© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 1 Consider the Evidence Evidence-driven decision making for secondary schools A resource to assist schools to review their use of data and other evidence 3 Evidence-driven decision making

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 2 Evidence-driven decision making Today we aim to think about a process for using data and other evidence to improve teaching, learning and student achievement improve our understanding, confidence and capability in using data to improve practice think about our needs and our own evidence-based projects

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 3 Evidence-driven eating You need to buy lunch. Before you decide what to buy you consider a number of factors: how much money do you have? what do you feel like eating? what will you be having for dinner? how far do you need to go to buy food? how much time do you have? where are you going to eat it?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 4 Evidence-driven teaching I had a hunch that Ana wasn’t doing as well as she could in her research assignments, a major part of the history course. What made me think this? Ana’s general work (especially her writing) was fine. She made perceptive comments in class, contributed well in groups and had good results overall last year, especially in English. How did I decide what to do about it?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 5 Evidence-driven teaching (cont…) I looked more closely at her other work. I watched her working in the library one day to see if it was her reading, her use of resources, her note taking, her planning, or what. At morning tea I asked one of Ana’s other teachers about Ana’s approach to similar tasks. I asked Ana if she knew why her research results weren’t as good as her other results, and what her plans were for the next assignment. I thought about all of this and planned a course of action. I gave her help with using indexes, searching, note taking and planning and linking the various stages of her research.

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 6 Consider the Evidence A resource to assist schools to review their use of data and other evidence What is meant by ‘data and other evidence’?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 7 Evidence Any facts, circumstances or perceptions that can be used as an input for an analysis or decision how classes are compiled, how classes are allocated to teachers, test results, teachers’ observations, attendance data, portfolios of work, student opinions … Data are one form of evidence

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 8 Data Known facts or measurements, probably expressed in some systematic or symbolic way (e.g. as numbers) assessment results, gender, attendance, ethnicity … Data are one form of evidence

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 9 Evidence-driven decision making We have more evidence about what students know and can do than ever before - their achievements, behaviours, environmental factors that influence learning We should draw on all our knowledge about the learning environment to improve student achievement explore what lies behind patterns of achievement decide what changes will make a difference

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 10 What evidence does a school have? Demographics Student achievement Perceptions School processes Other practice

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 11 Demographics What data do we have now to provide a profile of our school? What other data could we create? School Students Staff Parents/caregivers and community

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 12 Student achievement What evidence do we have now about student achievement? What other evidence could we collect? National assessment results Standardised assessment results administered internally Other in-school assessments Student work

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 13 Perceptions What evidence do we have now about what students, staff and others think about the school? Are there other potential sources? Self appraisal Formal and informal observations made by teachers Structured interactions Externally generated reports Student voice Other informal sources

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 14 School processes What evidence do we have about how our school is organised and operates? Timetable Classes Resources Finance Staffing

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 15 Other practice How we can find out about what has worked in other schools? Documented research Experiences of other schools

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 16 The evidence-driven decision making cycle Trigger Explore Question Assemble Analyse Interpret Intervene Evaluate Reflect

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 17 The evidence-driven decision making cycle Trigger Clues found in data, hunches ExploreIs there really an issue? Question What do you want to know? AssembleGet all useful evidence together Analyse Process data and other evidence Interpret What information do you have? Intervene Design and carry out action Evaluate What was the impact? Reflect What will we change?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 18 The evidence-driven decision making cycle Explore Check data and evidence to explore the issue Question Clarify the issue and ask a question Assemble Decide what data and evidence might be useful Analyse data and evidence Trigger Data indicate a possible issue that could impact on student achievement Evaluate the impact on the intervention Intervene Plan an action aimed at improving student achievement Interpret Insights that answer your question Speculate A teacher has a hunch about a problem or a possible action Act Carry out the intervention Reflect on what has been learned, how practice will change

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 19 The evidence-driven decision making cycle EXPLORE QUESTION ASSEMBLE ANALYSE TRIGGER EVALUATE INTERVENEINTERPRET SPECULATE ACT REFLECT

