If your district is like most, you probably have plenty of data at your fingertips. But what is that data actually saying, and how is it informing leadership decisions in your district? That’s the story behind the data—and that’s what your audiences, whether families or community members, really want to know. 

But before you can communicate the answer to those questions, you have to parse through the data yourself—to determine not only the “what,” but the “why.” After all, according to Kristen Cash, communications coordinator at Ohio’s South Euclid-Lyndhurst School District (SEL), that’s the whole point of collecting data in the first place. “Having data by itself isn’t the goal,” Cash tells SchoolCEO. “The goal is to use data to make better decisions.” And you can’t do that successfully until you understand the story the data is telling.

Don’t assume; verify with data.

When Cash first joined SEL in 2024, the district's new superintendent was in the midst of setting strategic priorities. One such priority was student retention. “In the past, there had been some major assumptions about where kids were dropping off,” Cash tells SchoolCEO. "But when we went back to the data, we realized that a lot of those assumptions were actually wrong.” 

Leadership had long assumed that SEL was losing most students between third and fourth grade, when they would transition into the upper elementary school. That school had seen some struggles in previous years, and while things had much improved, leaders feared that reputation remained. They also assumed that those who did leave the district were transferring to private schools. “So we said, ‘Let's look at the data and see what we see,’” says Cash. “And it turns out that’s not even a little bit true.” 

Now armed with more accurate information about their enrollment drop-offs, Cash and the SEL team started asking withdrawing families why they were leaving. “We can learn a lot from quantitative data, but we can't learn it all,” says Cash. “The withdrawal data not only informed us where our focus needed to be when it comes to our retention efforts, but also where we needed to gather more information to better understand our community's behavior.” But because they checked their assumptions, SEL is well on their way to understanding—and telling—the story behind their retention data.  

Add qualitative context.

That brings us to our next point: More often than not, quantitative data only offers part of the story. To understand the “why” behind the “what,” you need to flesh it out with qualitative data. 

While SEL is still working to collect qualitative data about the retention drop-offs, digging for “why” has helped the district solve another challenge with their kindergarten enrollment. “Last year, during the first week of school, we had to hire a teacher at the last minute because we had so many late enrollments,” Cash explains. This left SEL with a question hard numbers couldn’t answer: Why were families waiting so long to register for kindergarten?

“One of the things I like to do is to pick a sample and just call them—actually have those conversations,” says Cash. “So I called a number of our new kindergarten registration families to see: ‘How was your experience with our enrollment? How are you feeling? Do you feel welcomed?’” 

Over and over, she heard similar themes emerge in these conversations: The enrollment process was complicated. Families weren’t sure where to turn for support. “I heard that from family after family after family,” she says. “So we were able to take that feedback and work collaboratively with our registration office to figure out: How can we support our families better in this process?” Armed with not only the “what” but the “why,” SEL could actually get to the root of the problem. 

Using qualitative data to expand on the story won’t just lead to stronger solutions. As an added benefit, it will also make your stakeholders feel heard. “School leaders can work to bridge any distance by creating opportunities to engage with and listen to their school communities,” says Blair Mann, vice president of communications and external affairs at the nonprofit Data Quality Campaign. “Consistently providing opportunities for engagement and showing evidence that school leaders are listening goes a long way toward building trust in data.” And Cash experienced that benefit firsthand. “I can’t tell you how many of those families were like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you called me,’” she says. “So in addition to getting data, I'm also really helping my school district, because I’m showing people that someone cared enough to give them a call.” 

So there’s no doubt quantitative data is important—but if you want the full story, don’t forget to get firsthand perspective from your community members as well. “In schools, we have a tendency to get so caught up in what data means. We’re thinking in numbers, charts and percentages, and we forget to look for what the data is telling us about the people we serve,” Cash explains. But in her opinion, it’s not all that hard to figure out; it just takes a little legwork. “If you don’t understand something,” she says, “call people and ask.” 

