While working as a maternity leave replacement at Eagleridge Elementary School in the fall of 2022, Bobby Olsen noticed the vast amount of information that schools generate: test scores, attendance, student and staff surveys, and so on. He believed that this fire hose of numbers could be put to more effective use if it was sorted out and presented in a cleaner fashion.

“With this much data, there’s got to be a way to clearly sift through it and present it,” Olsen said.

The very next winter, Olsen started his new position as a Data & Assessment Coordinator for Ferndale School District and began doing just that. He prides himself on making school statistics clear, so decision-making is simplified for school staff.

“What gets me excited is, how can I make a teacher’s job easier so they can spend more time with their students, instead of figuring out the data themselves?” Olsen said. “I want to alleviate some pressure for them.”

Olsen grew up in a family of educators – his parents were both teachers, and so were many of his aunts and uncles – but he initially worked in architecture after graduating from Washington State University. After working in that field for eight years throughout the Pacific Northwest, he decided to pivot to education.

“In architecture, I was able to use my brain to be creative but my human connection was lacking,” Olsen said. “I felt teaching would be a logical next step.”

Now, even though he’s in an entirely different field, Olsen believes his architecture background helps him sift through data and present it in a way that’s useful.

“A lot of it is designing systems – trying to think about a lot of people trying to access complex systems from different places,” he said.

Another main goal of his work is to make this information clear enough so school leaders can make the right decisions to benefit students. He’s currently gathering data on looping classes, which is when one class of students moves up with the same teacher through multiple years (for example, Jordan Fearer at Cascadia Elementary has taught the same group of students in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and now first grade).

“We’ve been trying to track the progress of these cohorts of students over time to see if this is an effective model that can be used everywhere,” Olsen said.

Christine McDaniel, principal at Horizon Middle School, praised Olsen for his hard work and his data dashboard in particular, which provides staff with key information to guide student activities and initiatives.

“The addition of Bobby as an assessment coordinator has been game changing for administrators, offering expert support in quickly accessing the data needed for effective planning,” she said.

Dawn Christiana, principal of Cascadia Elementary School, also had words of praise for Olsen.

“Bobby is a thoughtful educator who is able to find ways to accomplish complex tasks, and he also asks questions that help make the outcome even better than the initial plan,” she said.