Put Data In The Driver's Seat

Put Data in the Driver's Seat

A Deeper Understanding of Achievement Results in Leading Change in One Washington District

Vol. 33 No. 4

Teachers in the Federal Way (Wash.) Public Schools had no shortage of student data. Standardized test scores, unit tests, and report card grades were as familiar to educators as reading, writing, and arithmetic. With the onset of statewide testing in the 1990s, data analysis was expanded to cover a multitude of state learning goals in grades 4, 7, and 10. There were more than 90 of these learning goals for Washington’s 4th graders in reading alone, with the expectation that teachers would somehow track progress on all of them. State testing was later expanded to include annual assessments for grades 3-8 and high school. And in Federal Way, district assessments, administered three times a year, were added for core subjects at each grade level. Data

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Authors

Barbara Bergman

Barbara Bergman (bbergman@fwps.org) is principal of Sherwood Forest Elementary School in Federal Way, Wash.

Sherwood Forest Elementary School 5-Step Collaboration Cycle

Identify the priority area.
Create SMART goal for priority area. Between meetings, gather student data and information on priority area.
Correlate best practices to current practices.
Identify instructional strategy we want to use or try. Use it and bring results.
Analyze results and refocus efforts.

Data walk

Purpose: The data walk is used to give teachers time to study student data, discuss it with their colleagues, and consider implications for the school and classroom.

Materials: Charts posted around the room, displaying student data in reading and/or math for each grade level; sticky notes for teacher observations and questions; pens or pencils; timer.

Time: 60-75 minutes.

Steps

1. Create charts displaying student data for each grade level in word-processing program, and enlarge to poster size at local copy store; or create chart by hand and fill in labels and data points. Display charts on walls around the meeting room.

2. Have group form teams of four to five people with broad representation (primary, intermediate, specialist, paraprofessionals).

3. Appoint a timekeeper. Have teams visit each data poster and discuss:

• What ahas do you notice?

• What questions do you have about the data?

4. Have each group leave at least one sticky note with an aha and at least one sticky note with a question about the data.

5. After five to seven minutes, timekeeper gives signal to move to the next poster.

6. After teams have visited all of the posters, reassemble the whole group and ask group members to divide into grade-level teams and assign a recorder. Each team visits its own grade-level poster for 12 to 15 minutes, reads the comments on the sticky notes, and discusses implications for the school and for its grade level. Recorder writes these comments on a sheet of paper.

7. Reconvene the whole group and ask members to be seated. Each recorder reads comments and posts them in the front of the room.

8. Discuss: What did we learn as a school about the strengths and needs of our students from today’s data walk?

9. Facilitator copies comment sheets and returns them to each grade level for use in future collaboration and goal setting.

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