Becoming a Data Champion in 6 Steps

K-12 school districts have more options than ever for accessing student performance data. As a result, we’re inundated with numbers, charts, graphs and other visual representations of our students’ progress and growth.

The question is how can we use that data to motivate teachers, inform instructional practices and improve students’ learning? The answer: Become a data champion.

Following are six elements of becoming a data champion to positively affect student and teacher performance.

Identify and focus on key goals.

Most districts and schools today simply don’t have the time, money, materials or personnel to do everything that needs to be done. So instead of trying to accomplish everything at once, identify a few key goals to execute well. Then determine what support and resources are needed to achieve those goals.

In Prince George’s County, Md., our district placed its emphasis on literacy. We believe if we focus on culture, data and performance with a lens on literacy, then we will produce outstanding academic achievement for all students. Based on the Common Core State Standards for mathematics and English language arts and research by the National Council of Teachers of English, we developed the following definition for literacy in our district and shared it with all schools:

Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, listen, and use numeracy. In Prince George’s County Public Schools, our focus on literacy emphasizes:

• Achieving the ability to report, evaluate, gather, synthesize and comprehend information and ideas;
• Conducting original research to answer questions or solve problems;
• Analyzing and creating print and nonprint texts in media forms;
• Using numbers to process information, solve problems and interpret data.
  

We also asked all 209 schools to identify a focus area for schoolwide improvement under this literacy umbrella. Then, within each school, the instructional leadership team concentrates on this focus area in its discussion and analysis of data, and all teacher teams direct their attention to this focus area.

Set expectations for data monitoring.

In any district or school, no matter how large or small, variance is the enemy of excellence. If staff members are moving in different directions, it’s impossible to reach the finish line. So after identifying key goals, establish data points to drive and measure progress toward those goals. This will ensure everyone is moving in the same direction.

In addition to identifying what data will be monitored, set clear expectations for how and when they will be monitored. As a school district, we have adopted the Data Wise Process developed by Kathryn Boudett and Elizabeth City. All schools and all offices within the school district are charged with following the eight-step process. A central-office department was created to support schools and offices by modeling the process and supporting the expectations and implementation of effective data monitoring. Stakeholders at the district and school levels are provided with tools and training to access and understand data. Systemically, we use organizational psychologist Chris Argyris’s Ladder of Inference as a data-analysis tool that emphasizes coming to a collective understanding of what the data actually tell us before we make meaning of the data and take action.

In our district, we use an assessment and data management system called Performance Matters to correlate and analyze performance data from multiple sources, including state assessments, standardized tests and local assessments. Using the system’s interactive dashboards and color-coded reports, we can easily slice and dice our data to monitor student performance in real time, evaluate the impact of our instruction and analyze student growth over time.

Regardless of the data system used, all teachers should understand how to monitor the data on their own and in groups. Decide which reports will be the most meaningful to teachers and be sure they are trained in using those data to affect their classroom work.

Make time for teacher collaboration.

Toward that end, at the school level, ensure that the master schedule allows time for teachers to collaborate. Professional learning communities provide a great way for teachers to meet regularly to continuously use formal and informal data to inform their instruction, identify and share best practices and inform the school improvement process. One principal, during the summer after his first year at a middle school, insisted that the master schedule be adjusted to allow all teams, not just math and English Language Arts, to have meeting time during the instructional day. This shift has allowed for all teachers to be a part of regular, data-based professional learning.

Within each school in our district, all staff members meet at least twice a month on a team dedicated to working collaboratively to improve teaching and learning. Further, the school’s instructional leadership team makes sure this time is protected from other uses. The teams also ensure the PLCs have complete, coherent inventories of the data sources and instructional initiatives available to them, so teachers can effectively analyze and act on their data.

Through the PLCs, we want staff members to examine multiple data sources and hold one another accountable for using data responsibly. By maintaining a relentless focus on evidence, they can choose appropriate, research-based instructional strategies to address any problem areas and discuss what the effective implementation of those strategies will look like in their classrooms.

Within the PLCs, teachers also work together to identify the short-, medium- and long-term data sources they will use to evaluate the impact of their action plans on student learning. In addition, they set the individual- or group-level student learning goals they intend to reach through their action plans.

Meet with teachers one-on-one to discuss data.

Of course, creating a structure in which teachers can meet to discuss data is meaningless if someone does not facilitate learning and hold participants accountable for reflection and next steps. Whether it’s the vice principal, department chair or central-office administrator, ensure someone regularly meets one-on-one with teachers to discuss the data they’ve collected on their students’ learning and to provide support for improvement.

Such discussions might include these questions (which I’ve used in both large and small school districts):

• How did your students perform on assessment 1 compared to Teacher A and Teacher B?
• What did proficiency look like on this assessment? Describe the range-finding process you used with your colleagues.
• If a discrepancy is noted, what did you and your colleagues discuss as root causes of the discrepancy in performance?
• How do you plan to re-teach and re-assess your students if needed?
• What supports do you need to improve these data?
  

Don’t play “gotcha” with classroom data.

There should be no surprises about what you are looking for in your district or school in terms of goals and expectations. As education leaders, our job is to support teachers and let them know we see our role as providing them the necessary resources to improve their formative data.

One way to do this is to use post-observation conferences to have a data discussion. To create powerful post-observation conferences:

• Send a letter to teachers discussing your expectations for teaching and learning, and the data you will monitor.
• Review (a) grades by race, (b) grade distributions of special education and English language learner students, (c) samples of rigorous work and rubrics, (d) unit test data and (e) formative test data.
• If the data is not exemplary, set supportive steps for improvement.
• Begin the next post-observation talk with a discussion of what has changed since the last meeting.
• In your post-observation written reports, include an analysis of these data sources.
  

The bottom line: Never blame people for what the data show, but hold them accountable for having a plan to do something about it.

Act now.

Data should be used to help things go right, not just to fix problems. From the district level to the individual student level, use data to create a sense of urgency and to motivate progress toward the goals you’ve established. It’s also important to regularly celebrate successes along the journey.

Thanks to our sharp focus on literacy and systemic, data-driven improvement processes, we’re seeing results. After years of flat performance in 2nd grade in reading on the Scholastic Reading Inventory, we saw a 6 percent spike in student growth. We also saw a 4 percent increase in our 9th-grade promotion rate. In addition, our 2014-15 graduation rate was the highest we’ve ever had.

In the end, remember that school and district improvement is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s important to do things well and keep building on that, rather than changing goals and priorities from month to month. Most importantly, remember that data analysis is about changing a child’s life.