Читать книгу The Data Coach's Guide to Improving Learning for All Students - Katherine E. Stiles - Страница 44

Often teachers and administrators are engaged in a variety of new programs and activities. Too often these initiatives are disconnected and incoherent. The Using Data Process attempts to remedy this by making the implementation of collaborative inquiry in participating schools and districts central to the staff’s ongoing work—not an add-on. “If you don’t look at the data, everything else is just a guess,” explained Mike Bayer, principal investigator of the Stark County Math and Science Partnership and Using Data collaborator from Stark County, Ohio. “The data give us direction on where to focus to raise achievement.” For any school improvement effort, using data is the foundation. Consider how to embed the use of data in your existing school operation. What happens now when teachers get student-learning data? Does the district’s data management system suggest ways to use data to enhance results? Do grade-level teams look at student results together? The Using Data Process of examining data can be applied in any of these contexts. Are you engaged in school improvement initiatives such as implementing new curriculum, technology, or learning communities? If so, using data in an ongoing way will help to ensure that your improvement initiatives are focused on the areas that are most critical for improving student learning and will help you measure your progress and results.

Before implementing collaborative inquiry, consider your school’s procedures related to data use as well as all the school improvement initiatives currently under way in the school(s) or district. Talk to the people involved with data use, and explore ideas for linking the Using Data Process with current school procedures. Also think about how the existing initiatives might support each other and share rather than compete for resources, including staff time, energy, and commitment. Coordinate with leaders of other initiatives to develop a plan for communicating with them about your actions and progress. Coordination is especially important with other data initiatives, such as the implementation of data management systems. (See Chapter 2: Resource 1 on the CD-ROM for a tool to guide your planning.)

Resource R2.1

For example, the Clark County School District in Nevada instituted a systemwide data management system a year after 15 of their schools began to implement the Using Data Process. Some participants saw the two initiatives as competing, whereas others saw the new data management system as replacing the Using Data Process. Other schools, however, understood that the two initiatives could be complementary. The data management system provided the timely access to data, and the Using Data Process of Collaborative Inquiry gave teachers the tools to put those data to work to improve their instruction. The schools that were clear about the synergy between the two initiatives were able to adapt both to better meet the needs of their students (see the Clark County, Nevada, case study in Chapter 8; Zuman, 2006).