Organization Station-- Collecting Data

When we are out in our districts, many teams are curious about how to collect data. We have seen a variety of different systems and find that different approaches work for different teams. In today's Organization Station, we will be focusing on different methods for collecting data to hopefully give our readers some ideas!

To hold data, many teams have clipboards for each student. They may have multiple pages of data for different areas or all of the student's goals may be listed on one page. This is a great system especially if the data needs to travel with the student to be tracked in various locations.

Example of Multiple Goals on One Sheet
Laura Brown
Perrin Woods Elementary, Springfield

Example of One Goal Per Sheet
Laurie Maravetz
Schaefer Middle School, Springfield 

Example of Scatter Plot Behavior Data
Lisa Bauer
Northmont Middle School, Northmont

Other teams use binders to hold all of the student's important information and data.

Rachel Hatton
Normandy Elementary, Centerville

Many binder systems also incorporate color-coding to make the system easily accessible to grab what is needed at first glance.

Jennifer Jette
Vandalia-Butler High School, Vandalia-Butler

Carrie Prickett
Jane Chance Elementary, Miamisburg

The Intervention Specialist on our team, Allison Officer, also used binders for each student. A quick overview of her binder system is below:

Cover

Communication Log for staff members to share notes and request additional data sheets

The front of each binder included any important documents for staff to reference as needed. The IEP at a Glance was a great tool for reminding staff what the goals and objectives for each student were to keep in mind when working on skills and taking data.

IEP at a Glance

If the student had additional important documents such as a medical or behavior plan those were included next:

Medical Plan and Behavior Plan Flowchart

Then, there was a section for each academic area covered on the IEP. Each section had a binder tab pocket for work samples. These work samples were sent home at the end of each quarter with the student's progress report. Behind each tab, were the progress monitoring sheets specific to each skill being monitored. 

On the back cover of each binder, Allison included a cheatsheet providing more information about the student in an informal way. This was a great resource for new staff members or substitutes. 

At the end of each quarter, work samples would be collected to go home and data sheets were collected for the data to be tallied. Allison stapled the completed data sheets to a cover page each quarter. These packets were saved as the students educational records. The cover sheet helped organize the progress report process and provided a place to record any information to share with classroom and related service staff members. 

Also keep in mind that data collection doesn't need to be complicated! Below we have featured some of our favorite simple sheets:

This teams data sheet is a copy of the student's sensory folder. Staff circles each icon if the student chooses that sensory support. The data is used to determine the student's sensory preferences.

Lisa Bauer
Northmont Middle School, Northmont

This team also collects data on how often a student attempts or refuses to engage in adult-directed tasks. This simple list system makes calculating percentages for each day easy!

Lisa Bauer
Northmont Middle School, Northmont

Here is another great example of an IEP at a Glance. We love this single page format and simple breakdown of objectives.

Brian Frimel