Consultant shows Wiseburn Unified draft dashboard to board; members ask for goals, privacy protections and predictive tools

Joel Rabin, a data consultant, demonstrated a draft Wiseburn Unified School District dashboard to the board on May 8 that combines state and local data into 12 metrics, trend views and interactive drilldowns to help trustees monitor academics, attendance and finances.

Rabin said the dashboard mixes publicly available state data (CAASPP, ELPAC) with locally supplied measures (benchmark assessments, California Healthy Kids Survey items) and is built on Google Looker Studio. "We present it in a live dashboard for you, a live website," Rabin told the board, describing a three‑year rolling view and the ability to drill to school, grade and student‑group levels.

Board members tested the prototype during questions and asked the consultant to add context and decisioning features. Trustee Neil said the board wanted to know update cadence and whether the tool is an annual product. "So this is what I'm hearing is this is pretty much an annual program that we're updating annually," Neil said; Rabin replied that some metrics (state tests) are annual while local measures could be updated multiple times per year and that the tool can support more frequent updates.

The board also raised two recurring concerns: integrating the dashboard with the district's Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) goals, and avoiding inadvertent disclosure of individually identifiable student information when users drill down to small groups. Rabin said the dashboard can be linked to LCAP targets and that user access and filters can be configured to hide very small counts.

Trustees suggested design changes to make the tool actionable. One suggestion was to show progress not only as year‑to‑year color changes but also as movement toward a stated target; Rabin proposed combining trend colors with arrows or separate icons to show whether a metric is moving toward a board‑set goal.

Rabin asked the board for feedback and for time to add context layers (state or county comparators) and predictive or early‑warning functionality. No formal vote or adoption occurred at the May 8 meeting; Rabin asked the board to provide priorities so he can refine the dashboard for a future presentation.