Organizing Data at a School-Level

Today's post is brought to you by Heather Zimmerman.

Do we have enough data?  What data should classroom teachers look at?  Which data should grade-level teams use?  Are we data rich and information poor?  

This school years these questions started to pop up, as there was a new focus on data.  With staff writing SLOs and the SLD rule, we found ourselves evaluating what data we collect and how we use this data.

In order to help with this process, my school created a Google doc spreadsheet and shared it with: the dean of students, the instructional support teacher, the literacy coach, the school psychologist, and the principal.  Before we met as a group, we added all assessments we used to the spreadsheet to see what we could come with.  

Here is how the spreadsheet is formatted:

School Data

Assessment

Grade Level

Literacy

Math

Behavior

Other

Frequency of Administration

Then as a group we met and started to sort the data on a whiteboard.  After much discussion we started to discuss different ways that would be useful to group the data.  

Here are a few ways we began to sort:

Assessment Types

Assessment Type	Summative (annually or longer)	Benchmarks and Screeners (2-4 times per year)	Diagnostic	Progress monitoring	Ongoing	Other
Description	Useful for system-level analysis and outcome measurement	Designed to be administered at check-points throughout the year; help to identify students meeting/not meeting pre-determined targets	Useful for in-depth analysis; target sub-skills in need of intervention	Sensitive to small changes in skill level; many alternate forms allow for frequent administration (weekly)		Provide context for academic/ behavioral data

After sorting this data, we decided to adjourn, so we could have time to process the data.  The goal is to come back together to discuss questions we have regarding the data.

Here are some questions we plan to address:

1. Do we have any gaps in data?  Where are these gaps? (Consider the needs of each team.)
2. Do we have any overlaps in data?  Are  there any assessments that collect certain data that the other does not?  Is there an assessment we do not need then?
3. What are our next steps in the data sort?

Through this process, as a group, we are able to see what sort of data is collected in the district.  We do not want to over-assess our students and therefore want to make sure all assessments have a clear purpose that helps student learning.