Handling Data in Ohio Leadership Teams

Leadership teams are foundational to the Ohio Improvement Process. The teams meet to discuss issues, plan initiatives, and exert follow-through on the initiatives. At least in concept, teams lead their schools and districts in school improvement.

Some of what teams do involves handling data: accessing it, collecting it, analyzing it, and interpreting it. Team members apply their collective insights and judgments informed by data  to determine a course of action.

Little guidance exists to help teams handle data. It's a foundational concept in need of elaboration. This Foundational Concept is just a beginning.

Data Analysis and Data Displays in Leadership Teams

In TBTs, BLTs, and DLTs data analysis involves looking at data displays and discussing what the team sees. The team can't waste time sifting through reams of data or puzzling out how best to present the data to one another. Instead, a team member or a small group can prepare the necessary data displays to bring to the whole team.

These displays can take many forms. The discussion here considers displays for quantitative data (responses to survey items, rubric ratings, test scores, and so on) and qualitative data (comments on surveys, interview data, and some observation data).