Data Gathering

Data management may not be fun, but it's the oil that keeps the engine of your program running smoothly. This page covers the benefits of data collection, the type of data coordinators should track, and the questions you should address with any Regional/District coordinators. 

If you are starting as an Affiliate coordinator, there is some background on your program and K-12 in your state, which will be beneficial information for you to know as you get started. 

• Budgets: What is your annual budget? Do you have any expectations for fundraising or revenue generation?

• K-12 Environment: What is the K-12 structure in your state? Are there state standards you can review? What part of the state government oversees this, and who is in charge?

• Historical Data: What data has been collected in the past and how? Do you have copies of the annual status surveys for the national staff that your predecessors completed? If not, check in with Kim, who can share prior-year data.

You and your institution are the primary beneficiaries of data collection. By collecting program data, you can:

• Analyze and track participation in your program over time and in various ways (e.g., geographically, demographically, socio-economically, etc.)

• Calculate money spent per student.

• Assess programmatic strengths and weaknesses.

• Accurately state your program reach.

• Compare your program to those in other Affiliates.

• Establish a baseline from which success can be measured.

• Set goals and benchmarks for program growth planning.

• Create awesome visuals and statements of value, strength, and need for use in demonstrating the value of your program internally and externally, such as applying for funding and seeking sponsors.

In short, knowledge is power, and a system to collect knowledge is a characteristic of sound infrastructure.  

• Sample visuals of program data

NHD-Wide Annual Reports

Moving now to the aggregate, NHD needs School, Regional, and Affiliate data for the same reasons. Here are some of the questions that the national program regularly receives from board members, potential donors, members of Congress, and potential new Affiliate sponsors:

• What does a typical Affiliate program budget include, and how much is it? 

• What's the median Affiliate budget?

• How many teachers and students participate in the entire international program?  

• Has participation been increasing over time?

• How is it broken down by age group, type of school, etc.?

• What is the area of greatest need?

Every summer, Kim sends a survey for Affiliate coordinators to complete. The survey requests participation data from every program level. Kim aggregates the data into reports for the NHD Board of Trustees and coordinators. View aggregate reports on the Coordinator Portal.

Teachers/Schools

Participating: You will need to know what schools and teachers are participating in your program so you can communicate with them throughout the year. You should maintain a list of teachers and their contact information at each school participating in the program, organized by Region/District if you have them. You will need this to communicate important and timely information about the program in your Affiliate, and specifically contests. 

• In addition to the teachers' names, email address, school name, and address, try to collect the number of students participating in the program at the school level. This number will often be much larger than the number of students participating in Regional/District contests and reflects the true reach of the History Day program in your Affiliate. Also, count those students whose teachers are using the NHD program in the classroom but are not engaging with the contest structure.

  • Utah History Day Custom zFairs Questions for School-Level Participation

  • Minnesota History Day Google Form Participation Survey

Interested: Even if a teacher is not participating in a current year, it's worth hanging on to their contact information. Deciding to jump into the program often takes a percolation period before a teacher commits. Keep a record (as simple as a spreadsheet) of teachers interested in learning more. After your initial contact with them, check back in to see if they have any questions or an opportunity to judge. These can be some successful leads for teacher recruitment.  

• Minnesota History Day "Interest" form on Affiliate website: A simple web form on your website allows a teacher to reach out for more information. Send them an information packet or email with links to the website, and follow up with a personal email or offer to talk on the phone.

• Virginia History Day Newsletter Registration: Google Form to indicate interest in Virginia History Day

Judges

Previous Judges: Keep a roster of judges who have previously judged for you and their contact information. This will be your first group of people to contact when recruiting judges. A spreadsheet can work fine if you don't have a database to manage this information. 

Interested Judges: You will be contacted by people who are interested in judging at times when there are no opportunities. Rather than hope these people remember to check your website when judge sign-up opens, keep a listing of interested judges and their contact information so you can reach out to them. 

Other Questions and Reminders

What if I don't have any of this data?

If you are a new coordinator, especially if you are at a new institution that didn't share this information, I am sorry. You are in a tough spot to begin rebuilding your program's data. 

• Contact any Regional or District coordinators.

• Log into your zFairs account and see what data you can scour from there.

• Ask around for printed or digital programs from prior-year contests, which might have the names of teachers and judges.

• Reach Contact NHD to ask for prior-year reports and strategize other Affiliate-specific data sources.

Respecting Privacy

Remember: It's always a best practice to use "BCC" when emailing a large group of people to keep their email addresses hidden from others receiving the message. Likewise, be sure to include a statement at the bottom of the message about how to opt out of communications, follow up, and remove them from your lists when someone asks. 

Regarding data storage, be mindful of who has access to the data, especially student data. How are you limiting access and keeping it safe? 

Keep Your Data Clean

There's nothing more frustrating than sending a message and receiving many bounce-backs. Having dirty data is also a great way to flag your email address as spam. Rather than ignore the bounce-backs, first check that the problem was not because you sent a group message. If the address bounces again, it's in your best interest to keep your data clean by updating your data source. Remove the inactive email from the spreadsheet or database, and leave a note for yourself that their email address failed. 

If you have Regional/District coordinators, you need to have clear expectations on who is tracking what data and how it will be shared between program levels. Using one of the following two options for your data management relationship will set your program up for the best success. 

Centrally Managed Data: In this model, the Affiliate coordinator manages the data for the program. Best-case scenario, you have a shared database or spreadsheets that track participating schools/teachers and which regional/district contest they are participating in, interested teachers and how you or regional/district coordinators have followed up with them, and judges and which regional/district or Affiliate events they have participated in. While you may have central responsibility to manage the data, you could give regional/district coordinators access to edit or add information.

Shared Data Management: In this model, you should agree with regional/district coordinators who is tracking the data and for what. They may want to manage their database/spreadsheet of participating schools/teachers, interested teachers, and judges. In this case, you would pass along information to them but not be responsible for managing the data. Best-case scenario, you would have access to at least view the data and could archive an annual listing in case there is a change in leadership at the regional/district level.

See the Regional/District Management page for more on cultivating these relationships.