How can we measure our performance on compliance items?
Narrative
UAMS Head Start and Early Head Start has been working with Shine Early Learning to improve their visualizations, data tracking, and to promote the review and processing of the data in ways that hold supervisors accountable for monitoring and support discussions around data and data informed decision-making. Since the 2018-2019 program year, UAMS has maintained an MBI dashboard (see below) (Monitor by Information) for compliance purposes and has highlighted their progress with a monthly MBI Summary Report (see above) shared with staff. UAMS finds that this encourages them to stay on track with compliance, drawing attention to ongoing problems while also celebrating progress.
First half of the MBI Dashboard
Second half of the MBI dashboard
Actions
The MBI dashboard features data on how UAMS is meeting a designated set of performance indicators, such as enrollment goals, waitlist size, and percentage of children with an open IFSP. UAMS has established these performance indicators based on their own program goals and they update the dashboard every two weeks and share with staff.
Because the dashboard can be overwhelming with the amount of information it contains, the monthly MBI summary report is used to provide an overview of the most important information at the time. For example, at the beginning of the program year, the MBI summary report might heavily focus on indicators around enrollment and screening deadlines. In the example shared here, we see several ERSEA indicators and several disabilities indicators, tracking progress on children with IFSPs. Towards the end of the program year, the summary report might focus more heavily on transition plans for EHS children moving to HS and progress towards completing all developmental assessments.
The MBI Summary Report is simple and direct, with just four columns of information:
Content Area: Indicating the category of the indicator, such as ERSEA, PFCE, or health
Column: Identifying which column of the full MBI dashboard the specific data comes from
Indicator: Details the specific indicator being looked at in a given row
Highlight: A brief summary of the progress towards meeting the given indicator.
This report is created each month by the Communication and Quality Assurance Program Manager and is shared with all staff. The Communication and Quality Assurance Program Manager uses her own discretion and expertise to select which indicators are highlighted, but aims for a balance of indicators relevant to the time of year, indicators where significant progress has been made, and indicators where performance is lagging.
Results
The MBI Summary Report has helped UAMS better involve all staff in the data process by making the information digestible and accessible. The report ties back to a data source that staff have access to (the MBI dashboard), but provides a narrative that is easier to follow.
UAMS intentionally includes both positive highlights and areas of growth, contributing both to staff morale and identifying areas of concerns to improve. When a center is fully compliant or has made significant progress on a tough task, such as “Center D has 0 past due health requirements,” it celebrates that center’s accomplishment.
Patterns, such as strong performance in one content area or lagging performance in another, can be highlighted by including several indicators from that category on the same report to drive the conversation around reasons behind the success or discussing the difficulties and opportunities for improvement.
Next Steps
The Communication and Quality Assurance Program Manager has found that, since beginning the MBI Summary Report, staff are beginning to call her to ask how they can improve on certain indicators, supporting the finding that this has been a valuable tool in improving practice. She hopes that, in the future, staff will feel comfortable connecting with each other to compare practices and improve their own efforts.
Additional details
Audience: Leadership, management, direct staff
Level of Analysis: Center
Difficulty: Moderate
Content Area: All
Data Sources: Microsoft Excel, ChildPlus
Contact
Rebecca Pecor
Communication and Quality Assurance Program Manager
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Head Start/Early Head Start
rlpecor@uams.edu