The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has deployed the first round of enhancements to its new Indiana Graduates Prepared to Succeed Dashboard (Indiana GPS).
The IDOE explained in a press release that the Indiana GPS is a resource that is “constantly evolving in response to the needs of Indiana’s students, communities and employers.” IDOE added that the recently deployed enhancements “allow users to drill down into longitudinal and disaggregated data, showing data over time by student population.”
“When we first began developing Indiana GPS, one of the consistent pieces of feedback that we heard across education stakeholders, including policymakers, educators and families, was the importance of being able to quickly locate longitudinal and disaggregated student population data,” said Indiana Secretary of Education Dr. Katie Jenner.
“Having this information available at the click of a button provides a comprehensive look at where we have been in recent years, where we are today, and where we need to go, thus informing our future work at the school, community and state levels,” she said.
When users initially access the statewide, district, and school-level summary pages within Indiana GPS, they can see a snapshot of student performance over multiple measures. After that, users can drill down further into the data. In addition to just viewing the data, users can also learn more about how the dashboard’s indicators of success are calculated and how they connect to the five key characteristics which best indicate a student’s preparation for success after high school.
IDOE explained that the rollout of the new enhancements has taken place privately for the past month, before being made publicly available. Similar to the initial launch of the dashboard, over the past month school leaders have had access to an embargoed pre-release of this second iteration of the dashboard. IDOE said that this provided an opportunity to ask questions and share feedback prior to the public launch. As a result of ongoing feedback from schools, updates continue to be made to the dashboard to ensure it is as comprehensive and as easy to use as possible, IDOE said.
The Indiana GPS was created following state legislation passed in 2021 that directed the IDOE and the Indiana State Board of Education to develop a school performance dashboard that promotes transparency and multiple student measures, including longitudinal measures. IDOE noted that the second iteration of the dashboard is launching nearly one and a half years in advance of the statutorily-required July 1, 2024 date.
