XM Community Customer Spotlight: Megan Zich 💜

@MeganZich How does your district handle the various evaluation types that are required? Do you have a standard template you follow for class evaluations, teacher evaluations, etc? What do you recommend to others who are just starting this process? Any preferred resources?

Any dashboard or data visualization or presentation tips? How do you decide how to present data and in what format to your stakeholders?

@JeffDavis Hello!  I am fortunate to work within a larger district (12K students, approximately 1,400 staff) so we are able to have teams help determine what they would like to see.

For example, our teaching and learning department (I’m in technology) is using a survey they call a “walkthrough” tool.  Our district level administration teams commit to doing quarterly classroom observation walkthroughs to determine specific evidence that they see.  (See QSF below)

We have been using Qualtrics to replace as many paper processes as we can.  Early Learning applications, Behavior data tracking, Climate Surveys (Staff, Student, Families), Referendum Questions, Gifted and Talented Placements, Professional Development feedback, Exit Tickets, Special Education Staffing, School Improvement Plans, Human Resources data tracking, etc.!

Please feel free to reach out if there are any specific use cases you would like to talk more about!

@PSmith Hello!  Our presentations are often audience dependent.  If I am working with a group, for example Elementary School Administrators (we have 15), I will make a dashboard that is the same for all and then personalize and share based on locked filters.  Then when we are reviewing data, I know we are all looking at exactly the same viewpoints.

When I have smaller audiences or more personalized groups I try and use multiple pages on dashboards to expand on the data story.  The pages will provide different touchpoints based on the end users needs at the time, meaning that there will be summary level data and drill through data so they can have broad information to see big picture, or they can have access to details, but have the choice on what they view.   This allows them to be more self-sufficient and have access to what they need when they need it.

Much of the data is determined by consultations with the stakeholders.  I often find they aren’t entirely sure what they want until they see it.  I will usually provide a few samples of how the data sets can be viewed and ask what makes the most sense to them.

If/when relevant I try and frontload the entire process of survey to report/dashboard with the stakeholders.  I have had people ask for a survey of all open-ended questions, but their goal is to have a bar graph of responses in the end, so it helps to know what people’s expectations are right away so you can help rework the survey right from the start!