The National Association for Pupil Transportation unveiled a new website in conjunction with the NAPT Summit in Kansas City that completes phase I of an initiative to help the student transportation industry make more “Data Driven Decisions.”
NAPT said http://3d.napt.org will provide school transportation service providers with information and feedback that will encourage them to “speak a common language” when it comes to determining and measuring key performance indicators.
“Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are becoming increasingly important in the pupil transportation industry,” said NAPT President Keith Henry, CDPT. “They help school administrators and taxpayers understand what we do and how well we do it. NAPT is committed to providing everyone with the information needed to provide the best service possible to their local communities.”
NAPT Past-President Alexandra Robinson, M.Ed., CDPT, helped launch the Data Driven Decisions (3D) project in November 2012. A team of volunteers led by Peter Lawrence, Ed.D, director of transportation at the Fairport (N.Y.) Central Schools, and Michael Shields, director of transportation at the Salem-Keizer (Ore.) Public Schools, developed 10 metrics as the core of a simple dashboard that is designed to foster communication by helping to connect people with key similarities.
NAPT members can register for a free account to use their own data to determine such KPIs as eligible riders versus actual riders; scheduled runs, including regular routes and activity and athletic trips; total buses, including scheduled and spare buses; average age of fleet; total annual miles; to and from annual school miles; and annual training hours for bus drivers. Using data gathered by NAPT from the National Center for Education Statistics, members can also search for their school districts and see the total number of schools, grade span, total expenditures amount, total expenditures per student, total student enrollment and students with IEPs.
From there, members can complete a survey for a given school year to input KPI data for their school district.
“One of our goals from the start has been to facilitate discussion and interaction among as many people as possible and give them a chance to participate in this project,” Henry added. “We analyzed a variety of information technology and ultimately decided to create our own system. It took longer than anticipated and was a lot more work, but we have total control of it and can adjust it as necessary to meet demand and expectations.”
