Data, Data, Everywhere: Bringing All the Data Together for Continuous School Improvement

129 Pages·2008·5.424 MB·English

by  Victoria Bernhardt

DATA, DATA
EVERYWHERE:
BRINGING ALL THE
DATA TOGETHER FOR
CONTINUOUS
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
VICTORIA L. BERNHARDT, Ph.D.
Executive Dire<;tor
Education for the future Initiative
Professor
Deoartment of Professional Studies in Education
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New York London
First published 2008 by Eye On Education
Published 2013 by Routledge
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No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to
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Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bernhardt, Victoria L., 1952-
Data, data everywhere: Bringing all the data together for
continuous school improvement / by Victoria L. Bernhardt.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-159667-102-7
1. School improvement programs—California—Livermore—Data
processing. 2.Marylin Avenue Elementary School (Livermore, Calif.)—
Data processing I. Title.
LB2822.82.B467 2008
371.2’07—dc22
2008043903

ISBN: 978-159667-102-7 (pbk)
[iii]
PREFACE
Foryears,people havebeen telling me that they appreciatethe work
ofEducationfortheFuture, and that itreflectswhat schoolsshouldbe
doing to improve teaching and learning for all students.However,
some also ask-can you just give us a little data book that gets us
startedincorporatingdata into ourwork togetstudentachievement
increasesacross the board?
So,here it is-alittledata analysisbookthatcontains Victoria's Data
Secrets-the bare essentials for using data to improve teaching and
learning. The activities described can be used with any level of
educational organization-elementary, middle, high schools,
districts, aswellasspecialprograms. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Victoria L.Bernhardt, Ph.D.
ExecutiveDirector
EducationfortheFuture Initiative
400West First Street, Chico,CA 95929-0230
Tel:[phone]- Fax:[phone]
e-mail:[email protected]
website:http;lleffcsuchico.edu
[ivI DATA, DATA EVERYWHERE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ahuge thank you to Marylin Avenue stafffor allowing us to learn
from them. Their commitment to improvement is awesome. Their
results are spectacular. Their willingness to share is greatly
appreciated. A special thank you to Principal Jeff Keller and
Leadership Team Leader Marfel Kusko for their perseverance with
the change process, for reviewing article and book drafts, and for
sharingtheirsuccessesso others can learn.
I continue to be surrounded by such wonderful, helpful, and
supportive people. The EducationfortheFuturestaff,LynnVaricelli,
Patsy Schutz, Brad Geise,SallyWithuhn, and Augie Fash, is always
there to lend a helping hand with my publications, aswellasevery
daywork. Lynn, once again, provided a beautiful layout. Me2did a
great job on the cover. Patsy,Mike Derman, Robert Geise, Karen
Raney,and JoyRosewereinvaluable in providingconcretefeedback
to make thebookmorereadable and helpful to readers.The feedback
gaveme the courage to keep going. Thankyou all.
Sincerely,
Vickie Bernhardt
October2008
[vl
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victoria L. Bernhardt, Ph.D., isExecutive Director ofthe Education
fortheFutureInitiative, anot-for-profitorganization whose mission
is to build the capacity of all learning
organizations to gather, analyze, and use
data to continuously improvelearningfor
all students. She is also a Professor
(currentlyon leave) in the Department of
ProfessionalStudies in Education,College
of Communication and Education, at
California State University, Chico. Dr.
Bernhardt is the author of the following
books, allpublished byEyeon Education,
Larchmont, NewYork:
.. From Questions toActions: Using
QuestionnaireDataforContinuousSchool Improvement.
(2009) Co-authoredwith Bradley J. Geise.
.. TranslatingDataintoInformation toImprove Teaching
andLearning(2007).
.. Afour-book (with CD-Roms) collection of using data to
improvestudent learning-UsingDatatoImprove Student
LearninginElementarySchools (2003); Using Datato
Improve StudentLearninginMiddleSchools (2004); Using
DatatoImprove StudentLearninginHigh Schools (2005);
and UsingDatatoImprove StudentLearninginSchool
