We use data every day in our daily lives: to make a grocery list, to make a bank deposit, to decide what is for dinner, to plan our route for running errands, or even to explain to the doctor why we don’t feel well. However, as soon as someone starts talking about using data to drive instructional decisions, people become very uncomfortable. Why is it that when someone says “data” people usually run in the other direction? Data is not just another four letter word. When used properly, data can inform classroom instruction to a level never seen before in education. Using data to inform instruction is a “must” now in classrooms across the country, but it doesn’t have to be a fearful experience.

Here are a few Data Directions to help you get through the minefield of information that can help inform instruction:

• Data Collection – determine which pieces of data you will need to make a good instructional decision about a student.
• Data Reflection – plan some time everyday to look at and analyze inform you have on your students to help you determine what they need from you.
• Data Translation – what BIG things need to change based on the information you have (curriculum, course offerings, scope and sequence, etc.)
• Data-Driven Instructional Design – here is where the rubber meets the road…plan your lessons based on the data you have for each student. This requires instructional differentiation to meet the needs of all learners in your classroom.
• Design Feedback – watch and see if your data-driven lesson has been effective. If not, what can you change? If so, celebrate that success!
• Summative/Formative Assessment – use the information you have to evaluate student progress (formative) and the success of programs or processes (summative).

If you break data and data analysis down into the above 6 components, it seems more manageable. Everything is less overwhelming when it becomes more manageable. I believe the fear of data comes in the analysis and interpretation of the data. Teachers and administrators want to make sure they are making the right decisions based on what they see. They want to make sure they are interpreting what they see correctly. The easiest way to combat those fears is to dig into the data and start drawing some conclusions from it. Test your hypotheses. As you analyze and interpret more data, you will become more comfortable with it, particularly if you follow a step by step process as outlined above. For a practical guide to the use of data to drive instructional decisions, please follow this link to my book: Data-Driven Instructional Leadership.

If you want to hear about using data in classrooms for improvement in student achievement, come to my presentation at the Follett Software Conference in Chicago on March 9-11 at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park. Here is a link to the entire conference agenda. Check it out. Hope to see you there so we can continue this conversation.

Rebecca J. Blink, Ph.D. has been an educator since 1988. Becky is the author of Data-Driven Instructional Leadership and the Developer and Owner of Data-Driven Instructional Solutions, LLC. She’s seen education initiatives come and go, but thinks today’s changes are some of the most sweeping in over 25 years. You can reach Becky via email, or leave a comment below!

Join us at Follett Software’s upcoming user conference, A New Leaf in Learning. This conference is being held March 9-11 at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park Hotel, and you won’t want to miss it! Why, you ask?

You will make an immediate impact on your school.
This conference focuses on bringing educators together to learn and share ways in which technology can help achieve your goals. Learn from the experts and discover new ways to use your technology to work smarter. Hands-on workshops will offer the best practices, cover the latest trends and provide tips and tricks that will put the full power of your technology tools at your fingertips. We’re also proud to welcome our opening keynote speaker, Don Tapscott, author of the Growing Up Digital series, and our closing keynote speaker Susan Patrick, President and CEO of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL).

You will attend great sessions.
As expected, you'll see plenty of sessions that focus on Follett Software products. But you don't have to be a hands-on user of Follett solutions to benefit. Whatever your role in the school or district, you're sure to find a topic that sparks your interest or passion for education! Choose from more than 30 sessions led by industry leaders, featuring real-world case studies focused on the most pressing topics in K-12 technology. From building a data-driven culture, to managing a data warehouse implementation, to creating data teams and professional learning communities, the conference sessions will have something for everyone. Here are just a few:

• Linking Data to Instructional Change
• Data-Driven Instruction: Meeting the Needs of All Learners
• Developing a Culture of Collaborative Questioning
• First Year User Perspective of TetraData Data Analyzer and DASH
• Knox County’s Vision, Goals and Experiences with Data Warehouse Implementation

View all conference sessions

You will have fun!
Sharing and networking with your peers, rubbing elbows with industry leaders and spending time in Chicago are just a few reasons to join us. Visit our conference website to learn more and register at www.FollettSoftware.com/UserConf2011.

