A data coach is a person responsible for collating data from various sources, reviewing and analyzing it, and then presenting it in an understandable and actionable format for the purpose of improving student outcomes.
Data coaches are playing more and more of a pivotal role in K12 education. So let’s take a closer look at who they are, their skills and qualifications, and what they actually do.
Who is a data coach in a school?
In recent years, in order to make greater use of the data in schools and districts, the focus has steadily shifted to a more data-centered approach. With this pivot, the role – a tech-savvy staff member that helps make sense of the data a school produces – has also grown in importance, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
One of the effects of the Pandemic has been the acceleration of the use of online resources. Learning and evaluation tools that were previously used by specific subgroups such as special education students, or students that needed extra help, saw more use as schools turned to them to help their students work independently outside a classroom setting.
The result is fragmented data from multiple systems, all of them producing different types of insights – demographic, performance, process, and more. Piecing it all together to form a well-rounded picture of a student isn’t just a challenge technically, it’s also time-consuming.
The data coach is meant to facilitate this process, to take the load off teachers and school leadership so that they can focus on their tasks, and to give them the tools and information they need to improve student outcomes.
Examining the role of the data coach
On a practical level, the support they provide takes many forms.
With school leadership, it often entails discussing things like achieving standards mastery targets within certain timelines – as much for the purpose of meeting state and district requirements as for the school’s own desired outcomes. What tools and metrics would help to get those results? How can they be used to track progress and achieve those goals?
With teachers, it might take the form of helping them pinpoint areas where student needs arise. Why didn’t student A do well in the last unit test? Are they finding the material challenging or are there mitigating factors? If so, what are they? The coaches help teachers make analyses to help them enhance the quality and effectiveness of classroom instruction.
In very general terms, their role is to aggregate and interpret the disparate data that schools typically accumulate – reports from online resources, tests, and so on. They use the resultant insights to help school leaders and personnel to drive the school district’s educational program forward. That means being able to assess – on a consistent basis – the school’s current position in relation to set targets, and the possible means to close any gaps.
In the best-case scenarios, data coaches will rely on an advanced platform like AnalyticVue. A tool that is designed to transform complex data from multiple sources into simple-to-understand dashboards and analytics, with customizable dashboards and advanced visualization tools.
Duties and responsibilities of a data coach
Overall, the tasks a data coach takes on revolve around the following:
- Providing support for school staff to use the data produced on a day-to-day basis to improve the effectiveness of classroom instruction
- To help school leadership analyze state, federal, and local assessments, formulate insights and use this knowledge to inform their decision-making processes
- To present insights they discover in easy-to-understand reports and graphic visualizations, making them immediately usable for the different stakeholders in the school.
- To use tools and technology to analyze trends and, where possible, make predictions
- Where necessary, assist staff and teachers with software products and technology that helps capture data
- Working with teachers in school leadership, creating benchmark assessments and analyses
- To track metrics and use that information to review progress toward agreed-upon objectives
Requirements and qualifications for data coaches in school districts
Arguably the most important qualifications for data coaches, beyond the obvious data analysis skills, are good communication skills and curiosity.
These are absolutely crucial because in order to find the information they need, data coaches typically have extensive discussions with different stakeholders within the school. With the causes of problems sometimes being found in the unlikeliest of places, it is important to have an inquisitive mind, one that leads you to ask the right questions.
Data coaches are then required to communicate their findings, whether it’s through the visualizations they produce, or in meetings and sessions with school leadership and teachers. This communication must be effective. They need to have the soft skills to relay negative findings without putting anyone on the defensive, and instead get all parties invested in finding and implementing a solution.
In terms of hard skills, an understanding of data analytics is a must. Data coaches know how to manipulate and join disparate datasets, extract insights from them, and present them in the appropriate format. They are usually familiar with specialized tools solutions such as AnalyticVue that are specifically designed for these purposes.
Apart from that, data coaches tend to have in-class experience. This helps them understand the needs of the students, the teachers, the schools, and the underlying district or state standards and requirements that have to be met.
Conclusion
The role of a data coach in K-12 education is one that has been steadily rising to prominence over the last few years as schools turn to evidence-based strategies to improve learning outcomes.
However, many institutions have gone from just one source indicating student progress and performance, to multiple. Translating these fragmented insights into a holistic picture has become an even more challenging task.
A dedicated data coach, and tools like the AnalyticVue platform, will help school leaders and personnel to harness the latent power of the data they have and enhance the school improvement process.
