Data Use in Your Building
Where do you believe your school is at in the effective use of data? What do you do well? Where could you improve?
posted by Cammy Todd @ 8:36 AM
11 comments
STEPs Course 3
This Blog is designed for participants in the STEPs Course 3 session offered by Wichita Public Schools during summer 2006.
Friday, May 26, 2006
About Me
- Name: Cammy Todd
- Location: Wichita, Kansas, United States
I am an Instructional Technology Specialist for Wichita Public Schools. I love learning new technologies and sharing with others!
11 Comments:
I think this approach offers several advantages, including data that is specific to a particular population, immediate feedback, and the opportunity to act upon the data to achieve the desired goals and results.
Our school is active in using data. At the beginning of school we identify the problem areas from the year before and either have strategy sessions or do a good book study on the problem. Our principal does a great job of keeping us on our toes.
I do not think my school is effectivly using data. Each grade level is looking at something different. We have a lot of assessments. By the time we finally get the assessment finished (it takes a while becuase of kids who were absent or late) we have to find time to grade them. By the time we sit down to look at our data it has been at least 1-2 weeks. That is to long. We have already moved on to other concepts in our instruction.
I do think that when we look at our data we do a good job at looking at students and figuring out what they need. Then we find extra support for those students.
We need to improve on giving assessments that really show what kids can do. Then quickly getting the data together so we can use it more effectivly.
My school is ahead of the game in the collection of data and in a good place as far as effective use of that data. In my opinion we are collecting too much data and we could be more effective if we limited the scope of data collection and concentrated more on responding to the data we've collected. It has often been the case that I have tested students, recorded the data and just moved on to the next concept. There needs to be time to look at the data and adjust instruction accordingly.
Our school is good at collecting data. Actually the teachers collect their own. We have become experts in graphing because of our documentation process that administration sets out for us. However, we need to improve on the process of analyizing our data and drawing conclusions. Then taking that info and collaborating with others. (not using it as a "gotcha" - - but using it as learning process and working together with all.)
This article is saying the same thing Marcia said this morning already. There is a wealth of data out there; we just aren't using it to the best advantage.
I guess what many teachers get uptight about is that all students have to achieve the same minimal score. We need to look at how much each student has improved to be more realistic.
I believe our school is using old data well trying to adjust to the new students coming into our school. Where we are faultering is using our time effectively to gather the teacher-observed data and getting it to the rest of the staff. Many times we have "ah-ha" moments but they are too late and we are three weeks behind trying to help a student. Our teachers observation supports our testing data 90% of the time but we are not given the opportunity to share our student-teacher experience to the rest of the staff.
I believe we need to do a better job of reporting our our classroom findings to the rest of the staff and work on helping the students earlier than later. The student who has been with a longer amount of time usually sees a greater improvement because we know the students limitations and can apply strategies that will help the student succeed.
At every school I've been part of, whatever data that is imperative to the school's status is put in front of staff at a meeting and we're divided into groups, told to look at the data, and come up with a CIP. For those of us who aren't classroom teachers and therefore aren't involved in the actual assessments, it looks like Greek! I've never been part of any other type of disaggregation of data so can't comment otherwise.
Our school collects data very well. We have even spent some staff development sessions or faculty meetings doing something similar to the "data in a day" activity described in the article. This has allowed us to see, as an entire staff, what populations of students need to increase scores to bridge the achievement gap.
Our math department has had a small groups of teachers who have worked together throughout one school year to constantly compare scores and try to then share best practices.
As a department, we are not yet able to share best practices based on student data of which classes scored best on a certain topic. Teachers simply share a project or assignment that they feel works for students, but we have no data to back that up.
The great difficulty that I see as we try to make effective use of the data gathered is the fact that our population is constantly changing. Therefore, practices that worked with student group A on a topic, might not work with student group B. Perhaps we need to look more closely at the dissagregated data to determine how to combine students into classes and who the teacher should be for a certain group.
The idea that I gleaned from the article that I really identified with is that we have way more data than we can use. We need to agree to focus in a a few data points at a time. I think that means we should gather data on fewer tests rather than more tests. The fact that we would have fewer data points to look at should help us all focus on the same ideas.
Sandy Price
My school is getting better. The math department is way ahead of everyone else. We still need better instruments and more reliable equipment.
I am learning like the rest. It takes time.
We need to get better at looking at the data sooner.
My school is extremely active in the use of data. We identify problem areas at the beginning of every school year and continue to track each sub group by class (for the teacher) throughout the entire school year. Our administration tends to focus on weaknesses instead of strengths when it comes to data that tends to look low. Lucky for me that I teach data and I know how to manipulate charts and graphs. Ha! Ha! I wish I was quicker with excel when it comes to entering the data. I spend several hours at the beginning of each year setting up my spreadsheet that I use.
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