5 Data Cleansing Tips for Schools
When reading the title of this article, you may find yourself wondering, “What the heck is data cleansing?” The simple answer is that data cleansing is the process of going through data, personal or job related, and removing or updating information that is incomplete, incorrect, duplicated, or no longer necessary to keep. Without regularly cleaning and updating data, it can become difficult to find accurate and updated information. It can also lead to security risks, as you could be housing personally identifiable information about staff or students no longer in the district. Here are five tips to help you get started on cleaning your data:
1. Determine the scope.
Before starting the actual cleaning process, determine what it is you or your district wants to achieve. For example, how many years of data can be cleaned, what data should be looked at for cleaning, and where is the data housed? Once the scope of the cleaning is determined, then you can begin the process.
2. Assess your data.
Go through your data and see if it makes sense. Are there duplicate entries and if so, is there a reason why? Are there incomplete records? Has there been a change in requirements? For this process, take an overall look at the data to see what changes need to be made that align with the scope that was set.
3. Research data cleansing tools available.
Some student information systems provide you with tools to help you assess and clean your SIS data. Not only can this simplify the process, but your SIS also knows how records are linked and can delete or modify information across all linked records. If your SIS doesn’t have those tools or the data that is being cleaned is not housed in the SIS, is it something that could be cleaned using a spreadsheet program, like Excel?
4. If possible, clean your data from a copy of the information.
If you can, make a copy of the data that will be cleaned and use the copy to make changes. In this way, the original records will be maintained and if a mistake is made, then it only affects the copy.
5. Use forms or automation to update information.
Try to make the process of data cleaning as stress free as possible. When you can, use online forms for things like student registration, parent forms, lunch forms, course requests, curriculum plans, etc. You may also find that your SIS already has that functionality built in.
While data cleansing might not seem like the most glamorous task, it can have far reaching benefits in your professional and personal life. On a professional level, regular data cleansing can result in better efficiency and more confident decision making, as the data being examined is the most current and accurate data available. Out-of-date data can affect student course requests, master schedules, curriculum, student information, and testing. Failure to clean personal data can pose security risks, as well as cause issues when trying to locate files that might be out of date or unnecessarily duplicated. With the accumulation of so much professional and personal digital information, it is more important than ever to make sure that the data you hang on to is clean, current, and correct.
>>> Ready to put that clean data to work for you? Click here to speak with one of our experts.
