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By Lindsay Templeton
As the school year progresses and charter school students continue settling into their daily routines, FOCUS data interns are also getting acclimated to public charter schools across the city. Thanks to a grant from OSSE, FOCUS created the Student Data Intern Program, a paid internship designed to help charter schools develop and manage their data systems. FOCUS received 19 applications from schools and was able to provide 12 schools with interns for the 2013-14 school year.
FOCUS staff selected this group of 12 student interns from over 100 applications. The interns have diverse educational backgrounds and come from a variety of colleges and universities around the District, including George Washington University, Howard University, and Georgetown University. Their areas of study range from statistics to public policy to teaching to finance.
The program began with an orientation and basic training at the beginning of the year before the Student Data Interns were deployed to their assigned schools. The interns work between ten and 15 hours a week on assorted projects that are specific to their school’s respective needs. For example, some interns are compiling historical data to conduct long-term analyses on Response to Intervention (RTI) effectiveness (a framework used to identify students with learning and behavioral problems and to improve quality of instruction provided for these students); others are designing databases to help their schools collect and analyze data; and others are leading instructional workshops for teachers on how to use Excel and analyze their own student data. The interns will participate in their school’s professional development training. They will also attend FOCUS-led workshops/trainings throughout the school year on topics such as the DC charter school movement, different types of databases, and how to effectively analyze and use data.
We are excited to continue working with the Student Data Interns throughout the school year and are eager to see the impact they have on their schools. Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for Spotlight Bios on each of our Student Data Interns!