It’s Wednesday afternoon, and the last bus is pulling away from the parking lot. The pickup line is moving along steadily, and students are heading home. After a full day of teaching, leading, listening, coaching, counseling, problem-solving, and otherwise miracle-working, a group of teachers, staff members, and administrators convene around the conference room table for a data meeting.
This scene probably feels familiar: it plays out in schools all over the country. Educators and leaders know the importance of using data to drive decision-making. But, what makes this particular data meeting a little different is that today, this Instructional Leadership Team won’t consider any test scores. On today’s agenda is a focus on attendance and an examination of the impact of the school’s efforts to combat chronic absenteeism. For this team, test scores–particularly high-stakes standardized test scores–are only one piece of their data puzzle.
Data doesn’t just mean assessments, and assessments aren’t just formal tests. Assessment data is a critical component of data inquiry. We need to consistently measure students’ progress and use that information to determine priorities, interventions, re-teaching, and acceleration. But tests are just part of that process. We also need to consider formative data collected throughout a class period, authentic student work, and evidence of instruction.
At Focused Schools, we encourage our partner school and district teams to go beyond assessment data and consider data gathered from:
• Attendance records
• Learning walks
• Peer observations
• Student work samples
• Behavior monitoring
• Feedback surveys
• Formative assessments
• Student feedback
Of course, we can’t look at all of these data sources all of the time. It’s important for teams to begin their data inquiry work by determining a focus and then prioritizing data sources that are most relevant to that focus.
The Work in Practice:
One of our past partner districts found themselves struggling with low state assessment scores and attendance rates. Upon looking beyond the state report card data, the district team uncovered challenges along student bus routes that hindered some students’ ability to reach their schools. Upon resolving some of these transportation barriers, student attendance improved.
In another partner district, an elementary school team developed a two-pronged focus based on their review of their data. As a school team, they committed to improving student reading proficiency and their students’ engagement and sense of belonging at their school as measured by survey data. In addition to closely monitoring ongoing reading assessment data and reading instruction, the team also kept a pulse on students’ engagement and sense of belonging through multiple measures, including observations and reflections. At the end of the year, they saw improvements in reading scores and indicators of student engagement and sense of belonging. You can learn more about this school’s story here.
Resources for you:
If you’re looking for more strategies to broaden your team’s data lens, listen to this podcast as members of the Focused Schools team talk about how we approach data. We have heard from a number of our partners that listening to this podcast as a school team has led to meaningful conversations and new strategies for collecting, analyzing, and acting on data.
Are you and your team ready to change the narrative about data in your school or district? Reach out to us at hello@focusedschools.com. Together, we can #IgniteTransformativeChange.
