In smaller districts where staff is limited, the district committee is a good choice to conduct the scan. These committees are, by design, diverse and representative of the community. There are many ways these committees can organize to conduct the data collection so the task does not fall to a single person with little support. By using subcommittees or teams of volunteers to do much of the data collection, the task is easily handled. TASB s experience assisting school districts with scanning shows that the time it takes to collect and draw conclusions from the available information is not too great.
Many districts already have a good recordkeeping system for student performance data.
Student data other than TAAS scores can usually be collected from this within a couple of hours. The external data will usually take longer to gather since much of it comes from sources such as local chambers of commerce, economic development councils, and local government offices. Don t overlook the Internet as an easily accessible source of state and regional data. One method that works well is to use either an individual or small team of three to four people for each of the five areas already discussed. The team members take care of their individual responsibilities and then meet again for a couple of hours to discuss what they have found.