cmd-015. cloud-based data reports that put timely information at your fingertips.

Jun 5

PROJECT COMPLETED: October 2019

Harlem Link Data Suite: School Operations | Data Pipeline and Reporting System by David White — **Harlem Link Data Suite: School Operations** | Data Pipeline and Reporting System by David White

THE STORY OF THIS PROJECT

Stakeholder’s Problem: “We need a way to connect the data we have stored in various locations and assemble all of it into a usable form.”

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 all children in its community (Harlem and Washington Heights).

The school’s normal daily operations produce a large volume of data that needs to be collected, crunched and reported on in real time. In order to meet that challenge, I took the following steps:

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Case Study 015. Harlem Link Data Suite - School Operations: Step 1

CSY-015., Harlem Link Charter School

Step 1 - Discovery

To begin the process of creating the data reports, I met with the school’s teachers and administrators. I listened to the concerns they had and the challenges they were facing. I began to form an idea of what information needed to be included in the data reports and what raw data needed to be gathered.

CSY-015., Harlem Link Charter School

Case Study 015. Harlem Link Data Suite - School Operations: Step 2

CSY-015., Harlem Link Charter School

Step 2 - Sketch

Next, I made a rough sketch of what the reports would look like and what information would go where on the screen.

CSY-015., Harlem Link Charter School

Case Study 015. Harlem Link Data Suite - School Operations: Step 3

CSY-015., Harlem Link Charter School

Step 3 - Prep Data

To complete this step, I took the following actions:

I identified exactly what data needed to be displayed.
I identified sources for each of those data points.
I exported that data from school information systems (or requested a data export from an outside source).
I cleaned up and organized the data exports.
I compiled the data into Google Sheets.

CSY-015., Harlem Link Charter School

Case Study 015. Harlem Link Data Suite - School Operations: Step 4

CSY-015., Harlem Link Charter School

Step 4 - Build

Next, I took the Google Sheets datasources I’d just compiled and I connected them to Google Data Studio. I began to build out the reports inside of Data Studio.

CSY-015., Harlem Link Charter School

Case Study 015. Harlem Link Data Suite - School Operations: Step 5

CSY-015., Harlem Link Charter School

Step 5 - Publish

I published the finished reports to the cloud using Google Data Studio and I shared them with all stakeholders. Since the documents were based online, all members of the team could access them throughout the day whenever they needed to.

CSY-015., Harlem Link Charter School