Putting Your Data to Work for Student Success

Week Three:

A Culture of Inquiry and Action09.22.10 – 09.28.10

Learning Objectives• Identify the key stakeholders in data

conversations and explain the different needs and perspectives for each group.

• Summarize how the use of data conversations and data-based decision-making encourages a culture of inquiry and action.

• Demonstrate an understanding of policy implications in creating and sustaining a cycle of inquiry formed by a culture of data conversations.

• Recognize and understand the organizational implications of creating a data accountability system.

Key Stakeholders

Stakeholders within the education ecosystem. 

StudentsParentsTeachersAdministratorsSchool Board Members

Community MembersHigher Education CommunityState Education SystemBusiness CommunityState-Federal Policymakers

Key Stakeholders

• Each of the stakeholders will want to ask different questions and need different types of data and information. 

• Ideological DifferencesCompeting belief systems about what is desirable and about how the world works or could be improved. Beliefs are rooted in values more than on empirical evidence.

Key Stakeholders

Action-Oriented Research

Action research is simply a form of self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out.

The Action Research Process:

• Look - building a picture and gathering information. Evaluating, defining and describing the problem to be investigated and the context in which it is set.

• Think - interpreting and explaining. Analyze, interpret, and reflect on the situation. Look for areas of success, deficiencies, issues and problems.

• Act - resolving the problems. Evaluate the effectiveness, appropriateness, and outcomes of the actions.

Action-Oriented Research

Culture of Inquiry

• Leadership activities that bring systematic information into consideration by all stakeholders.

• Embodies vision, values, theories of action and available data in cycles of data-informed inquiry and action.

• Builds a culture  that supports inquiry into the problems and challenges confronting the district. -  develops trust and creates a safe environment for inquiry (asking and answering questions)

• Encourages distributed and shared leadership by recognizing knowledge and skills often are located in a community of practice.

Stages of a Cycle of Inquiry

Purpose:  to raise questions about practice, develop insights into then problems by considering what can be learned from data and practice.

• Focusing and Framing the Issues for Inquiry• Accessing-searching for data and evidence• Making sense of data and understanding

implications for action• Taking action and communicating the action to all

stakeholders• Learning from action through feedback and further

inquiry

Stages of a Cycle of Inquiry

Data Wise Process

Is designed to turn schools into learning organizations capable of continuous introspection and improvement. The model encourages the development of an interlocking system of teams, a schedule with time for teacher collaboration and peer observation, and mechanisms by which teachers are held accountable for implementing new instructional strategies.

Data Wise Process

Collective responsibility for learning

In order to re-frame the learner-centered problem as a problem of instruction, teachers must reflect on the link between instructional practice and student  learning, rather than attribute learning difficulties to weak students or deficient  home lives.

Data Wise Process

A shared understanding of effective practice

Before they are able to articulate a problem of practice, teachers must come to an  understanding of what effective instruction for the identified learning problem would look like.

Data Wise Process

Classrooms open to teacher colleagues for observation and analysis

In order to articulate a problem of practice teachers must make use of instructional data which they collect through observations of their colleagues'  classrooms and contrast current practice with their shared expectation of effective  instruction for the identified learning problem.

Data Wise Process

8 Steps - Data Wise Process

Prepare

1.  Organize for Collaborative Work

2.  Build Assessment Literary

Inquire

3. Create Data Overview

4. Dig into Student Data

5. Examine Instruction

Act

6. Develop Action Plan

7.  Plan to Assess Progress

8.  Act and Assess

What Are Data Teams?

Small grade-level or department teams that examine individual student work generated from common formative assessments 

What Are Data Teams?

Data Team Actions

“Data Teams adhere to continuous improvement cycles, examine patterns and trends, and establish specific timelines, roles, and responsibilities to facilitate analysis that results in action.”

(S. White, Beyond the Numbers, 2005)

The Data Team Process

Step 1: Collect and chart data (cause and effect)

Step 2: Analyze strengths and obstacles

Step 3: Establish goals: set, review, revise

Step 4: Select instructional strategies

Step 5: Determine results indicators to determine if:– If strategy is being implemented

– If strategy is having intended effect on student learning and improved performance