Examples of Data Collection Tools

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Which of these tools do I need?

Before selecting data collection tools, define your program’s Logic Model, which articulates with specificity how the design of a program relates to its goals, and outline a Performance Measurement Plan aligned to that model. Your Measurement  Plan defines how you will measure your program’s success, and thus determines what data you need to collect.

Table of Contents

Listed below are examples of the types of data collection tools a program could use and guidance about when to use them. These are just examples; ultimately, your program’s data collection tools should be tailored based on your Performance Measurement Plan.

Tool Description Implementation Considerations
Administrative Records and Checklists Documentation of services. Typically used to record and demonstrate compliance. 
  • Helpful to capture data related to implementation fidelity
  • Will help you to understand which of the actions outlined in the Logic Model actually happened in practice and which did not 
Rubrics Granular performance measurements (e.g. tutor effectiveness or student performance) across a set of consistent standards.
  • Makes standards clear, giving people a roadmap for improvement
  • Significant time must be invested in norming with those using the rubric to ensure consistent application across evaluations
  • Can be used to measure and communicate complex levels of student learning in a rigorous and less-subjective way
Surveys For additional survey examples and accompanying survey templates, see Tutoring Surveys. Instruments for collecting information from individuals regarding the impact and experience of the tutoring program. Best used for measuring satisfaction or shifts in efficacy and mindsets.  
  • Allows you to compare subjective experiences across different people in a standardized, quantifiable, and rigorous way 
  • Easy to administer at any scale (especially digitally)
  • Harder to ensure completion, especially if sending out to teachers, school administrators, etc. 
  • Due to standardization, doesn’t always highlight nuance 
  • For student surveys, make sure to consider student age, vocabulary, self-awareness, and intellectual maturity when designing the survey
  • Systems should be set-up to capture survey responses (e.g., Google spreadsheets, a database system, etc.) so that responses can be easily disaggregated across lines of difference (race, gender, IEP status, school site, etc.) to ensure equity in experience with tutoring
  • Should include both progress-monitoring surveys implemented a few times throughout the program and end-of-program surveys. Monitoring surveys help programs to get a pulse check from all stakeholders and adjust course, while end-of-program surveys help programs to summarize their end-of-year impact. The cadence of surveys should be determined in the Performance Measurement Plan. 
Interviews Assessments to understand motivations and experiences 
  • Can allow a program to better understand nuanced perspectives 
  • Time-consuming at scale, so will likely need to rely on a representative sample, which does not include all participants 
Student Work or Session Assessments   Products or assignments completed by the student 
  • Provides a more robust way to understand student learning 
  • Can be more subjective; tutors need more training for consistency
  • Takes significant time to evaluate 
Standardized Assessments  Tools that ask the same questions to assess student mastery of the content. 
  • Allows tutors to compare student mastery and reach a granular understanding of student achievement with minimal manual grading
  • Difficult to measure complex learning via multiple-choice questions
  • If not using an off-the-shelf assessment, work needs to be invested in developing the tool so that it is consistent across tutors 

Administrative Records and Checklists 

What are administrative records and checklists for?

Administrative records typically collect information about tutoring dosage, such as session attendance per student. Checklists are more versatile, and can both be used to facilitate and to document completion of any routine task.

These tools help program supervisors keep track of what has already been done and what still needs to be completed. They are particularly helpful for collecting data on the implementation of services; this data can then be compared against your program’s Logic Model and Measurement Plan to see which of your intended actions actually happened in practice. If your program achieves results you did not expect (either negative or positive), it is critical to understand why. For example, if your tutoring did not produce the intended impact, you need to know whether this was because of a fault in your Logic Model or because the model you designed wasn’t what actually got implemented.

Example Checklist 

This example checklist is for an in-school tutoring program to ensure a site administrator has followed all of the steps for starting the school year at a new partner school. Each item begins with a specific action verb to facilitate implementation.

