Data Manager

Deepti joined the Read Charlotte Team in October 2016 as the Data and Research Manager. Most recently, she served as a Founding Director of Teacher Support with OneGoal New York City. She trained and coached high school teachers to use data to improve college enrollment and persistence outcomes for their students. At Teach For America Charlotte, Deepti used design thinking and analysis to understand factors contributing to teacher retention in Charlotte and, as a result, created the Leroy “Pop” Miller Fellowship. She also worked for the NYC Department of Education on the Special Education Reform team. Deepti served as an Education Pioneers and Americorps fellow. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her favorite childhood book is “The Polar Express.”

What do you wish you knew from the beginning?

I wish I had a better understanding of data capacity among organizations. It would have allowed us to better customize our model, theory of change and all of our support. If I could go back and do it over again, I would have:

1. Completed a more comprehensive needs assessment and in-depth interviews with each Partner to better understand their needs.
2. Developed prototypes of the Data Collaborative model and co-created with Partners prior to the launch of the program.

These two things would have shifted our model to more closely align to our Partners’ needs faster. We eventually were able to get better alignment, but it took time to get there.

What body of work are you most proud of? Why?

I am most proud of the fact that every single element of our model, training, coaching, toolsand technical assistance has evolved since we started. Our Team’s commitment to constantly seeking feedback, incorporating it and refining our work helped us achieve success with this project.

Where would you push the work if the project was going to continue? Why?

I would focus on implementation data. I would continue to focus efforts on how we can create better decision support data systems to improve the data to insight to the action loop for implementation. I would work with Partners to better understand the barriers in using implementation data. What are the barriers to collecting implementation data? What are the barriers to using it? What challenges do you experience coaching or training teachers to improve their practice? How can we make dashboards to facilitate the ease of use of implementation data? What would incentivize you or your staff to use implementation data on a biweekly or more often basis?

Once these questions are answered, I would work to design solutions and test them with Partners.

What do you recommend when there's resistance from Participants in adopting the work?

A few things:

• 1. Compassionate patience: It’s 100% human for us to resist what’s new or different. Give Partners time to adjust, learn and try on these new strategies.
• 2. Focus on building trust and relationships: I believe strongly that people can’t learn in environments where there’s not space to mess up. In order to feel secure enough to try something new, we need trust in what we’re doing and that we’ll get the support we need. Focus on building trust with each Partner. Get to know them, their work, and what drives them. Work gets done through the strength of our relationships.
• 3. Adopt a beginner’s mindset and create together: Approach each situation, circumstance and problem with a beginner’s mind. This will allow you to see new possibilities and learn with Partners. If we had the answers, we wouldn’t need to test new solutions. There’s so much more that can happen if we create with Partners.