How Stichting BOOR put one shared meaning under its education data platform
Over eighty schools, one recorded meaning of enrolment, absence and staffing - so every board conversation starts from the same numbers.
1The challenge
Stichting BOOR governs public schools in and around Rotterdam. Every school produced its own overviews from its own systems. Terms like enrolment, absence and staffing meant something different per school, and the knowledge of how a number came about sat with a handful of people.
As a result every board conversation started with which number was right, and only then moved on to what to do about it.
2Our solution
We recorded the meaning first: what counts as a pupil on a reference date, when absence counts, which staffing belongs to which school. Those definitions were placed with the people doing the work, with a named contact per domain.
On top of that sits one platform where the sources come together, with lineage per field and access per role - so a school leader sees their own school and the board sees the whole.
3The results
Board and schools work from the same definitions. A number can be traced back to source, definition and owner, so the argument about numbers gives way to the discussion about policy. New questions are answered in the existing layer instead of in another new report.