Site administrator has completed the following steps by September 30:

  • Identified tutoring space within the partner school
  • Reserved tutoring space within the partner school
  • Developed schedules for tutoring with school administrators
  • Provided tutors access to school resources (email address, keys, copies) 
  • Identified the school data liaisons 
  • Developed a school culture plan with collaboration from school administration for integrating tutors into school culture 
  • Obtained all necessary signatures on partnership Memorandum of Understanding
  • Confirmed that all students in the program have completed benchmark assessments for targeting tutoring
  • Met with all collaborating teachers to orient them to the tutoring program 
  • Developed a schedule for regular meetings with collaboration teachers 
  • Confirmed that all parent consent forms have been signed for participating students 
  • Developed a sign-in procedure for tutoring sessions 
  • Scheduled ongoing dates for formal student assessments

Rubrics

What are rubrics for?

Rubrics in tutoring programs should typically be used for evaluating tutors’ effectiveness at facilitating sessions. Some programs may also choose to use rubrics as a method for evaluating student progress as well. Making rubric scores visible to the person being evaluated, whether they are a tutor or a student, helps provide clear goals for improvement. They also hold the evaluator accountable for applying consistent standards to everyone they evaluate, reducing the threat of bias.

Example Rubric

This is an example of the kind of rubric a program might use to evaluate tutors’ effectiveness at facilitating sessions.

Criteria 1) Lacking 2) Attempting 3) Foundational 4 ) Proficient 5 ) Exemplary
Tutor effectively employs tutoring facilitation strategies The tutor does not employ tutoring facilitation strategies.  The tutor employs a variety of tutoring facilitation strategies; however, their delivery is minimally effective and/or the strategies chosen do not match the content (i.e. strategies chosen are not appropriate for the material being introduced). The tutor employs a variety of tutoring facilitation strategies; however, their implementation is not entirely effective and/or the strategy chosen does not match the content (e.g., an analogy used is not student-friendly). The tutor effectively employs tutoring facilitation strategies that are appropriately matched to the content. The tutor effectively and intentionally employs tutoring facilitation strategies and thoughtfully matches the content to the strategy (e.g., there is evidence that the needs of specific students were considered).
Tutor identifies and addresses potential student misconceptions or confusions The tutor does not address student misconceptions. The tutor attempts to address student misconceptions; however, the misconceptions addressed are not aligned with the session learning goal. The tutor does not fully address student misconceptions. The tutor fully addresses student  misconceptions. The tutor fully addresses student misconceptions and uses them to promote mastery.
Tutor explains content clearly and correctly The tutor is unclear in speech delivery and/or does not present the most important points; there are several mistakes in the content. The tutor includes extraneous information, leading to a lack of clarity and/or  there are a few mistakes in the content.  The tutor includes some extraneous information that leads to a lack of clarity and/or there is one mistake in the content. The tutor uses economy of language in delivery and the content explained is clear and succinct. The tutor uses economy of language; the content is clear, succinct, and explicit. 

Surveys

What are surveys for?

Surveys allow you to compare subjective experiences across different people in a standardized, quantifiable, and rigorous way. The goal of a survey is to strike a balance between nuance and simplicity to ensure both usefulness and completion. Surveys can be used to quantify qualitative shifts in experiences and mindsets for all stakeholders in a tutoring program. 

It should be clear to respondents whether their responses are confidential and if not, with whom their responses will be shared. Typically, progress-monitoring surveys will include the respondent’s name so that tutoring program staff can follow-up with individuals to learn more about their experience, while end-of-program surveys should be anonymous as they are typically used to report out impact data. 

Example Student Survey

We would appreciate your feedback on your experience working with our tutors. 

Name: 

School: 

Please check one box per question 1 2 3 4 5
How supportive is your tutor? Not at all supportive A little bit supportive Somewhat supportive Quite supportive Extremely supportive
How often do you understand your tutor’s explanations? Almost never Once in a while Sometimes Frequently Almost all the time
How often does your tutor try a different strategy if you are having trouble understanding the lesson? Almost never Once in a while Sometimes Frequently Almost all the time
How often is the goal for each tutoring session clear to you?  Almost never Once in a while Sometimes Frequently Almost all the time
How often does your tutor make you think critically? Almost never Once in a while Sometimes Frequently Almost all the time
To what extent do you feel that your tutor respects your culture/background?  Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
How respectful is your tutor towards you? Not at all respectful A little bit respectful Somewhat respectful Quite respectful Extremely respectful

How likely are you to recommend this tutoring program to another student? 

Not Very Likely                 Very Likely
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

What did you like best about tutoring?
____________________________________

What ideas do you have about how we could make tutoring better?
____________________________________

Example Parent Survey

We would appreciate your feedback on your child’s experience working with our tutors.

