Program leaders need to be able to read statistics and use data to inform decision-making. Effective programs use data to identify trends, set priorities, and tell their story in annual reports and community presentations. To build your skills, Digging into Data offers a foundational look at effective data use through real-world scenarios that Head Start and Early Head Start leaders typically face. This training is organized around six learning modules.

1. Select the Right Data presents three email requests for information. Build your response to each email by reviewing, attaching, and commenting on data.
2. Avoid Data Collection Problems provides an opportunity to review a variety of data sources for accuracy. Can you find the red flags?
3. Change Your View identifies four techniques for looking at data to see how each view tells a different story: aggregate; disaggregate; compare; and find mean, median, mode, and range.
4. Draw Conclusions consists of three scenarios in which management team members review a hypothesis, identify and present related data, engage in discussion, and draw conclusions.
5. Take Action shares a methodology for considering and prioritizing actions based on data.
6. Share Data shows how the same data can be effectively shared with different audiences. It also offers some approaches for responding to tough questions.

The six activities may be completed in any order. Select activities that best match your interest, knowledge, and skills in using data. A beginner may want to go through the modules in order. Data experts might decide they are already masters of concepts such as aggregate and disaggregate and skip "Change Your View," which defines and illustrates these basic terms. Even a data ace will gain some new tips for data use through the activities in the module.

Select the link to download the Text Version.