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Data-Driven Culture
Data-driven instruction and decision making are ubiquitous buzzwords in classrooms, schools and district central offices across the country. Using data to influence daily decisions about instruction, pacing, and school and district-wide initiatives is a widely proclaimed best practice. But in many districts, schools and teachers still struggle to effectively use data to help improve programs and student performance.
In Aldine Independent School District and Miami-Dade Public Schools, district leaders have invested in assessments and scoring systems that make more student learning data available to teachers, principals and district staff. But leaders in these districts understand that it takes more than data to foster successful data-driven decision making. These two Broad Prize finalists show that educators must also embrace a multi-pronged system that supports:
The combination of these elements enables principals in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) to assign instructional specialists to provide pullout tutoring specifically for students who do not reach goals on interim assessments. They enable groups of third-grade teachers in Aldine Independent School District (AISD) to pore over the most recent assessment results and problem-solve together about how to reach students who are behind in reading. And they shine a light on shortcomings in math performance among African-American high school students, leading to a district-wide redesign of the ninth-grade math program in Miami.
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Graduating seniors in the five 2008 Broad Prize finalist districts must return their scholarship applications by Dec. 15 in order to be considered for scholarships of up to $20,000. For more information on eligibility requirements and deadlines or to print an application, please visit
www.broadprize.org/scholarship_ program/ overview.html
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These types of decisions could have been made in the absence of a commitment to transparency, without reliable and aligned interim assessments, or without time and training for analysis and planning—but they almost certainly would have been made more slowly and with less precision. In AISD and MDCPS, teachers, principals and district leaders and staff agree that the elements suggested above come together in their districts to make data-driven decision making a daily reality. And yet each district has approached these elements in slightly different ways. We explore the Broad Prize finalists' approaches in more detail below.
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Commitment from the Top
AISD Superintendent Wanda Bamberg and former MDCPS Superintendent Rudy Crew both not only made a clear commitment to using data to inform instruction and decision-making, but also communicated their commitment widely across the district.
"The message starts at the top," says Anne Hazzan, an area superintendent in Aldine. "The goals and objectives for the use of data pass from Dr. Bamberg down to all of the program directors, principals and teachers."
In Miami, data was at the center of Superintendent Rudy Crew's reform effort when he arrived at the district in 2004. "The district leadership sets the pace, and everything is driven by data," says Teri Ann Green, a math teacher at Norland Middle School.
Students in both districts participate in regular interim assessments, which provide critical information about their progress throughout the year. MDCPS administers diagnostic benchmark tests three times each year to students in third grade through 10th grade in math, reading and language arts. Aldine administers interim assessments in science and math to students in first through 12th grade every six weeks. Educators at all levels of the system are expected to use this data in the classroom, at the school level, and across regions and departments to inform their decisions on an ongoing basis.
Both AISD and MDCPS faced some initial opposition when they started focusing on data, particularly to using it in such a public manner.
"We were funny about the assessments at first, because seeing the results just made us uncomfortable," says Joanne Rivera, a veteran Aldine teacher.
But in both districts, top district leaders remained committed to making a place for data in every office and classroom, even in the face of organizational and individual resistance.
In Miami, "our district support staff showed us that we could begin to empower our students by letting them look at the same data that we're analyzing as teachers," explains Connie Calloway, a language arts teacher at Norland Middle School.
In Aldine, too, leaders have worked to show teachers and principals that more information about performance can translate into more success for students, schools and the district.
"When you start to see how data bring teachers together, results in better lessons, and even increases test scores," says Leah Domer, a high school English teacher in Aldine, "you start to think 'well, maybe this isn't such a bad idea after all.'"
District leaders in Miami and Aldine also won significant buy-in to a data culture by committing to using—and publicly sharing—data themselves. After each interim assessment, district leaders compare results at the classroom, school and central levels to determine which programs, teachers and schools are having the greatest success—and which still have areas of weakness.
And in Aldine, the superintendent, regional superintendents and district department leaders are held accountable in the same way as school principals. The district uses "balanced scorecards"—a strategic organizational planning and management tool that originated in private industry.
Principals in Aldine are evaluated on the basis of scorecards that include goals for student and staff attendance, student achievement, staff development and parental involvement. The same types of data that fill principals' scorecards roll up into regional, department and district-level scorecards, too, so district department leaders, area superintendents and even the superintendents are all held accountable to the same overarching standards, and their progress is measured using the same sets of data.
