Special education

1. Data inventory: what you already record

We start with a conversation of about two hours at the school. In it we map out together which data the school already records, in which systems and who works with them. We also discuss which questions you want to answer with those data and which agreements are still missing for that.

In special education it is about the OPP and the exit profile per pupil, the learning routes with their target planning, the goals from the CED learning lines or another learning-line model, your own school standard, and data on absence, incidents and how pupils fare after leaving. The internal support coordinator or the educational psychologist is at this conversation. They know how the school defines ‘on track’ and which overviews are still kept in Excel.

After this conversation you know which questions you can already answer with data, where data are missing and what the school still has to arrange itself. That overview is also useful if you do not go on with TRIPS.

2. Which systems we connect

After the data inventory we know which data are needed. Our developers connect the school’s source systems to your own TRIPS environment. That takes about two to three months, depending on the number of systems and how quickly the supplier gives access. From two weeks after the data inventory you can log in and look at the first data; the rest follows as soon as a connection is ready.

Source systems in special education we connect to: ParnasSys, Edumaps, Presentis, Somtoday, Magister, Zien!, SCOL and SWIS. An Excel file with your own school standard per learning route or a record of your own, for example of incidents or exits, can be added too.

Reducing workload in education through automation

3. Delivery: the first visualisations

At the delivery the standard visualisations are ready. Together with the school’s data team we go through the data. Is everything right? Does the team recognise the figures? Usually it then turns out that certain data need cleaning up or completing: an exit profile missing from the OPP, or a proliferation of absence reasons. That clean-up is the school’s work and is part of the process.

Not all colleagues start working with TRIPS Explore straight away. The data team, at a special school often the principal, the internal support coordinator or educational psychologist and a teacher, first gets workshops to work with it.

How many pupils per learning route are on track with the target planning? Which goals from the learning line are met least at school level? Does the exit profile from the OPP match the actual exit, and does that hold two years later? Together with the data team we turn such questions into analysis questions: questions that can be answered with data.

For example: ‘What percentage of pupils per learning route reaches the goals of our own school standard, per learning line and per school year?’ With a question like that we help to make the fitting visualisation.

Explore: all data in one overview

Explore is the part where all data come together: progress on the learning lines, the OPPs and exit profiles, absence and incidents, for the whole school, per learning route, per group and per pupil. You start with the standard visualisations from the delivery and then make the chart that answers a question yourself. The product page briefly explains all parts of TRIPS.

Educational quality in special education now made visible too

4. Start programme and hands-on training

After the delivery a start programme of three months begins. In that time the school cleans up the data and practises with what is there. That is how the data team discovers what is possible and which questions are still open.

In the hands-on training the data team learns to build visualisations itself: what each button does, how you filter and which chart fits which question. After that the data team can answer questions in TRIPS on its own. For a special school that is, for example, the question whether the pupils in learning route 2 reach the goals for maths in the same phase as planned.

5. Evaluation: what goes well and what not yet

Halfway through the start programme, after six weeks, the TRIPS coach discusses with the data team how it is going. What works already, what not yet, and which adjustments to the TRIPS environment are needed? Then the team works for another six weeks. At the end of the three months there is a final evaluation. Then you decide together how to go on: more users, an extra module, or first carrying on as it is.

From here the school works with the data itself; the coach remains available. At a special school the internal support coordinator or the support committee is often the pivot: they bring the visualisations into the OPP review, so that the teacher sees for themselves whether a pupil is on track.

In conversation with the teacher

With TRIPS Guide you hold the development conversations with teachers and teaching assistants based on what is in Explore. In special education that is often: how are the pupils in my group doing on the learning line, and what do colleagues say about how I act in the group? The teacher chooses what they want to work on and prepares the conversation using their own data. The teacher remains the owner of their own file; the data are an aid in the conversation, not the verdict.

Asking questions at the moment it matters

With TRIPS Quest you send out short questionnaires to colleagues, parents and, where possible, pupils: after an incident, with a new group arrangement, or about the provision in a learning route. That way you do not have to wait for the annual survey. The results are shown in Explore next to the results on the learning lines and absence, so that you see where the team is strong and where development is possible.

Explore is always the first step. After the final evaluation you decide whether and when Guide and Quest are added.