A306 Session 2: Build Assessment Literacy Oct. 9, 2007

The Data Wise Improvement Process

Today’s Objectives 1. Start a conversation about leadership challenges 2. Practice using the language of assessment 3. Understand the connection between course assignments and the work of your school 4. Build a language for talking about collaborative work

MyBPS Update  Nondisclosure forms: please Print name Sign Put on front desk (at break)  Login Information

Plan for Today 4:10-4:15 Welcome and Overview 4:15-4:55 Save the Last Word Protocol 4:55-5:35 Uses and Misuses of Data Protocol 5:35-5:55 Discuss Inventory, Binder, Overview 5:55-6:05 Break 6:05-6:45 Compass Points Protocol 6:45-7:00 School Team Check-in

Save the Last Word Protocol Person 1 Reads Quote Person 2 Responds 2 min. First Round Second Round Person 3 Responds 2 min. Person 1 Has Last Word 3 min. Person 2 Reads Quote Person 3 Responds 2 min. Person 1 Responds 2 min. Person 2 Has Last Word 3 min. Third Round Person 3 Reads Quote Person 1 Responds 2 min. Person 2 Responds 2 min. Person 3 Has Last Word 3 min. Choose Timekeeper!

Six Principles for Leading Adaptive Work 1. Get on the balcony 2. Identify the adaptive challenge 3. Regulate distress 4. Maintain disciplined attention 5. Give the work back to people 6. Protect voices of leadership from below

Connection to PLCs Adaptive work as the work of a professional learning community* Focus on learning Collaborative culture Collective inquiry into best practice, current reality Action orientation: learning by doing Commitment to continuous improvement Results orientation *From DuFour et al., Learning by Doing, 2006 Solution Tree, p. 2-5.

Uses and Misuses of Data Developed by Jennifer Price, Principal, Newton North High School; featured in Data Wise in Action (forthcoming, Harvard Education Press.)

1. A town decided to use an IQ test to rank fire fighter applicants. Those with the highest scores were given the job first.

2. A school was placed on probation because the fourth grade pass rates on the state tests declined "significantly" from 2006 to 2007.

3. In District X, the fifth grade pass rates are lower than the third grade pass rates on the state mathematics test. A policymaker examining the data concludes that the district's fifth grade teachers must be less effective than its third grade teachers.

4. A principal presented district staff with the graph in Exhibit 1, and commented that the school had not served its low-income students nearly as well this year (2006) as last year (2005).

Chestnut n=10 n=11 District n=72 n=72

5. A principal told his staff to look at any student with at least a ten-point change in scaled scores on the state mathematics exam from sixth to eighth grade, and determine what had caused those changes.

6. A department head asked her department to identify specific questions on which students scored below the state average and decide what the department should do to address students' weakness on those questions.

7. A state decided to link teacher pay raises to the average ‘value-added’ scores for their students in each class.

Uses and Misuses Debrief  Key Takeaways Consider to what extent the skills you're measuring are the skills you care about. Know whom or what you're comparing. Avoid drawing sweeping conclusions from small amounts of data or small differences.  Thoughts about the protocol itself

Data Inventory  Observations?  Questions?

Data Binder  Observations?  Questions?

Data Overview  Comprehensive picture of your school’s data  Intended to spark conversation among your faculty  Opportunity to address adaptive challenges  Opportunity to develop technical skills

Data Overview 1. Choose a Focus 2. Build a Story 3. Create Charts 4. Create a Presentation 5. Discuss the Overview

Central tension of this course DRY RUN Building Skills and Knowledge of participants REAL THING Affecting the daily work of the School

Today’s Objectives 1. Start a conversation about leadership challenges 2. Practice using the language of assessment 3. Understand the connection between course assignments and the work of your school 4. Build a language for talking about collaborative work

Assignments 1. Data Overview Part 1: progress update to teaching fellow by Oct Data Binder: Continue working on; bring to Oct. 23 class 3. Read Data Display Framework 4. Read Data Wise Chapters 3 1. Read Power of Protocols Chapters 1& 2

Participants working at BPS Please put signed Non-Disclosure forms on front desk…