 

The most time consuming bit of my job appears to be setting marksheets up for the numerous assessments and plugging in new aspects and horrible colour codings in them.

 

I don't know how you manage it on so many few hours (well you don't by the sound of it). I work all year round so half terms are great times for catching up on marksheet changes and setting up new academic year timetables is quite a busy period too.

 

If you cannot get teachers to run reports themselves, then build yourself a good repository of parameterised repors (or read only marksheets), so that you are just a mouse clicks from delivering the data to them.

 

Regards

 

Phil

[RootsSchImp]

HI Databird, I was a Data Manager before becoming a Consultant so I know exactly the frustration of an endless stream of 'Can print me a list of/it'll only take 5 minutes/The head wants these figures right away' type requests. My three top tips are:

1/ Try to influence the type of requests you get by encouraging SLT to give Heads of Dept more training on what they want analysed. My school went crazy for 'data' long before it got specific about what type of data was important and what it wanted staff to do with it. Agreeing with the bosses what teachers should be looking at and pointing out that it's much more efficient for staff to get that from preexisting SIMS marksheets rather than requesting spreadsheets from you can save you a lot of time.

2/ Learn to type Assessment Manager. N is a shortcut for Next, Enter opens pop up windows (usually), F or sometimes alt-F shuts the new column window. If you're adding a column with a particular resultset (like a new type of target) to lots of templates edit the resultset name to put a ! at the start so it comes at the top of the list then N-Enter-Tab-Space-Enter-N allows you to select it almost instantly. Learning to use the keys not the mouse when making templates has made me 3 or 4 times faster.

3/ Request time to develop your skills. I was lucky in that I worked year round so I had days just to play with SIMS to learn what it can do. Tell your manager you want a little time to do that and that it's worth delaying whatever's going on for an hour a week because in the long run it will make your work much more efficient.

 

Good luck - I hope SLT play ball

[bobsmith]

Have a look at SISRA (https://www.sisra.com/). It's completely changed the nature of the job here and staff at all levels (even PE teachers) feel comfortable using it.

 

SISRA, 4Matrix, there may be other systems as capable... These products pay for themselves in time saved (by you) in very short order.

 

What helped me in my latest post (my 2nd stint as a data manager) was actually becoming a data manager more than a data entry/retrieval person. I've been allowed to define the role of the data manager here and it's more like an associate SLT than some glorified member of the admin team.

 

SISRA (my current product of choice) means that instead of having fun playing with Excel all day I can actually work with the stakeholders in ensuring the quality of the data they submit and increasing awareness of what data CAN and CANNOT do.

 

As far as SIMS is concerned, I spent the first month here getting to grips with what they already had, then redesigning and rebuilding the gradesets/aspects/templates so they actually did what I needed them to do, so that I could do what the school needed ME to do do.

 

Read only templates/marksheets are a life saver, and since SIMS reporting is actually far more limited than what I am used to using, I rely heavily on my ability to take data straight from a purpose built marksheet and dump it into SISRA or occasionally EXCEL (mostly to make pretty graphs).

 

The other trick is to spend some of those spare hours reading up on SIMS usage and the current DfE thinking on measures.

[davidpott]

Hi Databird

 

The advice about SISRA and 4Matrix is good, but try to design your SIMS marksheets to encourage teachers to analyse their own data as much as possible. Make data entry and data analysis part of the same process. You can show teachers many of the built-in analysis within marksheets, plus you can design marksheets to calculate many of the pupil-level measures (A8, A*-C, Levels of Progress), then use the summary button and grade distribution.

 

Many schools just use SIMS as a data entry tool, then export everything to a third party program. This can effectively de-skill the teachers. I'm a firm believer that teachers should go to senior managers having already done a basic analysis of their own data, not wait for analysis to be handed down 'from on high'.

 

Plus it makes your job easier!

 

David.

[kennysarmy]

Any existing Data Managers out there want to help me with a couple of interview questions?

 

I've got some already prepared but just wondered if anyone had any good ones they would n't mind sharing - interviews are Wednesday morning....

[CAM]

What Key Stage? Primary can get away with AWOL and levels of progress, secondary expands into ALPS, Progress 8 etc. Ask how much they know about the new processes.

