In preparing to collect data, the team should consider and discuss how to use both internal and external data to address these five key considerations in assessment design:

1. What data needs to be collected?
2. What sources can be used to obtain the data? Will new worksheets or reports need to be created to capture data?
3. What issues or challenges might affect data collection efforts?
4. In light of the potential issues or challenges, are there alternative methods that could be used to collect data? (Data collection methods are discussed in Step 3.)
5. How will the data be displayed or disseminated after it is collected and analyzed? Visualizing this ahead of time will help frame how the data is collected and organized.