Student Name:

Parent Name:

School Name:

Please check one box per question 1 2 3 4 5
How effective has the tutoring been for your child? Not at all effective A little bit effective Somewhat effective Quite effective Extremely effective
To what extent has your child improved academically as a result of tutoring? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
How informed do you feel you are on the safety guidelines and policies of the tutoring program? Not at all informed A little bit informed Somewhat informed Quite informed Extremely informed
How effective has your tutor been in communicating your child’s academic progress? Not at all effective A little bit effective Somewhat effective Quite effective Extremely effective
How often did your tutor give you strategies to support your child’s academic progress at home? Almost never Once in a while Sometimes Frequently Almost all the time
How positive is the relationship between your child and their tutor? Not at all positive A little bit positive Somewhat positive Quite positive Extremely positive

How likely are you to recommend this tutoring program to another parent?

Not Very Likely                 Very Likely
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

What do you believe has been the biggest success of the tutoring program for your child?
__________________________________

What is the biggest piece of advice you would offer to strengthen the tutoring program?
__________________________________

Example Teacher Survey

We would appreciate your feedback on your experience working with our tutors.

Teacher Name:

School Name:

Please check one box per question 1 2 3 4 5
How often did sessions focus on the most critical skills that your students needed? Almost never Once in a while Sometimes Frequently Almost all the time
To what extent has your child improved academically as a result of tutoring? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
How informed do you feel you are on student progress in the tutoring program? Not at all informed A little bit informed Somewhat informed Quite informed Extremely informed
How effective were tutors in leveraging data to target sessions with students? Not at all effective A little bit effective Somewhat effective Quite effective Extremely effective
To what extent do you feel that tutors had strong content knowledge? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
To what extent do you feel that tutors developed effective professional relationships with students? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount

How likely are you to recommend this tutoring program to another teacher?

Not Very Likely                 Very Likely
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

What do you believe has been the biggest success of the tutoring program for your students?
__________________________________

What is the biggest piece of advice you would offer to strengthen the tutoring program?
__________________________________

 

Example School Administrator Survey

We would appreciate your feedback on your experience working with our tutors.

Teacher Name:

School Name:

Please check one box per question 1 2 3 4 5
To what extent do you feel that tutoring was valuable to your school? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
To what extent do you feel that tutoring sessions focused on the most critical skills that students needed? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
How informed do you feel you are on student progress in the tutoring program? Not at all informed A little bit informed Somewhat informed Quite informed Extremely informed
How effective were tutors in leveraging data to target sessions with students? Not at all effective A little bit effective Somewhat effective Quite effective Extremely effective
To what extent do you feel that tutors had strong content knowledge? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
To what extent do you feel that tutors developed effective professional relationships with students? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount

How likely are you to recommend this tutoring program to another teacher?

Not Very Likely                 Very Likely
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

What do you believe has been the biggest success of the tutoring program for your school?
__________________________________

What is the biggest piece of advice you would offer to strengthen the tutoring program?
__________________________________

Tutor Surveys

Below are examples of two types of tutor surveys. The first is a Training Survey, the kind your program might give at the end of a training session or professional development event. (Note: When developing surveys aligned to a training or event, you should align them directly with objectives of the training.) The second is a Pulse Check Survey, the kind your program might give a few times throughout the cadence of the program to see how your tutors are thinking and feeling.

Example Training Survey

(Note: If you choose to use this example as a template, you may choose to remove the bolded descriptor before each question.)

Tutor Name:

School Name:

Please check one box per question 1 2 3 4 5
Mindsets: How effective was training at building your understanding of the importance of holding high expectations for all students? Not at all effective A little bit effective Somewhat effective Quite effective Extremely effective
Mindsets: How excited are you to meet and build relationships with students and partners in our school and communities? Not at all excited A little bit excited Somewhat excited Quite excited Extremely excited
Content: To what extent did training build your understanding of the content in order to deliver rigorous instruction? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Content: To what extent did training help you build skill in the strategies that you will use in the tutoring session? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Belief in Effectiveness of Training: To what extent do you believe your training experiences are helping you to build the context necessary to start tutoring? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Belief in Effectiveness of Training: To what extent do you believe your training experiences are helping you to build the skills necessary to start tutoring? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Culture: How often did training create opportunities for you to build strong relationships with other tutors? Almost never Once in a while Sometimes Frequently Almost all the time
Logistics: How often did the smoothness of training logistics allow you to engage in daily content in a meaningful way? Almost never Once in a while Sometimes Frequently Almost all the time
Overall Experience: To what extent did the training space create a welcoming environment for you given your background (e.g. race, ethnicity, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, etc.)? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount

How likely are you to recommend this tutoring program to a friend?

