CSY-018. A cloud-based spreadsheet that helps stakeholders conduct collaborative data meetings.

PROJECT COMPLETED: June 2021

 

THE STORY OF THIS PROJECT


Harlem Link Charter School is a tuition-free, independent charter school located in New York City. It serves 450 children in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 5. Harlem Link is committed to equitable programming, inclusiveness and serving its entire community (Harlem and Washington Heights).

At Harlem Link, students take grade-wide math exams roughly every six weeks. Teachers and school leaders then meet to review the results of the exams and discuss ways to improve. The exams produce a large volume of data that needs to be collected, crunched and reported on within a short window of time. In order to meet that challenge, I took the following steps:

  1. I identified all of the locations where the data I needed to access was being stored.

  2. I combined data from several different spreadsheets by using the IMPORTRANGE and VLOOKUP functions in Google Sheets.

  3. I applied conditional formatting to make the spreadsheet more understandable at a glance.

  4. I calculated summary statistics by using pivot tables.

  5. I used the pivot tables I’d created to produce data visualizations for the final data presentation.

The result was a spreadsheet and accompanying set of data graphics (which I named the “Consolidated Tracker”). The Consolidated Tracker was then used to present data to teachers and school leaders. The document I produced gathered all relevant information and presented it in an easy-to-understand format. Also, since the document was based in the cloud, all stakeholders could review the data prior to the meeting and arrive prepared to contribute to the group discussion.