Districts(2006).
[vi] DATA, DATA EVERYWHERE
... DataAnalysisforContinuousSchool Improvement(First
Edition, 1998;Second Edition,2004).
... TheSchoolPortfolio Toolkit: A Planning,Implementation,
andEvaluation GuideforContinuousSchoolImprovement,
with CD-Rom (2002).
... TheExampleSchoolPortfolio (2000).
... TheSchool Portfolio:A Comprehensive Frameworkfor
School Improvement (First Edition, 1994;Second
Edition, 1999).
Check the Education for theFuture website (http://eJj:csuchico.edu)
for the link to ourautomated SchoolPortfoliotool.
Dr.Bernhardtispassionateabouther missionofhelpingalleducators
continuously improve student learning in their classrooms, their
schools,theirdistricts,states, and provinces bygathering, analyzing,
and usingactual data-as opposed to using hunches and"gut-level"
feelings. She has made numerous presentations at professional
meetings and conducts workshops and Institutes on the school
portfolio, data analysis, process measurement, and school
improvementatlocal,state,regional,national,and internationallevels.
Dr.Bernhardt can be reached at:
Victoria L. Bernhardt, Ph.D.
Executive Director
EducationfortheFutureInitiative
400 WestFirstStreet, Chico, CA 95929-0230
Tel:[phone]- Fax:[phone]
e-mail:[email protected]
website: http;l/efrcsuchico.edu
[vii]
CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION......................................................... 1
Marylin Avenue Demographics ................................. 2
Layout ofthis Book 7
2 LOOKINGAT ALLTHESCHOOL'S DATA .............................. 9
ASnapshot ofthe Measures ...................................... 13
Lookingat Allthe Data 16
Summary 17
3 SELF ASSESSMENT 19
UnderstandingtheContinuums 23
Summary 32
4 THEVISION 33
InspiringaSharedVision......................................... 36
Process for CreatingaSharedVision........................... 37
Assessing the Implementation oftheVision.................. 40
Creatingthe SharedVision....................................... 41
Summary 41
5
USINGTHEPROBLEM-SOLVING CYCLE
TO ANALYZE CONTRIBUTING CAUSES ............................. 43
Problem-SolvingCycleActivity 44
Usingthe Problem-SolvingCycle ............................... 47
Summary . 47
[viii1 DATA, DATAEVERYWHERE
6 STRATEGIESTO IMPLEMENTTHEViSiON ............................. 49
Continuous Improvement Planning 50
WhereAreWeNow? 50
Where Do WeWant to Be? 55
How DidWeGet to WhereWeAre? 56
HowAre WeGoing to Get to WhereWeWant to Be? 56
IsWhatWeAre DoingMakinga Difference? 57
ImplementingtheVision ......................................... 57
Summary 58
7 CREATINGA SCHOOL PORTFOLIO 59
TheSchool Portfolio 60
Creating and UpdatingThe SchoolPortfolio ................. 65
Summary 67
8 CONCLUSION ............................................................ 69
Marylin Avenue ElementarySchool ............................ 70
Adviceto ProfessionalLearning Coordinators ............... 74
Advice to DistrictAdministrators....................... 75
Summary 76
APPENDIXA: CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT CONTINUUMS
FORSCHOOLSAND DiSTRICTS..................................... 77
APPENDIX B:VISION RUBRIC EXAMPLE.............................. 107
RESOURCES 113
INDEX 117
[ 1]
1
INTRODUCTION
In July 2006, seven members of the Marylin Avenue Elementary
School (Livermore, California) Leadership Team arrived at the
annual Education for the FutureSummer Data Institute in Chico,
California, ready and eager to learn how to use data to improve
instruction and studentlearning. Members ofthe team includedsix
teachers,the districtdata analyst,and PrincipalJeff,who just finished
his firstyear asaschool administrator.
Allteam memberswereeagerto learn, althoughthey weredistraught
about what to do regarding theirsituation:
T Their school had not madeAdequateYearlyProgress
(AYP)
T They justfound outthey were in"Program
Improvement"
T Their English asaSecond Language population
kept increasing
T Their freelreduced lunch population kept increasing
T Itwasperceived that the school culture wasnot ready
to change
T The school lacked focus and instructional coherence
T Staffwasnot using data to improve
After a week of intensive work, the team left with a plan for the
data-driven activities to implement to improve instruction and
student learning.