DATA? What DATA?

Valentine Community Schools

April 3, 2012

A little bit of history….

• Valentine Community Schools is a relatively new district due to consolidation in 2006

• Covers approximately 2,500 square miles• Multiple rural attendance centers and three

buildings in Valentine

The Merger

• “You can’t be serious…”• Yours, mine, and ours –• “Kids shouldn’t know the difference – except

to be better.”• Build K-12 culture of collaboration

– Learning Teams (PLC’s)

• Use School Improvement and AdvancEd as framework

AdvancEd Accreditation

• Way to structure K-12 School Improvement Process

• Goal to become District AdvancEd accredited– Provided initial focus on something positive

• Gave reason for conversations to happen between buildings and across various segments of staff

Accreditation Process

• Treat it like district process, even though not every building was starting in the same place

• Steering committee representative of all aspects of the organization

• Redefined goals, mission, etc.• Hosted Readiness visit, five year visit

simultaneously

Second Visit

• Huge visiting Team– Worked with us to think K-12

• Recommendations from that visit– Refine Data Process– Refine Curriculum Process– Recognized work that had happened with

redefining culture

Data Accountabilty

• Using learning teams, began looking for process for data – had lots of it, but not quite sure what to do with it, especially K-12– Needed to learn about the district as a whole– Needed to make staff knowledgeable about data

analysis

• Found work of Victoria Bernhardt…..• Just so happened, got an email something about

“Leading Equitable Learning through Data” from the NDE…..and here we go!

Equitable Learning through Data

• Initial Team: Principal/Administrator, Special Education Coordinator, ESU 17 Staff Developer, 2 teachers, and a NDE representative

• Used Polycom—4 sessions• Several additions to the team: teachers, school

counselor, and several administration

Equitable Learning through Data

• Presenter: Brad Geise • Education for the Future—California State

University• Information about data analysis and making

changes for continuous improvement • Devised a plan to train and implement with all

certified staff, using the learning team structure already in place

E d u c a t i o n f o r t h e Fu t u r e

Agenda

• WHY data analysis/continuous school

improvement?

• WHAT data should we engage as part

of school improvement?

• HOW do we engage data as part of

Continuous Improvement?

• Next steps…

Why Data Analysis?

Why Continuous School Improvement?

E d u c a t i o n f o r t h e Fu t u r e

What is going on in the name of school improvement?

Why Data Analysis?

E d u c a t i o n f o r t h e Fu t u r e

In your experience:

How are initiatives determined to be effective?

How are new initiatives deemed necessary?

Why Data Analysis?

E d u c a t i o n f o r t h e Fu t u r e

Finish on October 7th in-service

Analyze on October 7th in-service

Analyze on November 28th in-service

Analyze on January 25th in-service

Mission succinctly defines the fundamental purpose of an organization or an

enterprise, describing why they exist.

E d u c a t i o n f o r t h e Fu t u r e

Vision defines the desired or intendedfuture state of an organization or enterprise

in terms of its fundamental objectives relative to key, core areas (curr, inst, assess,

environ).

E d u c a t i o n f o r t h e Fu t u r e

How do you and others at your school know if what you are doingis making a difference for all students?

What data and strategies are necessary for finding out ifWhat you are doing is making a difference for all students?

What data will help you know what to change in order to get better results?

Data Analysis

Sources of Data

• SchoolCity website

• DRC

• State of School Reports

SchoolCity site

Measuring Processes

“Measuring processes is one of the most important things we can do to improve K-12 education. Processes are the only things that we have extensive control over in education. However, they are some of the hardest to measure.”

---Victoria Bernhardt

Problem-Solving Activity

Staff narrowed down our school processes by participating in a problem-solving cycle activity. The two processes that were identified were assessment and student respect.

Six ProcessesBased on our guiding research, Education process can be summarized into six categories.

1.Curriculum2.Instruction3.Assessment for Learning4.Staff Collaboration5.Environment6.Leadership

To fix a problem, you have to be able to identify what is wrong with it….

How to Measure Processes?Flowcharting.

• Why Flowcharting?– Allows a way to communicate about a process, so

everyone has the same understanding– Access what is being implemented– Understand how get to the results that are

happening– Identify differences between what you think is

being done and what is being done

Assessment Processes

• Balanced Assessment System as defined by NDE– Local Criterion Referenced assessments for

instructional information• Chapter tests, DIBELS, C4L

– NeSA for state comparison• R, W, M, S

– Norm Referenced for assessment of performance in relation to norm group of students who took the test under the same conditions

• i.e. MAP, CTBS, ACT

Flowcharting• Discuss with your group how assessments are

currently being used by teachers.• Create a flowchart that shows the steps in the

current assessment process.

Procedure for Flowcharting

Each learning team produce 2 flowcharts

1. Ideal assessment process – this flowchart will show what the ideal use of assessments in our district would look like

2. Actual assessment process– this flowchart will show what is currently being done with the assessments in our district

Conclusion – When both flowcharts are completed, discuss the differences in the two flowcharts and summarize the discussion to turn in along with the flowcharts.

Good Luck

• Use any medium you feel comfortable in to produce flow charts – just be sure to return them to Nicole to be summarized

• You decide which flowchart you tackle first

• Next steps– Steering Committee will summarize what you

discover

Next Steps…

• Buildings—reformat assessment flowcharts to fit their settings

• Action Plan for assessment• Flowcharts for respect data• Relooking at the mission and vision