The Missing Piece in the Data-Tracking Process
Hey, there friend,
Welcome to part 4 of our data-tracking series. Today, we wanted to talk about a critical component of data tracking that is often overlooked or forgotten!
Over the last few weeks, we have talked about knowing what data to track, how to make data tracking easy, and how to use that data to make sessions even more effective. The last step in this process is to share your data. >>Click here<< if you want to jump to the first blog in this series!
One of the biggest mistakes we see in intervention is when interventionists take all of this time to collect wonderful data, but then they don’t effectively share it with those who have a vested interest in the results (parents, students, administrators, colleagues, or ”stakeholders” as we lovingly call them).
Now, you might be thinking, “What about progress monitoring reports or IEP reviews?” Yes, these are great opportunities to sit down and go through formal data together, but what about all of the data you are taking week-to-week or day-to-day?
The most effective interventionists are those who have a system that allows them to easily share data with their stakeholders consistently, instead of just waiting for formal progress update meetings.
By sharing your data and findings consistently, not only will you build credibility, but it will also help everyone understand what is happening in your sessions.
Benefits of sharing your literacy data and results:
Consistently tracking, analyzing, and sharing your data is the only way to be sure that no “surprises” pop up when it is time for a progress monitoring assessment. If you are transparent with your data from week to week, it forces you to keep it at the top of your mind (hopefully prompting you to take action to make lessons more effective, for more information check out last week’s blog >>here<<). It also ensures that you, the student, and the family are all on the same page about the child’s strengths/weaknesses throughout the intervention process. This helps keep surprises to a minimum and you will receive less pressure from the family if they feel like they are in the loop throughout.
Why Not Sharing Your Data is a Mistake
If we aren’t transparent with our ongoing intervention data, we open the door to more stress than we want or need! Not only does this lead to surprises on progress monitoring assessments as we mentioned above, but you will also get more emails, questions, and concerns coming your way from parents, families, supervisors, and others who don’t fully understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
Not only do these questions take valuable time away from your intervention, (and your life outside of your intervention!) they can also start to poke holes in your confidence as an interventionist. Nobody likes to feel like others are doubting them, and even worse, nobody likes the feeling of doubting themselves. By sharing your data, you eliminate a lot of the uneasiness for everyone involved.
Why People Don’t Currently Share Their Data…and Why They Should!
One of the reasons people don’t share their data is because they are worried about how it reflects on them. We want to be clear that data is not a reflection of you. It is not a positive or negative representation of you - it’s just information. It’s okay to see a low score and make a shift. If every score started high, these students wouldn’t need intervention. You may work with a student for a long time without a score going up. That isn’t a reflection of you - it just means the intervention needs to be adjusted. If this happens, simply use the data to tweak your instruction and move forward.
For more information, check out our video here!
Now, we know firsthand how busy you are, so we wanted to make sure that in addition to knowing why you should be sharing your data, you also feel supported with how to track data. Grab our free Data Tracking System. This tool will help make data tracking easy and help you keep your session data organized.