The Data Team Process Mitzie Higa Adapted from www.LeadAndLearn.com ppt Ewa Makai Middle School

The Data Team 5 step process Monitor and Analyze Results Collect and Chart Data Analyze Data and Prioritize Needs Set, Review, and revise incremental SMART Goals Select Common Instructional Strategies Determine Results Indicators Data Team Process

Session Description How can teams of teachers use their meeting time to work on substantive issues of teaching and learning? Data teams focus teachers’ attention on student learning by identifying a specific skill or topic with which students are struggling, and collaboratively developing a set of strategies to bring all students to mastery. This presentation will describe the data team process, and will examine the issues surrounding successful implementation. Our purpose today is to discuss how teams of teachers can use their meeting time more effectively, to focus on substantive teaching and learning issues. The data team process focuses our attention on specific skills and knowledge that we want students to acquire, and helps us decide on strategies to address the barriers students are encountering in their learning. I’m principal of Olympic View Elementary in Seattle, and during this past school year we started data teams, went through a few cycles of the process, and learned a few things that I’d like to share with you today. Our work is based on the Data Teams workshop developed at the Leadership and Learning Center with Doug Reeves. You’ll see references to his material throughout this presentation, but filtered through our experience. I’d appreciate your comments and feedback as I go through this today, so feel free to chime in.

“Best practices don't pay off until they have been implemented and fine-tuned in short- term, closely studied cycles. Such empirical efforts need to become the norm, the stuff of a new, more professional culture of experimentation in teaching.” Mike Schmoker, Results Now This quote gets at the heart of instructional improvement. So many of the strategies we pursue at the school and district level are distant from the instructional core, the relationship between teachers, students, and the content. You can also see the notion of short-term cycles of inquiry and improvement, which we’ll touch on more in a bit.

The Instructional Core Teacher Students Content As educators, we find it easy to talk about the content, easy to talk about students, and somewhat harder to talk about ourselves in terms of performance. We find it easy to talk about our preferences, but much harder to talk about our effectiveness in bridging the gap between our students and the content we want them to learn.

Data Teams PURPOSe Teacher Conversations Instructional Improvement Improvement of student achievement The data team process directly targets the dysfunctional professional norms that create the buffer. It does that by narrowing the focus of teacher meeting time on the specific knowledge and skills that are being taught, and how they are being taught. When discussing instructional improvement is the explicit purpose of the meeting, it’s harder to avoid. However, we need to go beyond simply requiring that teachers meet and talk about instruction; we need a process.

Doug Reeves’ Data Team Model Detailed and robust process Focuses on student proficiency on common assessments 10-step cycle, starting and ending with standards 5-step process for data team meetings More info: www.LeadAndLearn.com

Doug Reeves’ 5 Steps for Data Teams Determine results indicators Select instructional strategies Establish goals: set, review, revise Analyze strengths and obstacles Collect and chart data So the five basic steps of the data team process are as follows. First, you collect baseline data about student performance and write it on a chart. The idea is that this chart is shared with members of your team, or even posted in the staff lounge for other teachers to see. You then consider the factors that are supporting and working against students’ mastery of the concepts and skills you are teaching; it’s important to focus on instructionally relevant factors, such as prior knowledge, misconceptions, prerequisite knowledge, and so on. You then take your baseline data and set a SMART goal for student learning – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. As we’ll see later on, there’s a format for this goal that ensures that teachers are setting goals that meet these criteria. The fourth step is where we collaboratively decide on the actual strategies we’ll use to help students master the skills and knowledge we want them to learn. It’s critical that these be shared and agreed upon, and be distinct from what people would tend to do anyway. If we’re trying to teach kids to add fractions, and that’s covered in chapter 6, “teach chapter 6” should not be our only strategy. Finally, we need to determine how we’ll measure our progress – how we’ll know that we’re really doing what we agreed to do, and how we’ll know along the way if it’s working. Turn & talk: how is this different from what we currently do? How is it similar?

