NCAN and Exponent Partners have teamed up on a two-part report series aimed at helping organizations to become more data-driven. NCAN members have increasingly incorporated research, data, and evaluation into their critical work of serving low-income, first-generation students on their way to postsecondary college access and success.

No matter where your organization is in the process of becoming data-driven, this series has something for you. Our two-part series will take you from the early stages of program data management to more advanced strategies. Using the principles and practices in this report will help you to understand what it means to be data-driven and how to serve your students better by getting started with college access and success data. The frameworks and best practices for data management will put you in a position to learn from your data and continue to refine your program practice and take your organization to the next level.

Through this series, you will hear experiences from such diverse organizations as the SEED Foundation, CollegeTracks, LA Promise Fund, Spark, Midtown Education Foundation, and the Emily Krzyzewski Center.

If you’re just getting started, dive into part one, Driving Toward Program Improvement: Principles and Practices for Getting Started With Data. Here you’ll find best practices for building a data-driven mindset, refining your logic model, adopting data management practices, building your capacity, and more.

If you’re moving towards a more sophisticated approach, take a look at part two, Roadmap for Tracking Your Student Results: Program Data & Systems. You’ll get a review of some foundational steps, frameworks for data management with a system, analysis methods, and more. 

Don’t wait to learn about this increasingly critical aspect of college access and success work!

• Driving Toward Program Improvement: Principles and Practices for Getting Started With Data
• Roadmap for Tracking Your Student Results: Program Data & Systems