Strategies for Data UseEveryone Achieves. No Exceptions. No Excuses.

Gillian WilliamsPresident

The Rensselaerville Institute

Three Key Strategies

• Diagnosis– Yourself as Sparkplug– Your Program

• Helping Students• Aligning Resources

What is the thing you most control or can influence in

your young peoples’ success?

How to Diagnose Yourself

• What sparks change?• What keeps change going in the right

direction?

ALWAYS COMES DOWN TO THE PERSON!

Some Sparkplug Characteristics

• Energy• Bias to Act• Results Orientation

Energy

• Stamina and staying power• Enthusiasm and optimism• Passion for achievement• Motivate others with forward momentum

Bias To Act

• Focus on solutions• Sense of urgency• Opportunity-driven• Impatient

Results Orientation

• Outcome matters more than process• Need for achievement• Clear and compelling targets for success• Ability to get and use data

ENERGY – BIAS TO ACT – RESULTS

• Think about what each characteristic “looks like” in you• Be brutally honest• This is not what you want to be – it’s

who you are right now

Data Use: What Gets In the Way?

• Complexity. Too much information is as bad as too little.

• Timing. Year-end performance data is not available until after the following school year begins.

• Information Export. Collecting data can feel more like a requirement for someone else than a tool for you.

• Validation. We look for information that shows progress vs problems – with information as a way to improve.

• Disconnect. There’s often a gap between quantities and qualities.

How To Diagnose Your Program

• Be quick• Be personal• Be honest• Be data-informed

What’s Wrong?

• ACHIEVEMENT!– What’s trending?– Where are the gaps – gender, race, ethnicity,

socioeconomic status?– What’s “beneath” the trends?

What’s Your Trajectory?

What’s Blocking Success?

• External versus Internal• Structural versus (Inter)Personal

The Power of Targets

1. What Can You Target?– Academic Achievement– Behavior Change– Quantifiable Results

2. How can data help you do this?3. What data do you need?

ACADEMIC GOAL SETTING - Reading

Student: Sage Jefferson Teacher: LockwoodPeriod: 4

2010 Score: 72% 2011 Score: 68%70% = passing October – Benchmark #1:54% December – Benchmark #2: 62% February – Benchmark #3:

2012 Target : 410 (75%)

Current standards to work on:Main idea – especially the difference between main idea and theme and how to find each of them in fiction.Inferences – remember that this is about what can be figured out from the text – not just what is already written. What will you change now to hit your target?When I am reading I will ask myself what the main idea is as I go along in the reading. When I read at home I will try to read fiction books and look for both the main idea and the theme and write them down in my reader’s journal.I will try to think about what I read more instead of just going back and looking for the sentence that has the right answer.

What support would you like?I want to move my seat away from Jeremiah during reading class because we always talk about other stuff.I need a new reading journal because my old one got lost.I want to be in the after school reading club.

How can you involve your family and friends in meeting your target?After I read at night I am going to ask my auntie to look at my reading journal.I am going to see if my friends want to go to the library sometimes on the weekends. _______________________ _______________________ _______________________Student Signature Staff Signature Parent Signature

What Can You Do To Help?When you look at this student’s data –

what things can you and your program or service do that would further support this

student’s targets?

Resource Alignment

Better Alignment

• Start with TARGETS• Get Rid of What Pulls You Back• Re-Position What You Have to Keep• Take Better Aim• Seek Out What’s Missing

Be the cafeteria lady

Everyone Achieves. No Exceptions. No Excuses.