Читать книгу The Data Coach's Guide to Improving Learning for All Students - Katherine E. Stiles - Страница 51

A Data Team is a group of teachers and ideally their building administrator, typically from four to eight members, who work together to use data and improve student learning at the school level. Data Teams can take many different forms. At an elementary school, they often are composed of representatives of different grade levels and focused on a particular content area, such as mathematics. Or they can be a school improvement team or leadership team looking at all content areas and grade levels. In some elementary schools, there is a schoolwide Data Team with representatives from each grade level, who in turn lead grade-level Data Teams. In a middle school or junior and high school, Data Teams are generally organized by department or content area. In some cases, all the members of the department constitute the Data Team. In others, the Data Team is a smaller representative group from the department. In high schools, teachers who teach the same course may form a Data Team. In schools organized as professional learning communities with all teachers participating in teams, those teams function as Data Teams. In the Using Data Project, many schools started out with just one Data Team, but later expanded to every teacher being a member of a Data Team.

As you consider whom to invite onto the Data Team, keep the purpose of your Data Team in mind and use that as a criterion for membership. For example, if the purpose is to use collaborative inquiry in a particular subject area such as language arts or mathematics, your team should include teachers and other staff who have responsibilities in this area, such as members of the district’s curriculum committee and staff who have been involved in other related initiatives (e.g., textbook selection and professional development planning in these subjects). If the purpose is to use the Using Data Process to look across all subject areas, you will want to balance the representation to include members from across the different curriculum areas. Other equally important considerations are racial/ethnic diversity and inclusion of specialists such as teachers of English Language Learners or of students with exceptional needs.

There may be a group already in place that you can tap for the Data Team. For example, you may have a group of teacher-leaders who are responsible for mentoring other teachers or a school improvement committee. Look for people who are opinion leaders and reflect different perspectives and can be ambassadors to others for the project. While membership on Data Teams is usually on a volunteer basis, work with others at your site to encourage people who might not volunteer right away to consider being a part of the team. Relying on the “usual suspects” who volunteer for everything can sometimes result in a team of people with too many competing demands on their time and/or who are not representative of the diversity in your school. You may want to consider tapping individuals who are even somewhat skeptical of the process. These individuals can be particularly helpful in identifying roadblocks and concerns that others may be thinking, but not comfortable voicing.