World Class Alumni

Alumni News

Alumni Events

Giving

Get Involved

Leadership

Keep in Touch

Benefits

Request A Transcript

Timothy Poynton, SED'05, creates software program for educators A new software program developed by School of Education alumnus Timothy Poynton, Ed.D. (SED’05), is gaining popularity among graduate students and school counselors around the country. EZAnalyze, a data analysis software tool for educators, is designed to enhance the capabilities of Microsoft Excel by adding “point and click” functionality for analyzing data and creating graphs. The software, which works on both Macs and PCs, is available for free download thanks to $2,000 that Poynton received from the Office of the Dean at the School of Education. Since June 18, 2005, there have been more than 4,000 downloads of the program file, user manual and tutorials, and sample data file.

Poynton's software developed to simplify data analysis in Excel
Poynton, who completed the School of Education’s Developmental Studies doctoral program in August 2005, is now the School Counseling Program Director and an Assistant Professor at Suffolk University in Boston. He developed EZAnalyze for his dissertation, Evaluating the Effect and Effectiveness of a Professional Development Workshop to Increase School Counselors’ Use of Data: The Role of Technology.

Poynton says the software was developed to solve a training problem. In the process of crafting his dissertation topic, he found a need for school counselors to develop skills in using data. “Given my interest in technology and literature supporting the integration of technology and school counseling practice, I decided to evaluate the impact of technology on the effectiveness of professional development designed to increase school counselors’ data skills,” Poynton explains. His review of existing software programs for data analysis revealed that none were both affordable and relatively easy to use. So he decided to make his own.

Since most school counselors already have Excel on their computers, Poynton developed EZAnalyze as an “add in” that simplifies data analysis in Excel. For his dissertation, he used this new software to evaluate the efficiency of four slightly different ways of training school counselors how to use data, by varying the degree to which participants were exposed to “conceptual knowledge” about how to evaluate school counseling programs and how to use EZAnalyze. Two groups were provided differing levels of exposure to conceptual knowledge with explicit hands-on training in how to use EZAnalyze, one group was provided with the conceptual knowledge and the EZAnalyze software without hands-on practice, and the last group was provided only with the conceptual knowledge training.

“The goal was to assess the ‘value added’ benefit of technology. While people had favorable impressions of the software, systemic barriers—time mostly—negated the potential positive impact of technology to increase data use,” he says. His research—and the program he developed—is already making an effect on schools.

School counselors use EZAnalyze to identify achievement gaps under No Child Left Behind guidelines
Belinda J. Wilkerson, a Counselor-in-Residence for the RI School Counseling Project, a joint initiative between Providence College and the Rhode Island Department of Education, says professional school counselors in Rhode Island are using EZAnalyze as they implement data-driven school counseling programs. Under the guidelines of the No Child Left Behind Act, Wilkerson says professional school counselors are applying this user-friendly tool in their comprehensive school counseling programs to identify achievement gaps as they work to ensure success and equity for all students.

“He has forever changed the way professional school counselors in Rhode Island look at data,” Wilkerson says. “Dr. Poynton’s workshops give professional school counselors the opportunity to practice using this resource with data from their respective schools. Additionally, Dr. Poynton is generous with his time with first-time users as they learn the program.”

Mark P. Boggie, Lead Counselor at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Ariz., agrees with that assessment. The software has helped Boggie analyze the class distribution of Advanced Placement classes at Buena High School for with respect to gender and ethnicity, analyze the gender and ethnic breakdown of graduates, and study the impact of interventions on students’ attendance.

“I find it easy to use and understandable,” says Boggie. “What would take me days to do by hand I can finish with EZAnalyze in minutes. I have presented information from EZAnalyze to my staff and my administration with confidence and great results. The graphs and tables are clear and bring the data to life.”

The software along with supporting documentation is available for free download at www.ezanalyze.com.