Officials Again Denounce Hinsdale D86 Data

HINSDALE, IL – The data at Hinsdale High School District 86 needs a good "scrubbing," officials said Thursday.

Because of that, school board members agreed to move forward with hiring a data consultant.

In recent months, officials have acknowledged the district is struggling to produce accurate data.

That's particularly the case with measuring the disparity in opportunities between Hinsdale Central and South high schools. Patch has been documenting the issue.

Board President Catherine Greenspon said she wanted consistent and standardized numbers.

"We're going to scrub our data. We know it's not clean. There's no way it could have been clean," she said.

She noted the district has gone through several systems and administrators.

"Every administrator brought their own flavoring to course numbering and course naming," Greenspon said.

Board member Bobby Fischer agreed that scrubbing was crucial.

"The data we have is inconsistent and inaccurate," he said. "More commonly, we didn't have the data, so someone had to fill it in."

That "fill-it-in" process, he said, "creates the most risk of us making bad decisions."

According to a district memo, the consultant is estimated to cost $24,000 to $30,000, with the work lasting 12 weeks.