Dr. Jack P. Silva & Tracy E. Smith Lehigh University College of Education EdL 420-011 Data-Based Decision Making to Improve School Performance Summer 2017 Jack Intro Dr. Jack P. Silva & Tracy E. Smith

About Us… How Did We Get Here? Dr. Jack P. Silva Assistant Superintendent & Chief Academic Officer Bethlehem Area School District www.basdschools.org Tracy E. Smith Assistant to the Superintendent for Operations Parkland School District www.parklandsd.org Jack and Tracy Bio

Educational Leadership Today A Blending of Roles T-Shaped Managers (Harvard Business Review) https://hbr.org/2001/03/introducing-t-shaped-managers-knowledge-managements-next-generation CAOs and CTOs Ramp Up on Collaboration http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/03/28/caos-and-ctos-ramp-up-on-collaboration.html Tracy (bring handouts); Talk about collaborative projects (e.g. FDK, Personalized Learning, Literacy); Jack will reference collective impact and strategic collaboration among school districts

E-mail: jsilva@basdschools.org Phone: 484-892-2593 Our Contact Information: E-mail: jsilva@basdschools.org Phone: 484-892-2593 Twitter: @basdjacksilva E-mail: smith_tracy@parklandsd.org Phone: 484-357-8722 Twitter: @tsmithpsd

Let’s Get To Know Each Other… Introduce Yourself: Two Truths and a Lie Check-in: How does this course fit into your professional or educational plans? What experience do you have in using performance data in your field? Jack leads discussion

Course Technology: Course web site, www.edl420.org Gathering Course Contact Information (Google Form) Discussion Board #1 – Tells Us About Yourself (one paragraph) Email Contact List (Lehigh Accounts) Please check regularly for announcements and important course updates

Let’s Go Over the Syllabus PA Inspired Leadership Framework Course Goals: I want you to be able to: see yourself as a program leader, feel comfortable with the theory and practice of data-driven school leadership, and develop products that can be readily-used in your districts/schools Course Assignments and Grading Break Jack leads this conversation; introduction of McDonald’s French fries

An Illustration… How much should we trust the data? McDonald’s French fry story; medical handout; how is the use of data in a K-12 environment similar and/or different from the use of data in the K-12 education environment (i.e. can K-12 education be treated as a business? Can it be commoditized?)

Three Important Data Contexts That You Must Consider: 1. Agreement on the program outcomes is often difficult to achieve. 2. The challenge of isolating the variable that influences the outcome--very difficult in education 3. The difference between “data-driven” vs. “data-based” or “data-informed.” Data-informed leaders need to “suspend certainty” when using data. Review article 4 Steps for Thinking Critically About Data Measurements

An exercise using the medical model: Given the data, which of these two patients will live longer? Why? Be prepared to defend your answer.

You have to do some networking … Contact your principal and/or superintendent to get permission to access school/district-level data: PSSA/PVAAS/Benchmark Assessments Standardized testing As much data as you can get on student achievement, attendance, conduct, etc. Any district/school improvement surveys

Looking Ahead Read all the articles from today Review web site, www.edl420.org Complete discussion board question #1 Think about possible topic for Op-Ed piece