Evaluation also sends a signal that your school is serious about making its family-school compact work. You need to know more than whether a compact is in place. You need to know more than whether it's working. You need to know what's working. Evaluation will help you pinpoint your progress. Your school needs this information to help all members of the partnership--school, families, students, and community members--reach their potential.
Data can be a powerful catalyst for change. When Milwaukee Public Schools instituted a new math assessment that required students to apply math concepts, think analytically, and show their work, 70 percent of the first high school students to take the test failed. Instead of just blaming the test, some school and community leaders shouldered the responsibility. Teachers began changing their classroom habits. High schools started after-school and Saturday tutoring sessions in math. Churches and businesses donated school supplies and volunteered tutors. Attendance at PTA meetings rose. With that kind of support and coordinated effort, more than 80 percent of the next Milwaukee high school class to take the test passed it.
School profiles. The new Title I law requires the creation of school profiles so that parents and members of the community know how well your school is performing in areas such as student achievement, support for learning at school and outside school, communication, and training.
Administrative records. Using existing records is time- and cost-effective because much information is routinely collected through normal recordkeeping (for example, records of student test scores, student absenteeism and attendance, family attendance at school events, and disciplinary actions). Such data, however, may not be the most appropriate for current needs. To prevent errors, be sure to review records for completeness and accuracy.
Surveys. You can survey school staff, families, and students on their perceptions and experiences--information that is critical to the success of the compact. Make sure that your survey responses are representative and that you have an adequate completion rate (professional surveys aim for 7 responses out of every 10 questions asked or a 70 percent response rate). You may want to ask the central district office to collect the information so that you can guarantee anonymity to survey participants.
Focus groups. Schools and organizations use these small group discussion sessions to test family involvement materials--pamphlets, videos, parent handbooks for potential use and to explore issues in depth, such as barriers to family involvement. Focus groups can provide greater insight into your areas of concern, uncovering the reasons and motivations behind the numerical data you collect. It may be difficult, however, to find a representative group of participants who can give you the information you need.
Use the process of collecting and analyzing data to bring educators and community members together.
Use data to focus attention and community action on real, not assumed, problems.
Beware of a picture painted in a single stroke. No single piece of information can provide enough information to understand how to change schools. A combination of well-selected indicators is essential to painting a complete picture of the needs of students or the status of school performance.
Beware of data that mask achievement gaps. Attending to achievement gaps and disparities between groups of students requires data that are broken down by race, ethnicity, income, and proficiency with English. While it is sometimes difficult to get this kind of data, the importance of such data makes the effort worthwhile.
Report local data strategically. Once the data are analyzed, identify the problem you want to highlight and then report only the data relevant to that problem and its solution. Too many numbers can overwhelm and confuse your intended audience.
Double-check data . . . then check data again. Data-driven change can be misdirected, and reform efforts can collapse if the data are inaccurate. Even a simple typographical error can undermine months of hard work and planning. Have a team of data checkers comb through data before you report or use the data in decision making.
Keep data simple but exciting. Data that are communicated in clear and accessible terms are powerful tools for engaging the support of the community for school improvement.
Disaggregation shows how different populations in your school are doing. Disaggregating data will help you target your efforts toward those who most need your help. This chart disaggregates by parents' education level. It shows that a greater percentage of students whose parents have a college education read at the basic level or above. Depending on your needs or concerns, you may disaggregate by this or other means, such as gender, race, ethnicity, and family income.
You need to know how well students perform on assessments in reading, math, science, and other core subjects. The school profile may include this information. If not, the school or the district should be able to provide the data to the compact team.
Continuous improvement: Do the student performance results show continuous improvement? How does performance this year compare with that in previous years?
Comparative performance: How do the student performance results at your school compare with the data for other schools in the district? With the statewide average? With the national averages?
Absolute performance: What do the student performance results show in relation to your school's desired level of performance? How far is the school from its current goals?
After you get your compact up and running, the next question is: "How do you know whether or not your compact is working?" Many times, when we make a change, we are eager to see the results immediately. With the compact, you can chart long-term changes and improvements. That's why evaluation is so important. Evaluation can show you important continuous improvement. Indicators of success
You don't have to be a professor or a statistician to use and understand data. The following tables display three useful indicators you can use--namely, continuous improvement, comparative performance, and absolute performance.
Continuous improvement marks the progress of doing better than before. Although school start at different levels of achievement, all can set a goal of improvement. Improvement requires having a baseline and comparing information over time. This chart shows a steady increase or continuous improvement between 1990 and 1996 in the number of fourth-graders in the United States who perform at the basic level or above in math.
Comparative performance shows whether you are doing as well as or better than other schools. Some common forms of comparison are (1) with schools in your state or in the whole country that serve children from families with similar characteristics, such as similar income; (2) with schools of similar size; or (3) with schools located in similar settings--urban, suburban, or rural. You can use the results of the comparison to gauge your own school's relative performance. This chart benchmarks regions against one another and against the nationwide average for fourth-grade reading achievement. 
Absolute performance indicates whether you're doing as well as or better than your school's desired level of performance. This chart shows what the national goal of all children reading at the basic level or above is and how fourth-graders in 1994 compared with this goal. 
How to get data
To initiate your evaluation process, you will need to collect "baseline" information information on how your school is doing now. This information provides a starting point from which to measure your progress. To do this, you'll need to consult current and various sources of information that report the results you've agreed to measure. No one source will give you all the information you need. Some possible sources of data include: Lessons for using data*
* Adapted from the Education Trust's Community Data Guide (1997).
Collect and use your own data
Agree on the results to measure. Because measurement takes resources and time, you may not want to measure all aspects of your compact each year. Identify for formal measurement those areas of student achievement and of the compact that your team believes are critical to the success of the school and its students at present. The two basic questions to answer are as follows:
It's not enough to look at whether the compact commitments are being fulfilled. If students are not learning and achieving to high academic standards, compact partners need to rethink the nature of their commitments. To answer these questions, you need two kinds of data--data on student performance and data on key indicators of success.
Always disaggregate your data
Student performance
If the core of the compact is student learning, the focus of your evaluation should be student achievement.
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[Activity Sheet C: Check Your Pulse] 
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[Activity Sheet D: Student Performance]