Welcome

What are you trying to do?

Something I need to watch regularly in institutional performance and educational decisions.

Before you start. Monitors currently run from the command line rather than from a page. The engine works and is tested; the interface for setting them up is still being built, so this route is the least finished of the four.

Your path

Create the study

One study holds the whole series.

Chart it before you judge it

A control chart separates ordinary variation from a real change. Most month-to-month movement is noise, and acting on it makes a process less stable rather than more.

Set up a monitor

A saved analysis with a cadence. It re-runs and reports what moved, without claiming the movement is significant - two consecutive estimates are not independent samples.

Read the series, not the last point

Twelve points tell you what one never can.

What people in your field ask

In institutional performance and educational decisionsthe full guide

Choose the indicator that matters - pull the records you already keep - watch it month on month - compare where it differs - act, then keep watching.

Is our performance improving, or is this month just noise?control chart
Do departments or programmes differ in outcomes?one way anova
What predicts whether a student graduates on time?logistic regression
Do entry scores actually predict final performance?ols regression
Students sit inside classes inside faculties. Does that matter?multilevel mixed

Watch for: Ranking departments on raw outcomes without intake quality. The department admitting the weakest entrants will always appear worst, and the ranking then punishes the work you most want done.

Create your first study The full guide for institutional performance and educational decisions Start again