Four Recommendations for Getting Started with Data Teams Provide a basic framework for data teams Get people started Start Small Spend time actually talking about instruction and its effect on student performance Focus on the core Be as specific as possible Select a concept or skill that can realistically be taught and assessed over the course of a few weeks Zoom in Complete multiple cycles Adjust process in response to feedback Iterate and refine So that’s Doug Reeves’ model. My recommendations for getting started with data teams focus on four areas. First, we need to start small. If you go back to your school or district and try to do everything you hear in a book or training on data teams, you’ll leave very little room for developing staff ownership around the process, and very little room for fitting the process into your existing work. I’m not going to suggest that you drop everything you’re doing and do data teams (registered trademark), but that you use the tools and process ideas to improve the collaborative structures you have in your schools. Second, we need to focus on improving instruction in order to improve student learning. Third, I believe that we do this by zooming in on specific concepts and skills that we want students to master, and closely examining and refining how we teach those concepts and skills. Finally, since we’re talking about improving a process over time, and focusing on very specific teaching targets, we don’t want to spend all year on one small thing; we want to go through multiple cycles, each time refining the process so it better serves our goals as a school.

Reeves’ Steps in Action Pretest Previous assessments covering same skill Collect and chart data Focus on factors you can influence Focus on concept/skill acquisition Analyze strengths and obstacles SMART goals Start small and stay focused Establish goals: set, review, revise Not status-quo practice Agree on what strategies to implement Select instructional strategies Are we actually implementing the strategy? Is it working? Determine results indicators So we’ve gone through my four recommendations for implementing data teams, and I’d like to return now to the 5-step process taught by Doug Reeves.

Example: Collection of Class Data 1. Collect & Chart Data Topic: Adding & subtracting fractions with like & unlike denominators Pretest: ___% of students proficient Baseline Data Period 1 - 7th grade Math- Teacher #1 35 students/ 9 ELL Well-Below 5 Developing Proficiency 16 Meeting Proficiency 12 Meeting with Excellence 2 Name Name Name Name Name Name So now I’d like to walk you through an example of actual teacher work from one of our data team cycles this year. Teachers fill in the templates by hand, so for clarity, I’ve typed this example, but it’s based on the actual sheet completed by a teacher. You can follow along on the blank template I’ve handed out. Our topic is adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators, and on the baseline assessment, which could be either a purpose-made assessment on fractions or part of a larger unit test, only 30% of students demonstrated mastery at this skill. We’re going to list them by name on our chart, and for confidentiality I’ll only use initials on the version that’s posted publicly. This particular class is a multi-age class, so there are only 10 students in the 5th grade math group, but regardless of how many there are, we list them all by name. This may seem cumbersome, but I believe it’s a very powerful part of the process. This isn’t on the slide, but you’ll see on the bottom of the sheet that you’re asked to add up the number of students in each category, and determine the percentage of the class that they compose.

Strengths & Obstacles Example: 7th Grade Math 2. Analyze Strengths & Obstacles Strengths & Obstacles Strengths Students are able to add and subtract fractions with like denominators Students understand how to find the Least Common Multiple Obstacles Paying attention to whether the problem calls for addition or subtraction Lack of understanding of need for common denominators when adding/subtracting Difficulty converting fractions to a common denominator Next we list the strengths and obstacles. It’s really critical that we focus on factors that are actually part of the teaching and learning process, and actually specific to the concept or skill we’re teaching. In our first run-through of the data team process, I got back a sheet that listed “lack of parent support” as an obstacle, and in one sense I can see why teachers listed this, since many students do get home support for learning the particular concept they were focusing on, it’s not something we want to include here, because we’re thinking about how we can better teach students, not about all the external factors that may have an impact on their learning. It’s very important to continually refocus people’s attention on instruction – the actual strategies that teachers use to help students reach the goal. Note that one of the strengths is mastery of a prerequisite skill – you have to be able to find a least common multiple to find a common denominator, and you need a common denominator to add or subtract fractions

Example: 7th Grade Math 3. Establish Smart Goals: Set, Review, Revise The percentage of students scoring proficient and higher on the fraction addition/subtraction assessment will increase from 30% on 11/5/12 to 80% by 11/27/12, as measured by the teacher-made fraction addition and subtraction assessment. Format template: The percentage of students scoring proficient and higher on _______________1 will increase from __________%_2 on ______________3 to __________%_4 by _________________5 as measured by ____________6 administered on ____________7. 1. Assessment name, 2. Baseline %, 3. Pre-test date, 4. Goal %, 5. Post-test date, 6. Assessment description, 7. Assessment date The next step is to set a very specific goal for improvement in the area of focus, and we use the SMART goal format. This structures the goal in a way that leaves no ambiguity about where we want students to be by a certain date. May want to word the assessment in #1 as a concept or skill, and save the description of the assessment for #6. There are two blanks for the assessment name/description in case you’re measuring it with different assessments. If you’re using a pretest/posttest, you may want to re-word the SMART goal slightly. You’ll notice that the 80% goal is what we typically use to indicate mastery, but in this case we’re talking about students who have attained mastery, so we may actually want to say 100% of students will score 80% or higher on the assessment. It’s really not acceptable for two of our ten students in this class to not learn what we’re teaching them; our goal is for all of them to achieve the standard we’ve set.

