Google Data Studio

Teacher pay models can get complicated quickly. Point-based systems are especially interesting because they can create clear incentives for experience, roles, outcomes, and other factors, but they can also be hard to explain in a simple way.

This dashboard was modeled from the Austin ISD Comprehensive Compensation Package plan as a quick example of how visualization can clarify complicated policy. In just a couple of hours sitting in class, a dense compensation structure became something people could click through, test, and understand.

These are some of my favorite projects: small, focused builds that take a confusing policy, report, or spreadsheet and turn it into something more useful.

School safety funding is often grant-based, which means local education agencies must apply for funds rather than receiving a uniform allocation. As a result, funding can vary widely across districts, especially when viewed on a per-pupil basis or compared to the number of schools served.

This quick dashboard project was built to make those differences easier to see and communicate. By translating funding allocations into simple visuals and plain-language comparisons, the dashboard helps leaders, advocates, and community members quickly understand where school safety investments are concentrated and where gaps may exist.

The goal was to support clearer advocacy: take a complicated funding structure and make it easier to explain, question, and discuss.

Educational agencies already collect a tremendous amount of semi-structured data through accountability reporting, required state systems, local processes, and day-to-day operations. The challenge is that this data is often collected for compliance, then left sitting in systems that are difficult for leaders to explore. I build state-, district-, and school-level dashboards that turn existing data into tools for decision-making, pattern-finding, and systemic improvement.

Student discipline data is a great example.

Most districts already collect detailed discipline information for required reporting. A well-designed dashboard can repurpose that same data for formative decision-making. At the district level, leaders can examine common referrals, consequences, locations, trends, and patterns disaggregated by race/ethnicity, gender, age, special services status, and other student characteristics. Dashboards can also highlight disproportionality, risk ratios, age of onset for substance use, and areas where systems may be producing uneven outcomes.

At the school level, these dashboards give leadership teams the information they need to ask better questions and take action within an MTSS structure. When paired with coaching and consultation, the dashboard becomes more than a reporting tool. It helps teams hold onto a clear vision, monitor implementation, and make practical adjustments over time.

The goal is simple: bring existing data to life with a manageable technical lift and make it useful for the people closest to the work.

NAEP data has a lot to offer, but it is not always easy to explore in a quick, practical way. I started with a CSV of 2022 NAEP scores, then pulled in additional historical datasets so I could look at trends over time and compare my state with nearby neighbors and local comparison areas.

After cleaning, combining, and reshaping the data, I built a quick interactive dashboard to answer the questions I wanted to explore: How have scores changed over time? How does one state compare to another? What patterns become clearer when the data is easier to click through?

This dashboard is live, so feel free to explore the data yourself.