What’s Race Got To Do With It? Looking at student achievement data through the racial lens Equity Alliance Phoenix, Arizona February 17, 2010

Session Outcome Participants will be able to: Use research-based practices to engage school districts/school communities/grade level teams in the interpretation of standardized and classroom data to improve instructional practices.

Here’s what today will look like: Personal Cultural History Data Analysis through the racial lens Q and A

Personal Cultural History

Choose 3 Race Region Religion Gender Language Age Socioeconomic Status

Data helps us to do many things in schools; understand where we are, define where we want and need to go, and measure progress along the way. (Holcomb, 2004, p. xv)

MSA Proficiency Levels Grade 3 Mathematics Everybody Achieves ES Advanced 19.4%23.7%24.8% Proficient 55.3%57.7%54.8% Basic 25.3%18.6%20.4%

MSA Proficiency Levels Grade 3 Mathematics

AdvancedProficientBasic Hispanic 6/3118/317/31 African American 5/2513/257/25 White 15/3517/353/35 Asian 1/42/41/4 MSA Proficiency Levels Grade 3 Mathematics

Who Needs to Move? Hispanic 18/31 – Rosa African American 13/25 – Jamal White 3/35 – David Asian 1/4 – Tina

Leaders must come to grips with the reality that there are some staff members reluctant to use data: Lack of proper training and/or time Feast or famine Fear of evaluation and/or exposure Confusing a technical problem with a cultural problem

Session Outcome Participants will be able to: Use research-based practices to engage school districts/school communities/grade level teams in the interpretation of standardized and classroom data to improve instructional practices.

The Golden Question

How do I get started? First, examine your own beliefs about students’ academic potential. Next, help your school community face it’s problems and come up with a strategic plan of how to address each problem. PRIORITIZE! Finally, make the consistent use of disaggregated data a non-negotiable for your entire school community.

The key here is not the kind of instruction but the attitude underlying it. When teachers do not understand the potential of the students they teach, they will underteach them no matter what the methodology. Lisa Delpit, author of Other People’s Children

Questions

Resources Bernhardt, V. (2004). Data analysis for continuous school improvement. New York: Eye on Education. Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research and practice. New York: Teachers College Press. Holcomb, E. (2004). Getting excited about data: Combining people, passion, and proof to maximize student achievement. California: Corwin Press. Lindsey, R.B., Roberts, L. M., CampbellJones, F. (2005). The Culturally Proficient School: An implementation guide for school leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.