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 20 The evidence-driven decision making cycle. Explore data Survey of students shows that this is only partially true Question What are the characteristics of students who are poor at writing ? Assemble more data & other evidence: asTTle reading, homework, extracurric, Attendance, etc Analyse NQF/NCEA results by standard Trigger Some of our students are poor at writing Analyse non NQF/NCEA data and evidence Intervene Create multiple opportunities for writing; include topics that can use sport as context; connect speaking and writing. PD for staff. Interpret information Poor writers likely to play sport, speak well, read less, do little HW A teacher has a hunch - poor writers might spend little time on homework Evaluate Has writing improved? Reflect How will we teach writing in the future?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 21 Evaluate and reflect Summative evaluation – assess how successful the intervention was; decide how our practice will change; report to board Formative evaluation - at every stage in the cycle we reflect and evaluate Are we are on the right track? Do we need to fine-tune? Do we actually need to complete this?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 22 Types of analysis We can compare achievement data by subject or across subjects for an individual student groups of students whole cohorts The type of analysis we use depends on the question we want to answer

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 23 Trigger questions How good/poor is …? What aspects of … are good/poor? Is … actually changing? How is … changing? Is … better than last year? How can … be improved? Why is … good/poor? What targets are reasonable for …? What factors influence the situation for …? What would happen if we …? Formative or summative?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 24 Questions about policy We have been running 60-minute periods for 5-years now. What effect has the change had?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 25 Questions from hunches I suspect this poor performance is being caused by … Is this true? We reckon results will improve if we put more effort into... Is this likely? I think we’d get better results from this module if we added … Is there any evidence to support this idea?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 26 Questions with purpose What do we know about reported bullying incidents for year 10 students? MAY BE BETTER AS Who has been bullying whom? Where? What are students telling us? What does pastoral care data tell us? Were some interventions more effective with some groups of students than others?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 27 Professional decision making We have evidence-based information that we see as reliable and valid What do we do about it? If the information indicates a need for action, we use our collective experience to make a professional decision

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 28 Professionals making decisions Do any particular groups of year 11 students attend less regularly than average for the whole cohort? The analysis identified two groups – so I need to think about how to deal with irregular attendance for each group. How will I do that?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 29 Professionals making decisions You asked what factors are related to poor student performance in formal writing. The analysis suggested that poor homework habits have a significant impact on student writing. You make some professional judgements and decide Students who do little homework don’t write enough You could take action to improve homework habits - but you’ve tried that before and the success rate is low You have more control over other factors - like how much time you give students to write in class So you conclude - the real need is to get students to write more often

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 30 Deciding on an action Information will often suggest a number of options for action. How do we decide which action to choose? We need to consider what control we have over the action the likely impact of the action the resources needed

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 31 Planning for evaluation What evidence do we need to collect before we start? Do we need to collect evidence along the way, or just at the end? How can we be sure that any assessment at the end of the process will be comparable with assessment at the outset? How will we monitor any unintended effects? Don’t forget evidence such as timetables, student opinions, teacher observations …

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 32 Evaluate the impact of our action Did the intervention improve the situation that triggered the process? If the aim was to improve student achievement, did that happen?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 33 Evaluate the impact of our action Was any change in student achievement significant? What else happened that we didn’t expect? How do our results compare with other similar studies we can find? Does the result give us the confidence to make the change permanent?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 34 Future practice What aspects of the intervention will we build into future practice? What aspects of the intervention will have the greatest impact? What aspects of the intervention can we maintain over time? What changes can we build into the way we do things in our school? Would there be any side-effects?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 35 Future directions What professional learning is needed? Who would most benefit from it? Do we have the expertise we need in-house or do we need external help? What other resources do we need? What disadvantages could there be? When will we evaluate this change again?

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 36 Evidence-driven strategic planning If we use evidence-driven decision making to improve student achievement and enhance teaching practice … … it follows that strategic planning across the school should also be evidence-driven.

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 37 Evidence-driven strategic planning. INDICATORS FROM DATA asTTle scores show a high proportion of Yr 9 achieving below curriculum level NCEA results show high non- achievement in transactional writing Poor results in other language NCEA standards etc STRATEGIC GOAL To raise the levels of writing across the school Strategic action Develop a writing development plan which addresses writing across subjects and levels, including targets, professional development and other resourcing needs etc. ANNUAL PLAN Develop and implement a plan to raise levels of Writing at year 9 Development plan to be based on an analysis of all available data and to include a range of shared strategies etc. YEAR TARGET Raise writing asTTle results Yr 9boys from 3B to 3A etc. Appraisal P D Self review School charter EVALUATION DATA asTTle writing results improve by … Perception data from year 9 staff indicates … Evaluation of effectiveness of range of shared strategies, barriers and enablers … etc.

© New Zealand Ministry of Education copying restricted to use by New Zealand education sector. Page 38 What now? How can we apply this model in our school?