Not Very Likely                 Very Likely
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 

Example Pulse Check Survey

(Note: If you choose to use this example as a template, you may choose to remove the bolded descriptor before each question.)

Please check one box per question Stronghly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
Overall Experience: To what extent does the program create a welcoming environment for you given your background (e.g. race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc.)? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Support: To what extent do you feel supported by your direct supervisor? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Support: To what extent do you believe the observation and debrief cycles helped you to become a more effective tutor? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Support: How effective are the tools provided to collect and analyze your students’ data?  Not at all effective A little bit effective Somewhat effective Quite effective Extremely effective
Support: How effective are data review meetings at supporting you to make informed decisions about how to target student needs in the tutoring session?  Not at all effective A little bit effective Somewhat effective Quite effective Extremely effective
Mindsets: To what extent do you believe that coaching is critical to your own improvement. Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Mindsets: To what extent do you believe that your students can complete challenging work? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Strength of Content Instruction: To what extent are you confident in your ability to teach difficult content? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Relationship: To what extent have you built effective relationships with your students’ families? Not at all A little bit Somewhat Quite a bit A tremendous amount
Relationship: How often do you collaborate with your students’ classroom teacher?  Almost never Once in a while Sometimes Frequently Almost all the time

How likely are you to recommend this tutoring program to a friend?

Not Very Likely                 Very Likely
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Interviews

What are interviews for?

There are two main types of interviews your program should routinely conduct: Exit Interviews and Research Interviews. Exit Interviews aim to ascertain why a student, family, or school decided not to continue receiving tutoring through the program (or why a tutor left their role with the program). These types of interviews can help identify trends and fix short-term problems. Research Interviews usually happen much later, once the program has both student alumni and tutor alumni, to gather data on student and tutor experience of the program and its long-term impact on their academic and professional trajectories.

Example Exit Interview: Parents 

This is an example list of questions from a tutoring program that was trying to determine why some parents withdrew their students from the program’s tutoring.

  1. Why did you decide to leave the tutoring program? 
  2. What did you find to be effective about the tutoring program? 
  3. What did you dislike about the tutoring program? 
  4. How would you describe the quality of communication of your tutor regarding your child’s progress? Did you feel informed? 
  5. Has the tutoring program met the expectations you had when you enrolled your student? If so, how? If not, how did it fall short? 
  6. What recommendations do you have for us for continuing to improve our tutoring? 

Example Research Interview: Tutor Alumni

This is an example list of questions from a tutoring program that was curious to learn how they influenced some of their tutors’ decisions to pursue careers as teachers. 

  1. What have you been doing professionally since your role as a tutor with our program? 
  2. What attracted you to the opportunity to tutor with our program originally? 
  3. When did you decide to become a teacher?  What factors most influenced your decision?
  4. What supports did our tutoring program provide you for becoming a teacher? Which ones were most valuable?  Which were less valuable?
  5. What (if anything) do you wish had been different about the support our tutoring program provided? Why? 
  6. When you entered the profession, did you notice any differences between you and your peers at your school who were also first-year teachers? What were they?

Student Work: Session Assessments (or “Exit Tickets”)

What are session assessments for?

Reviewing a brief student assessment or an “exit ticket” can help tutors understand whether a student has mastered that session’s content. This review can help tutors reflect on the effectiveness of their instruction with specific students, as well as more effectively design future sessions.

Programs may choose to use blended learning software that includes built-in session assessments to measure student mastery of concepts. Some of these session assessments are adaptive, using automated data analysis to tailor their content to each individual student. Find out more about blended learning software and how to use it here.  

Example: Session Assessment

This “exit ticket” requires students to demonstrate their mastery of a single standard. By requiring students to solve three problems, tutors can adequately identify misconceptions. If students are only given one problem, tutors may incorrectly interpret a precision error as a misconception. The exit ticket also includes a “Student Confidence Box” in which students rate their confidence with the skills assessed. Clear instructions must be shared with students on how to assess their confidence to obtain valid ratings. Tutors and students can work toward improving self-awareness by comparing student confidence to student performance on the task. 

