Читать книгу The Data Coach's Guide to Improving Learning for All Students - Katherine E. Stiles - Страница 19

Using data itself does not improve teaching. Improved teaching comes about when teachers implement sound teaching practices grounded in cultural proficiency—understanding and respect for their students’ cultures—and a thorough understanding of the subject matter and how to teach it, including understanding student thinking and ways of making content accessible to all students.

It is easy to get swept away in the data-driven mania provoked by federal and state education accountability policies, where data can sometimes seem to be an end in themselves. But test results, lists of “failing” schools, bar graphs, tables, proficiency levels, even student work do nothing by themselves to improve teaching unless they spark powerful dialogue and changes in practice. For example, it doesn’t take hours of data analysis to discover that students struggle with solving nonroutine mathematics problems or reading informational text. But talking about and learning more and more about what to do about those problems does take time and is where teams gain momentum for instructional improvement.

Questions like the following merit as much time in Data Team meetings as does the actual data analysis:

 Who among us is having success and what are they doing?

 What does research say about how students learn this content or what typical misconceptions they struggle with?

 What have other schools done to solve this problem?

 What would a culturally proficient approach to this content look like? What content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge will strengthen our ability to teach this content? What does the research base on effective teaching tell us?

 What kind of professional development will help us learn these skills and knowledge?

The data are just the tip of the iceberg, alerting us to problem areas and reminding us that what lies beneath is what counts—the curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development practices that will improve student learning. Data use is not a substitute for the hard work of improving instruction. Throughout the Using Data Process, Data Teams are guided to draw on and add to the rich knowledge base about teaching and learning.

Leaders matter. Therefore significant change in organizations begins with significant changes to what leaders think (depth of understanding and beliefs), say (the speech forms we use and the content of our speech), and do (a continuous flow of powerful actions within a culture of interpersonal accountability).

—Sparks, 2005, p. xii