Learning Forward
Equity and excellence in teaching and learning.
FEATURE ARTICLE
What The Right Data Can Do
Find sources that can help tailor learning to each educator's needs
By Learning Forward
Categories: CollaborationApril 2013
Learning Forward’s Data standard advocates using data from a variety of sources and types — including student, educator, and system data — to plan, assess, and evaluate professional learning. This presents several challenges, beginning with the emphasis on a variety of sources and types. The pressures of No Child Left Behind have focused American educators on academic student data from large-scale, high-stakes tests —usually connected to school improvement plans that must be developed where Adequate Yearly Progress is not met. Rarely are those data connected directly to plans for professional learning. A second area of challenge relates to what I knew and articulated forcefully about my students, but was slow to discover about my staff when I became a principal: They don’t all need the
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Types of Data
Student
Academic: Large-scale, common, formative.
Nonacademic: Attendance, discipline.
Perceptual: Surveys, focus groups.
Educator
Preparation, experience, certification, participation, perceptual.
System
Professional learning record, school improvement plans.
Ways To Differentiate
- What.
- How much.
- What kind.
- Where and when.
- Who presents and coaches.
References
Bush, R.N. (1984). Effective staff development. In Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, Making our schools more effective: Proceedings of three state conferences (NIE Grant No. 80-0103; pp. 223-240). San Francisco, CA: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development.
Clotfelter, C.T., Ladd, H.F., & Vigdor, J.L. (2007, November). Teacher credentials and student achievement in high school: A cross-subject analysis with student fixed effects (Working Paper No. 13617). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Hall, G.E. & Hord, S.M. (2001). Implementing change: Patterns, principles, and potholes. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Hirsh, S. (2009). Foreword. In J. Killion & P. Roy, Becoming a learning school (pp. 5-6). Oxford, OH: NSDC.
Holcomb, E.L. (2007). Students are stakeholders, too! Including every voice in authentic high school reform. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Holcomb, E.L. (2012). Data dynamics: Aligning teacher team, school, and district efforts. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
Ingersoll, R. (2008, November). Core problems: Out-of-field teaching persists in key academic courses and high-poverty schools. Washington, DC: The Education Trust.
Marzano, R.J. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Marzano, R.J. (2010). A focus on teaching. In R.J. Marzano (Ed.), On excellence in teaching (pp. 1-4). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
Learning Forward is the only professional association devoted exclusively to those who work in educator professional development. We help our members plan, implement, and measure high-quality professional learning so they can achieve success with their systems, schools, and students.
Categories: Collaboration
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