Name: __________________________
4.04 Comprehensive Factoring Review		 Confidence:
 
Simplify completely and name your factoring method(s):
1. 4x2 - 4x -48 Factoring Method: ___________________________________________
2. 9x6 -16a4 Factoring Method: ___________________________________________
3. 12x6y2 - 16x4y2 Factoring Method: ___________________________________________

Standardized Assessments

What are standardized assessments for?

Programs use standardized tests for benchmarking students at the beginning of the tutoring program, measuring progress, and determining which students qualify for Problem-Targeted tutoring services. Consider your context! If your program is collaborating with a school or district, you will likely want to use the same assessments used by the school or district.

Example: Standardized Assessments

This list provides some common standardized assessments. It is neither exhaustive nor prescriptive: just because an assessment is listed does not mean it will be relevant to your program, nor does an assessment’s absence mean it won’t be.

Name of Assessment Description Content Area Grade Levels
STEP Online, formative literacy assessment. Shows student progress through 19 developmental steps towards reading proficiency. ELA K-5
Voyager Sopris Learning Acadience Reading K-6 Formerly known as DIBELS Next. Measures student progress towards early literacy skills. ELA  K-6
DIBELS Assesses early literacy skills. Combine with regular benchmark testing, up to three times a year. Identifies students at risk of not meeting end-of-year expectations in reading. ELA K-8
DRA (Third Edition) Identifies students’ independent reading level by assessing engagement, oral fluency, and comprehension. Identifies students’ Focus for Instruction. Given up to three times a year. ELA K-8
Renaissance STAR  Computer-adaptive assessments. Provides percentile rank, grade equivalent, zone of proximal development, and subdomain scores. ELA/Math  Math: K-12  ELA: 2-12
Edmentum Study Island  Assessments Incorporates formative assessment questions into instruction. Aligns with NY State standards. Integrates with NWEA MAP. ELA/Math K-12 
Scantron Assessments  Provides formative, interim, and summative assessments (both online and paper-based). ELA/Math  K-12 
Galileo Benchmark Assessments Teachers create flexible progress monitoring assessments from an item bank. Administered three times a year. Predicts student achievement on state tests. ELA/Math/Science K-12
Iready  A full Assessment Suite, including Diagnostic, Standards Mastery, Algebra Readiness, Dyslexia Screener, and Oral Fluency Assessments. ELA/Math K-12
Fountas & Pinell  Used to identify students’ independent and instructional reading levels and document student growth. Levels range from A-Z and map to grade levels. ELA K-12
ANET Interim Assessments  Online teacher platform provides student reports, as well as sample lesson plans and planning tools. Used four times a year. ELA/Math 3-8 
Case Benchmark Assessments  Developed to mirror state standardized assessments. Administered every 9 weeks. ELA/Math 3-9 
ISTEEP - Advanced Literacy Assessment ELA  Assesses student progress towards Common Core Standards in ELA. Includes both literature and informational texts. ELA 4-9 
Smarter Balanced Assessments Interim and computer-adaptive summative assessments. Designed according to UDL/accessibility guidelines. ELA/Math 3-8, 11
Cognia Assessments Previously known as Measured Progress. Three assessments a year. Both interim and formative assessments are available. ELA/Math/STEM 3-12 
NWEA - MAP Growth Assessments  Measures student growth between each test. Can be used up to four times per academic year.  ELA/Math  3-12 
Common Lit  Interim reading assessment. Taken up to four times a year. ELA 3-12
MDTP  Promotes and supports student readiness and success in college math courses. Math 9-12
PSAT 8/9 Predictive test that measures student academic preparation and predicts future student success on the SAT. ELA/Math  8-9
PSAT 10 Predictive test that measures student academic preparation and predicts future student success on the SAT. ELA/Math 10
SAT Predictive test that measures student academic preparation and predicts future success in college. Includes reading, writing/ language, math, and essay sections. ELA/Math 11-12
ACT Predictive test designed to assess students’ core content knowledge and predict future success in college. Includes English, math, reading, and science sections. ELA/Math/Science 11-12