Data science guides ‘cradle-to-career’ academic success strategies

Learn how Alteryx APA is helping a Connecticut-based network of educators and social-service providers target the root causes of academic achievement gaps.

More than 160 individuals and organizations in the greater Norwalk, Connecticut area have united behind the goal of tearing down barriers that prevent young people from reaching their highest potential. Norwalk ACTS aligns these multifaceted efforts—spanning social justice, racial equity, learning readiness, family engagement, and wellness—into a strategy for driving systemic change.

“We’re a conduit for the school district and our other partners to share information that helps us take smarter action and achieve a greater collective impact,” says Paula Palermo, Data Director for Norwalk ACTS. “One of the pillars of our mission is using data to better understand and address all of the factors that influence a child’s success, from cradle to career.”

Palermo relies on the Alteryx Analytic Process Automation (APA) Platform, integrated with Tableau data visualization software, to help Norwalk ACTS deliver more valuable insights that enhance its work on behalf of all students. Alteryx APA supports multidimensional visualizations, in-depth analysis, and accurate reporting while also requiring far less time to manage the nonprofit’s data compared with its previous system, she says.

“We use Alteryx to shape the data consistently and with integrity every time. It gives us intelligence about the whole child, so we can more clearly see what's working and where we should be changing.” — Paula Palermo, Data Director, Norwalk ACTS

Connecting the dots of academic equity and success

Founded in 2005, Norwalk ACTS’ mission is “to collectively transform systems by ensuring resources, policies, practices, and power structures actively dismantle racism and drive equitable outcomes for every Norwalk child and young person.” In particular, its members seek to address the root causes of persistent academic achievement gaps that surface along racial, economic, gender, and geographic lines.

The nonprofit’s Five Conditions of Collective Impact include collecting data and measuring results consistently across all participants so their efforts stay aligned and they can hold each other accountable. Norwalk ACTS is also part of StriveTogether, a national network comprising nearly 70 cradle-to-career initiatives.

“We know that children’s readiness to graduate from high school and transition to college or a skilled career involves far more than just the time they spend in the classroom,” Palermo says. “Are they food insecure? Are they home insecure? Are they in crisis?

“If we can lay all those pieces side-by-side and look at how one thing relates to another, we can better understand what’s required to keep all students on track,” she adds.

Several years ago, Norwalk ACTS started reaching the limits of what it could accomplish with only spreadsheets and basic data management tools. Palermo routinely spent hours or days entering numbers by hand, integrating various data sources, writing analytical workflows, and compiling reports.

“When new data came in, I’d have to append it to the bottom or overwrite the whole file and redo my formulas,” she recalls. “And there are always human errors that can happen, like when you paste something into the wrong cell or miss some other step.”

“I was feeling like, ‘How will we be able to grow and do more things if I have to spend so much time recreating all of these processes from year to year?’” — Paula Palermo

Self-service access to latest student information

After seeing a demonstration of how another StriveTogether partnership in Texas was using Alteryx, Palermo reached out for assistance from the Alteryx for Good program. Alteryx for Good provides free Alteryx APA licenses along with technical support and other resources to help eligible nonprofits achieve game-changing breakthroughs with data science and analytics.

Once she started building a data repository using Alteryx and integrating it with Tableau data visualization software, “that just opened up the world for us,” Palermo says. “What used to take me hours now takes just minutes.”

She no longer has to recreate workflow processes from scratch or manually copy and paste data in order to run a fresh report. Whenever new or updated data arrives from Norwalk ACTS partners, it flows automatically into the Alteryx environment for analysis. Alteryx also prepares the consolidated data to be shared with the school district and community through self-service online dashboards, such as Norwalk ACTS’ Team Summer Portal featuring out-of-school learning programs in the area.

“The workflows that we’ve built over the last four years are now just in maintenance mode,” Palermo says. She estimates that the ease and speed of using Alteryx saves Norwalk ACTS the equivalent of at least one full-time employee.

“We can respond to information requests faster and provide more accurate, up-to-date results than before. Our productivity and efficiency are off the charts.” — Paula Palermo

Insights that give young learners a better start

Kindergarten is a pivotal year in which to set children on the path toward lifelong learning success. Since many incoming kindergarteners have sparse academic records, the Norwalk Public Schools district relies heavily on information from parents to guide classroom placement, specialized instructional assistance, and other resourcing decisions.

Using Alteryx APA and Tableau, Norwalk ACTS creates a summary document for each student based on data from the district’s Step into Kindergarten registration portal, local preschools and other sources. Palermo runs the workflow dozens of times between early spring and the first day of school each fall.

“That would be a full-time job without Alteryx,” she says. “I used to go into the system every couple of weeks, pull the data, and then spend at least a day mashing it all up. “Now I provide updated datasets via Google Sheets directly from the workflow.”

As a result, school administrators and kindergarten teachers can continually adjust their plans based on the most up-to-date information as more families register.

“They see a one-page snapshot of the parents’ comments and concerns, the child’s preschool data, and other details,” Palermo says. “With more balanced classrooms, these students get a better start to their education because their teachers are better able to address each student’s needs.”

Looking ahead, Norwalk ACTS plans to further integrate its Salesforce customer relationship management data with Alteryx APA to enable even more sophisticated and multidimensional analyses. Palermo is also developing a new dashboard where grant writers at the school district and nonprofits can get fast, consistent, and accurate data on the impact of Norwalk ACTS initiatives.

“We are playing in the big leagues of data right now because we have access to these great tools.” — Paula Palermo

Nonprofits: interested in learning more about the Alteryx For Good program? Apply here