DATA? What DATA?

1. DATA? What DATA? Valentine Community Schools April 3, 2012

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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!

8. 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

9. 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

10. Education for the Future 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…

12. Education for the Future Why Data Analysis? Why Continuous School Improvement?

13. Education for the Future Why Data Analysis? What is going on in the name of school improvement?

14. Education for the Future Why Data Analysis? Inyour experience: How are initiatives determined to be effective? How are new initiatives deemed necessary?

20. Finish on October 7th in-service Analyze on October 7th in-service Analyze on November 28th in-service Analyze on January 25th in-service

21. Education for the Future Mission succinctly defines the fundamental purpose of an organization or an enterprise, describing why they exist.

22. Education for the Future Vision defines the desired or intended future state of an organization or enterprise in terms of its fundamental objectives relative to key, core areas (curr, inst, assess, environ).

23. How do you and others at your school know if what you are doing is making a difference for all students? What data and strategies are necessary for finding out if What 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?

27. Data Analysis

28. Sources of Data • SchoolCity website • DRC • State of School Reports

29. SchoolCity site

39. 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

40. 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.

41. Based on our guiding research, Education process can be summarized into six categories. Curriculum Instruction Assessment for Learning Staff Collaboration Environment Leadership Six Processes

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

43. 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

46. 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

47. 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.

49. Procedure for Flowcharting Each learning team produce 2 flowcharts • Ideal assessment process – this flowchart will show what the ideal use of assessments in our district would look like • 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.

50. 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