Session Two

• Review SEF analysis

– Benefits

– Issues

Data Wise

Section II: Inquire

Step ThreeCreating a Data Overview

Step Four: Digging Into Data

Step Five: Examining Instruction

Step Three

• Create a Data Overview (data team)

Decide on an educational question.

Issues

Step Three

• Create a Data Overview

Decide on how to present the data framing the question.

Issues

Determine the purpose of the data display based on the conversation you want your audience to have about the data.

Data Overview

• What do you want to emphasize?

Celebrate what you do well.

What else can we work on to improve our school?

Graphics

Keep focus on specific issue

Condense information in a small space

Stimulate conversation

Tailored to audience

Trends easily identified

Defines importance of data

Provides rationale and purpose

Good Displays

• Clear coding and labels

• Uncluttered, clear data

• Stimulate questions for deeper inquiry

Drawing Comparisons

• Make logical comparisons• Base comparisons on student

achievement• Moment in time snapshot• Focus attention to emerging questions• Keep evaluation out of the conversations.• Talk about data, not people

Raise questions, don’t make judgments

Analysis Questions

• What do you see?

• What do you make of it?

Protocols/Strategies

• Pair/Share

• Continuum

• Question Formulation

Look at the Data

• Use Pair/Share to “see” the data and begin developing questions you want to ask about the data.

• Share with another pair.

• Choose the question you think will get you the most valuable information if it were answered.

Elementary SchoolsFifth Grade

First Quarter Scores

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10

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60

70

80

Reading Writing Math Science

East

West

North

Data Overview

• Create graphic displays to make underlying educational stories and themes transparent.

• Use the graphic displays to stimulate conversation.

The Data Overview helps the staff

ask the “What” questions.

What does the data say about student achievement?

What areas can we celebrate?

What areas can we strengthen?

What should we focus on?

What are we missing?

Step Four:

• Digging Into Data

Just looking at quantitative data gives an incomplete picture of what is happening in the classroom.

Remember, don’t make assumptions based on the data overview! Find rich, targeted data sources that can give you more detailed information to identify a learner centered problem.

Find a way to examine student thinking processes.

If you want to know why the students perform poorly on the

writing test, what data source could give you rich, targeted,

detailed information about student writing?

Identifying the Learner-Centered Problem

• Do students have any skills and knowledge to build on, or do they need a total re-teaching of the information?

• Are students lacking skills and content knowledge, or is the design of the assessment itself giving them difficulty?

Triangulate Data

The purpose of triangulating various pieces of data is to explore new information, not to find validation for an assumption!

Questions

• What questions do we still have about the Learner-Centered Problem?

• Where could we look for more information/evidence?

Challenge Assumptions

• Don’t confuse assumptions for evidence.

• Do we mean it when we say all students can learn?

• Are we willing to change our practice to facilitate student achievement?

• Are we willing to embrace unexpected trends and leads?

Decisions Based on Evidence Based on Data

Gather Evidence

MakeInformedDecisions

Start withData

Step Five:

• Examining Instruction

“Before deciding on a plan of action, you must understand what you’re doing now, and do so in a way that enables teachers to take responsibility for solving the problem, rather than feeling that it’s not their problem or that they can’t do anything about it anyway, or that they’re being blamed for it.” (98)

Linking Learning to Teaching

• What instructional data can we look at to give us

more detail about the teaching in this school?

• What practices do we currently use?

• Which effective practices would address the

learner centered problem?

Why? Why? Why?

Let’s look at the chart on page 102

Thermal Layering

• What is the teacher doing?

• What are the students doing?

Peer Observation

• Completely voluntary

• Teachers work as partners

• Utilize pre and post observation conferences to set purpose and educational question

• Give meaningful, thoughtful feedback of what happened in class, not judgments

• Research best practices together

You are an elementary teacher and your partner for peer observations is the teacher who taught thermal layering. In the pre-observation conference, she asked you to look for student engagement and rigor in the lesson. You are starting your post-observation conference.

What will you say to your peer observation partner?

Practice with a colleague.

Sentence Starters

• I observed…

• I noticed that…

• I didn’t see…

• I didn’t understand...

• I saw evidence of…

• I can tell that…

• I was surprised by…

Homework

• Complete Reading Guide Ch. 6-8

•Create a Data Overview using your school’s data to share at our next session. Bring along the data you used to make the overview. Not all the data you bring has to be included in your overview. You should be able to explain your choices.