 

Most important: How are your Excel skills? I was replaced by a temp who had the SIMS skills on paper but no Excel skills and handover was a challenge as they "weren't expecting Excel to be a requirement."

[kennysarmy]

What Key Stage? Primary can get away with AWOL and levels of progress, secondary expands into ALPS, Progress 8 etc. Ask how much they know about the new processes.

 

Most important: How are your Excel skills? I was replaced by a temp who had the SIMS skills on paper but no Excel skills and handover was a challenge as they "weren't expecting Excel to be a requirement."

 

Sorry - Secondary - and we are doing a data exercise on Excel, conditional format, work out some averages etc - nothing too taxing....

[Seb1780]

When I was recruited (as Data Manager) I had to analyse some date and provide a written report - the school used a set of GCSE results. I was expected to put together a coherent, plausible explanation of what went on. I was not tested on Excel or any other data handling system.

 

When I recruited an assistant we looked at both data input accuracy and several Excel tools including lookups, date manipulation and calculations.

[bobsmith]

I got given last year's RAISE to summarise (yep summarising a summary!) and write up suggestions as to the underlying causes like @Seb1780 above.

 

I also got given a ridiculously easy excel task to do, they estimated something like 35 minutes for the excel task, so i had 32 minutes to triple check my work.

 

All depends on your (employer) expectations of what this person will be spending their time doing. I think the excel task should be tiered in difficulty, so first task is easy, 2nd task builds on first task but steps up the challenge etc. this will allow you to judge better their competency. It's probably better than a pass/fail test.

[data_guy]

SISRA would be my choice (in fact it is) and invest some time in training HODs to get a hold of the stuff they need. This along with software will save you lots of time (and stress). Over 1500 schools use SISRA, and I have heard great things about 4Matrix but have never used it myself. I would avoid some of the smaller players, and always check for customer testimonials.

[Ecclesbury]

On top of all the good advice already given I would add two things that are worth looking at:

 

1. If you do plan to use Assessment Manager a lot, invest some time in using the 'Categories' for templates and aspects. Look in Tools>Performance>Assessment to create new categories and the system utilities can are very handy for quickly tidying things up. If you have good categories that are consistently applied it makes bulk changes much faster.

 

2. This is slightly more contentious but look into creating custom excel report templates using VBA. If you want to get SLT/Middle leaders running their own reports it will halve the battle if you can have SIMS export exactly what they are after rather than just raw data.

[Barcrest]

How come it seems most data managers were actually I.T. bods before? I went from being the Sims/I.T. Support person to the Sims/I.T. Support Person/Data Manager and then my Job Title became Data Manager and now that is pretty much all I do. I still manage the Sims upgrades and fix issues with people not being able to run Sims but that's about all my I.T involvement is now. I am now also getting more involved with Examinations, even covering for the exams assistant when she is off. It is certainly not a role I would have chosen, maybe something else will come up.

[Ecclesbury]

In my limited experience it seems that very few data managers are the same either in what they do or how they came to do it. There do seem to be 2 broad routes to job though...either from an IT background or from a teaching background.

 

In the grand scheme of things it is a relatively new role. I'm guessing there wouldn't have been (many) data managers as such 20 years ago so the role has gradually spilled out from the SLT/CTL trough.

[CAM]

In my limited experience it seems that very few data managers are the same either in what they do or how they came to do it. There do seem to be 2 broad routes to job though...either from an IT background or from a teaching background.

 

In the grand scheme of things it is a relatively new role. I'm guessing there wouldn't have been (many) data managers as such 20 years ago so the role has gradually spilled out from the SLT/CTL trough.

 

I think it is a natural evolution of SIMS Support Technician as you start providing some help with setting up and using SIMS. As you learn how to use it you can perform some basic tasks involving entering marksheet data (that's how I started!) then your proficiency with the system grows from there and you start needing to understand the context of the data you are putting in. This leads to learning about RAISEOnline, the census, what data models your SLT use, etc.

 

After that you'd think the natural progression is to SLT but it's not very common for non-teaching staff even though the roles requires you to interact with SLT on a daily basis. So a Data Manager sort of sits on the very edge of management. Maybe the role will evolve again to make the transition possible, an experienced data manager does pick up and absorb a lot of details on how schools are run.