Developing Practitioner-Focused Data Resources with Stakeholder Groups
Two core components of QIP’s services are developing audience-appropriate messaging for education data stakeholders and building consensus among diverse groups of stakeholders. Our expertise in these areas is key to QIP’s Data Management and Standards (DMS) team’s successful support of working groups consisting of education data practitioners and experts who develop new best practice education data resources.
QIP’s DMS team has supported working groups charged with developing resources for a broad audience of state and local education agency (SEA and LEA) staff, policymakers, practitioners, researchers, foundations, and the public. Our team has helped working groups develop different types of best practice resources, including publications, presentations, online courses, videos, handbooks, websites, and data standard tools. Recent resources have focused on a wide range of topics of interest to the education community, including data governance, cybersecurity, exit codes, data visualization, crisis data management, using course codes, and personalized learning.
Supporting and facilitating a working group means allowing stakeholders to guide the need and stated output. The DMS team works closely with clients to identify and research potential working group topics and group members, facilitate working group meetings and reviews, and synthesize, write, and organize information from working group members and relevant resources. Unlike resources that strictly draw on research, the working group model allows us to work in close collaboration with practitioners to develop best practice resources.
QIP ensures resources reflect the collective experience and expertise of education professionals; in fact, our working group resources have highlighted the real-world experiences of education agencies. Drawing on QIP’s established, long-term relationships with federal, state, and local education agency stakeholders, the DMS team conducts interviews and solicits written information to develop case studies, vignettes, and real-world examples. Using the knowledge and perspectives of practitioners helps ensure that working group resources are relevant to a wide audience.
Developing the final message is not the end of the work. The product must be presented in a way that is easily understood by the intended audience, be it a written and printed document, an infographic, video, or online course. All types of resources should be considered to support dissemination efforts of best practice work.
QIP’s extensive experience supporting all aspects of stakeholder groups has enabled the rapid development of resources for use in federal, state, and local education agencies. The team’s flexibility in managing multiple complex projects is essential when toggling between supporting multiple working groups and multiple stakeholder perspectives. We take pride in supporting stakeholders as they develop resources that address the needs of the education community.