Like many teachers, some principals were skeptical about the increased use of data when scorecards were first introduced at the school level. But these days, most agree that the scorecards are a valuable tool to monitor progress and offer a more objective basis for evaluations.
Perhaps most importantly in Aldine, the commitment to a data-driven culture doesn't end with the central office. Members of the school board have made a public commitment to using data in their own strategizing as well.
"We review a variety of data on a quarterly basis," says Aldine Board Member Viola Garcia. "We analyze student needs, resources and opportunities to continually refine our objectives and strategic plan. Because we are looking at the data regularly, we don't have to wait until the end of the school year to decide what needs to change and where we need to improve."
A clear commitment to data from the top and modeling of data-driven decision making from district staff, leaders and the board has helped both MDCPS and AISD successfully build a key component of a data-driven culture: belief and buy-in among teachers, principals and staff at all levels.
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Providing Powerful and Accessible Tools
Leaders in AISD and MDCPS understand that even the strongest commitment to data-based decision making from the top will fall short of the classroom if teachers and principals do not have timely and accessible data about student progress. Both of these Broad Prize finalist districts have made substantial investments in systems that empower teachers, principals and staff. Interim assessments tied to state standards, data on individual student results over time, and quick turnaround of results that break down questions to individual standards and content strands are all available in a user-friendly, accessible format.
Principals and teachers alike rave about the longitudinal data they have at their fingertips in AISD and MDCPS—through systems called SASI and ISIS, respectively. These districts provide online access to information about every student, including grades, end-of-year test scores, attendance and discipline information going back to the student's first day in the district.
The real backbone of the data-driven culture in both districts, however, is interim assessments—mini-tests that are aligned with state standards and given to students every six weeks in first through 12th grade in Aldine and three times per year in third through 10th grade in Miami.
AISD and MDCPS both supplement these interim assessments with online test banks that serve as a resource for teachers to create smaller, more-frequent assessments that are also aligned with the end-of-year tests and state standards.
"I pull from the district's online question bank to create mini-assessments that guide my reading groups," says Fatima Rojas, a second-year teacher in Miami. "Every two weeks, I reassess my students to find out whether I need to modify my instruction or reassign them to a group of a different level."
The interim and mini-assessments supplement the required state standardized tests to provide teachers with regular real-time feedback about how their students are progressing toward mastery of state standards—so that teachers, principals and district leaders can see problems long before state testing at the end of the year.
In Aldine, test answer keys are first uploaded into a system called TRIAND. Immediately after the students complete their tests, their scores are uploaded on TRIAND. Teachers can review their students' scores online the same day. The same is true in Miami, where teachers and principals simply insert students' answer sheets into a scanner at the school site and can view results in their online program, Edusoft, within days. Like SASI and ISIS, these data systems store results on student assessments—but the TRIAND and Edusoft systems let teachers view and analyze scores immediately.
In addition, both districts have harnessed technology to allow teachers and principals to pull assessment data into custom reports so that they can analyze students' scores by individual learning standards, classrooms, grades or questions.
"As a principal, I can create reports in TRIAND to look at trends among student groups and grade levels," says Debra Carrington, principal at AISD's Spence Elementary. "I can look at it all together and then develop or adjust my plans."
In MDCPS, these school-level data systems highlighted students' weak spots, and recently led to a district-wide decision to assign instructional specialists to tutor students who do not reach goals on interim assessments. In both districts, custom classroom reports enable teachers to identify where students have succeeded and where they have struggled, which then helps teachers redirect their pacing and instruction for the next several weeks.
"The interim assessments let me drive every day of my teaching by the needs of my students," says Linda Eason, a fifth-grade teacher at Greynolds Park Elementary in MDCPS. "The reports also give me something meaningful to review with the children. We can discuss questions we were good at as a group and where we need more instruction—so they begin to take ownership for their own progress."
The interim assessments, question banks, and customized reports available in AISD and MDCPS are critical tools that give teachers and principals the information they need to begin analyzing—and responding to—student needs. In the next section, we explore the day-to-day supports and training that make these tools powerful.
For more information about data and assessment systems in Aldine Independent School District, please contact:
Sara Ptomey
Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction
sptomey@aldine.k12.tx.us
281-985-6452
For more information about data and assessment systems in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, please contact:
Gisela Feild
Administrative Director
Assessment, Research and Data Analysis
GFeild@dadeschools.net
305-995-2943
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