- “They want to know how their students are doing.”
- They come up with ways of charting and displaying data.
- ‘That data represent a kid’s face or a group of kids’ faces. That’s a life. That’s a future.’ Susan Swanson, Director of Urban Education, Hamilton County, TN
THEY USE DATA TO FOCUS ON INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS, NOT JUST GROUPS OF STUDENTS.
THEY CONSTANTLY REEXAMINE WHAT THEY DO.
- ‘Change is hard, change is feeling uncomfortable.’ Principal Sheri Shirley, Oakland Heights Elementary
- ‘It can be very difficult for teachers to change long-established patterns or to diverge from what they learned in their university teaching programs (or to not use tradition as the only reason why something is done), but that is the logical consequence of putting student achievement ahead of everything else.’
- ‘The kids have to be the first priority. You have to be open enough to see that it’s not about the teacher but about the learning of the kids.’ Teacher Jenna Broems, Port Chester Middle School, NY.
“Another example of the ethos of transparency and shared information is the line of big posters in the hallway listing every student who ‘owes’ the school academic time and how much time is owed. The idea is that any student who has an absence must make up that time, either before school, after school, or on Saturday. If a student is late to class by 15 minutes, that student owes .25 hours of academic time………..students must put in the time they lose due to absences.
GRANGER HIGH SCHOOL, Granger, Washington
“One key organizational change was to make Granger’s ‘advisory’ periods the core of how students are connected to the school….Each semester the teacher meets individually with the student and the student’s parent or guardians… ‘Teachers can’t meet with 150 sets of parents…but they can meet with 18.’…The conferences themselves are run by the students, who are given several topics to cover, including what they are learning, what classes they need, what their grades are, what their reading levels are, what interventions (if any) are needed, and what their plan are after high school.”
GRANGER HIGH SCHOOL, Granger, Washington
“that data represent a kid’s face or a group of kids’ faces. That’s a life. That’s a future. If you look at it that way, you get courage.”
BENWOOD INITIATIVE Chattanooga, TN
“…by allowing their data to drive instruction, Frankford continues to demonstrate that just about all children are able to learn to read.”
FRANKFORD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Frankford, Delaware
“The assessment wall of the meeting room is covered with Post-it notes, each representing a child, color-coded by teacher and arranged by reading level, so that faculty members have an instant read on the progress of all 527 children in the school each of whom has an individual plan in place.”
M. HALL STANTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Philadelphia, PA
“... I put a school that had put in place a process of improvement that not only could be emulated by other schools, but was being emulated in a systematic conscious way… ‘walk-through’ and ‘data meeting’ two key processes that have led to West Jasper’s improvement”
WEST JASPER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, West Jasper, Alabama
“…data meeting…Following a school tradition, Smith asked the teachers to ‘celebrate the successes and plan for students who didn’t make it.’”
WEST JASPER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, West Jasper, Alabama
“In a little ceremony that Barber said some schools accompany with playing ‘Pomp and Circumstance,” Morrow and Simon took a chart with every child’s name velcroed into the ‘at-risk’, ‘some risk’ or ‘low-risk’ category, based on their scores at the beginning of the year, and moved them into new categories according to their middle-of-the-year scores.”
WEST JASPER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, West Jasper, Alabama
“Professional learning communities also work on developing interim assessments that are given to students every few weeks to ensure that no child falls too far behind without being noticed and provided extra help.”
EAST MILLSBORO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, East Millsboro, Delaware
“I found a principal who was leading a staff dedicated to making sure that all their students learned a great deal….I also found lists and charts and data sheets that tracked every student and every teacher. Data were the bedrock of how the school had made its dramatic improvements.”
OAKLAND HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Russellville, Arkansas
“…look at their data…….in math their students did poorly on measurement and patterning questions. In reading, the students did poorly on questions requiring that they compare and contrast…..The teachers then organized in ‘vertical teams’ …All the teachers found they had to ramp up their instruction……Now they had a road map to improvement.”
OAKLAND HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Russellville, Arkansas
“One important step taken by the school was to make all the data transparent. Every classroom teacher knows not only his or her own data, but also the data of other teachers.”
OAKLAND HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Russellville, Arkansas
“But teachers do not speak of the benchmarks as intrusions or interruptions in their teaching. Rather, they say the benchmarks give their teaching direction.”
OAKLAND HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Russellville, Arkansas
“Each Friday, the school holds a celebration of students who have met or exceeded their goals.”
CAPITOL VIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Atlanta, Georgia
“This kind of willingness to examine data and research is a hallmark of Capitol View...”
CAPITOL VIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Atlanta, Georgia
“Each class takes a teacher-made monthly test that is correlated to the end-of-course exams. Monthly test data are charted and posted in the hallway for everyone to see.”
PORT CHESTER MIDDLE SCHOOL, Port Chester, NY
“The point is to make decisions based on assessment, not to punish teachers. ‘We’re not afraid of charting performance.’”
PORT CHESTER MIDDLE SCHOOL, Port Chester, NY
“Examples abound of decisions made because of data….lower class size…Another decision was to ‘loop’ between seventh and eighth grades….Looping does two things. First it gives seventh grade teachers a stake in the eighth-grade test scores, on the grounds that all teachers should be fully versed in the standards across all grade levels…Second, it means teachers and students develop strong bonds with each other…”
PORT CHESTER MIDDLE SCHOOL, Port Chester, NY
The data are transparent --- test results are posted on the walls of the rooms where teachers gather and in the hallways for teachers, students, and parents to see. And each year the goals are posted. ‘I said there are no excuses. Excuses are dream killers….If the kids didn’t do well, it’s not their fault. The teachers need to work on their strategies.’ Sheppard
DAYTON’S BLUFF ACHIEVEMENT PLUS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, St. Paul, MN
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