Once you’ve collected and synthesized both qualitative and quantitative data, you’ll have a fuller picture of what’s actually going on in your district. The next step is to communicate that data in a way that resonates with your stakeholders. 

But what if the story your data uncovered isn’t all that rosy? For Cash, transparency is key. “I know some school leaders only want to focus on the good things, and I get that,” Cash explains. “But our communities know that we are not perfect. And the best way to build that trust is to communicate honestly, even when it’s hard.”

In the end, if data is driving your district’s decisions, omitting unflattering data points will only confuse your audience. After all, how can your community understand the steps you’re taking to address declining enrollment, for example, if they don’t have an accurate picture of the problem? For Mann, this transparency is critical for building trust. “While school leaders understand all the intentional decision-making and effort that went into improving test scores, families may not,” Mann says. “Sharing information about the steps your school took to improve test scores and what steps you plan to take to ensure that number continues to rise will help families understand the context.” 

But building trust with data requires more than transparency; it also demands a strong understanding of your audience and what will make sense to them. Does your audience have enough background information to get what this data means? Are you using clear language, or is your communication riddled with eduspeak?

“No single data point or measure can paint a complete picture of what’s happening in schools—but providing context ensures that families understand what went into making certain decisions,” Mann says. “Taking steps to share as much contextual information as possible when publishing data, avoiding overly complex language and translating content into a school’s most commonly spoken languages are all important steps toward providing context.”

Even when the data is generally positive, you also need to think carefully about what type of story will resonate most with your audience. For example, both families and community members may be interested to know that your district’s enrollment is increasing. But families may be more interested in how this will affect funding, while community members may care more about the tax impact of building a new school to accommodate an enrollment boom. 

In her own work, Cash keeps the audience of a given communication in mind as she decides how to frame the data she’s sharing. “Each of our channels include stories that connect with humans,” Cash says. “But for our communitywide mailer, we provide more high-level information about the district. When we communicate with families, however, we are thinking about what actions we want to encourage to help them feel more connected to our schools. Everyone wants to hear that our schools are doing great, but we need different actions from each of our audiences.”

Of course, as a school communicator or superintendent, you’re (hopefully) not the only person in your district communicating about data. To ensure that your district’s stories always land—no matter who’s telling them—you need to help your spokespeople understand how to effectively communicate. That starts with understanding the specific audience they’re trying to reach with a given communication and asking: What do they want to know? What do I want them to know? And how can the data help me illustrate that point? “I often remind educators that we don’t have to be so nitty-gritty,” Cash says. “I think it’s helpful a lot of the time to zoom out and think about the handful of things you want your audience to walk away with.” 

Enabling your staff to be effective data communicators will take more than a single professional development session. It needs to be a part of regular and sustained training on communication. “Data use isn’t a one-time activity, and presenting data to families shouldn't be either,” Mann tells SchoolCEO. “School leaders should provide ongoing, quality training on effective data use, with a focus on engaging parents and the community in the story data tells about the district.”

But how do you know if the story—and the data—has been communicated effectively? You collect more data, of course. While you can collect quantitative data through surveys, Cash also recommends listening to the people in your audience. 

“I do a weekly social media piece called ‘What I Learned this Week’ where I ask students what they’re most excited about,” she tells us. These posts don’t get the most shares or engagement, but people routinely stop Cash to talk about the cute kids they saw on social talking excitedly about learning. Cash knows that if she went solely by engagement numbers, she wouldn’t actually have an accurate picture of these posts’ reception. “It’s easy to get lost in data, to let it dictate your decision-making rather than using your discernment to think about what’s actually important,” she says.

For Cash, connecting people to these stories is a must for districts in the age of heightened school competition. “I could throw a rock from my office and hit a private school,” she says. "My job is to build trust within our community so people know that good things are happening here and that we’re working to improve all the time.” Yes, data is essential to building trust—but only if people listen to it and understand it. Engage them by making humans, not data, the heroes of your story.