Have students play fraction addition & subtraction game online Example: 7th Grade Math 4. Select Instructional Strategies Teach Unit 7 lessons Provide extension work for students at mastery, and spend extra time providing direct instruction and extra practice for students not at standard – such as Have students play fraction addition & subtraction game online Review 7.2 introductory mini-lesson with small group Teach mini-lesson and do practice sheet on finding common denominators The instructional strategies should be different from what you’d just do anyway – the whole purpose is to go beyond what everyone is doing individually The major bullets are what I got back on the sheet, but I really want to push and ask what strategies we’ll be using with kids who are struggling. The whole purpose of the data team process is to have this conversation, so it’s critical that we be very specific in this step. We may not decide on all of our strategies at this first meeting; we may need to go home and look through the lessons in unit 6 to see what else we need to add.

Example: 7th Grade Math 5. Determine Results Indicators Post-assessment scores ____% higher than pre-assessment scores Students are observed to go through each of the steps to add or subtract fractions Completion of specified instructional activities Our last steps is to define how we’ll know if we’ve been successful. Obviously, we’ll consider the SMART goal the ultimate measure, but we also want to see how we’re doing along the way, so it’s not a surprise when we get our final data. Doug Reeves’ material focuses on indicators that the strategies are working, such as formative assessments that indicate whether the instructional strategies are effective, but I also want to point out the value of specifying the evidence that will indicate that we’re actually DOING the strategies we specified. This is not a trivial factor, and if people are vague in the instructional strategies section, it will be very hard to specify good results indicators. We need to specify how we’ll know if we’re doing it, and how we’ll know if it’s working – in both cases, a focus on evidence that you as an instructional leader should be able to observe when this instruction is taking place.

Data Team Cycle Template Here’s another example. You’ll note that in this case, they did not make a special pre-assessment; they noticed that on a unit test, some students struggled with tally marks, which are a big deal in the Everyday Math curriculum. In this particular class, 75% of the students started out proficient, so the focus of this data team cycle was to help the remaining students master this important concept.

2. Analyze Strengths & Obstacles

Smart Goal

4. Instructional Strategies and Lessons Note that these are very specific strategies

5. Results Indicators

Practicing the 5-Step Process Reeves’ Data Teams 5 Steps: Collect & chart data Analyze strengths and obstacles Establish Smart Goals: set, review, revise Select instructional strategies Determine results indicators

Outcomes of the Data Team Process Improved student performance in specific, targeted areas Focus on students Collaboration focused on specific research-based instructional strategies with proven impact on student learning.

Next Steps More data team meetings Clear deadlines for when forms are due Regular reference to data team work in other forums Sharing of data Celebrating successes and addressing challenges

Four Recommendations for Getting Started with Data Teams Provide a basic framework for data teams Get people started Start Small Spend time actually talking about instruction and its effect on student performance Focus on the core Be as specific as possible Select a concept or skill that can realistically be taught and assessed over the course of a few weeks Zoom in Complete multiple cycles Adjust process in response to feedback Iterate and refine (review)

Doug Reeves’ 5 Steps for Data Teams Determine results indicators Select instructional strategies Establish goals: set, review, revise Analyze strengths and obstacles Collect and chart data So the five basic steps of the data team process are as follows. First, you collect baseline data about student performance and write it on a chart. The idea is that this chart is shared with members of your team, or even posted in the staff lounge for other teachers to see. You then consider the factors that are supporting and working against students’ mastery of the concepts and skills you are teaching; it’s important to focus on instructionally relevant factors, such as prior knowledge, misconceptions, prerequisite knowledge, and so on. You then take your baseline data and set a SMART goal for student learning – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. As we’ll see later on, there’s a format for this goal that ensures that teachers are setting goals that meet these criteria. The fourth step is where we collaboratively decide on the actual strategies we’ll use to help students master the skills and knowledge we want them to learn. It’s critical that these be shared and agreed upon, and be distinct from what people would tend to do anyway. If we’re trying to teach kids to add fractions, and that’s covered in chapter 6, “teach chapter 6” should not be our only strategy. Finally, we need to determine how we’ll measure our progress – how we’ll know that we’re really doing what we agreed to do, and how we’ll know along the way if it’s working. Turn & talk: how is this different from what we currently do? How is it similar?

Q & A

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