See you in March!

The holidays are a great time to reflect on the past and look to the future. Our year was an eventful one.

As we welcome new faces into the Follett Software family and expand our capabilities, we are reminded of how much we appreciate you. Your commitment and passion for improving education continues to motivate and inspire us, every day of the year.

From everyone here at Follett Software Company, thank you for your support and we look forward to our partnership for many years to come.

Please note that we will be closed December 23rd, 24th, 30th and 31st. Customer support staff will be available December 27th through 29th from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM Central Time.

We wish you and yours the happiest of holiday seasons and a healthy, safe and prosperous 2011.

School districts valuing continuous learning and improvement are easily recognized by their unique learning culture. Teachers and administrators actively engage in professional growth opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills for the purpose of improving student learning. They lead by example and show students that learning is both important and beneficial. With rapid changes in technology, state and local regulations, as well as the adoption of new programs and initiatives, educators must continually increase their knowledge and skill level to stay informed and meet student needs. Not an easy task to accomplish without a systemic process in place!

In the Iredell-Statesville Schools district, we began the shift toward a learning culture by establishing professional learning communities. Professional learning communities or PLCs foster shared leadership among teachers in their journey to grow professionally. Teachers collaborate on a weekly basis to improve student achievement, focusing on research-proven best practices, exchange of ideas, and facilitated analysis of student performance data. To avoid placing a burden of data management on our teachers, we purchased a data management solution to make data easily accessible to teachers in a user-friendly environment. Our data system provides teachers with data that are both relevant and timely for making instructional decisions. Data are readily available following administration of local assessments and serve as a diagnostic tool for meeting student learning needs. Our teachers use data to identify instructional gaps and determine a course of action to close those gaps. Often times this course of action includes professional development to increase the knowledge and skill level of the teacher to close the identified gaps. Data plays an integral role in the selection and evaluation of professional development and its impact on student learning.

This process is also facilitated through Professional Development Plans where teachers utilize data to evaluate student learning and instructional practices while identifying areas for professional growth to increase student achievement. It is my belief that data plays a significant role in professional growth and learning. Data drives instructional planning and evaluation as teachers strive to increase their effectiveness in the classroom.

As you think about the role of data in professional growth and learning, how are teachers in your district using data to reflect and identify areas of professional growth? How can you increase teacher capacity to use data to drive professional development decisions and increase student learning?

Sally is a veteran educator with the Iredell-Statesville Schools located in Statesville, North Carolina. She began her career as a teacher in an elementary classroom and also worked as an elementary Technology Facilitator before joining the Technology Department as an Instructional Technology Coordinator. She plans, develops, and coordinates Technology Professional Development and Professional Development with regards to accessing and utilizing the district data warehouse. Please feel free to leave Sally a comment below or contact her via email.

These are demanding times in education. Changing standards, increased accountability, tough economic times, students with increasing needs, fewer resources, and the list goes on and on. How are we supposed to lead initiatives in our districts related to RTI, Common Core Standards, unmotivated/reluctant learners, or rapidly changing state and/or national assessments? In my opinion, the answer to increased student achievement in desperate and trying times is to turn to the data.

What data does your district have that measures the performance of students? How do you analyze it? What do you do with it once you have it? What changes do you make at the classroom level when you have data to use?

Using data to drive instructional change and improve student performance does not occur without proper leadership. There must be a concerted effort to collaborate and communicate change at all levels from the board room to the classroom. Board members need to be visible – attending all types of district events, being active politically with their state organizations, set an academic goal for the district and request periodic academic progress updates toward the goal, and provide the time and monetary resources that help support that district academic goal.

District level administration needs to provide the vision for change and make it happen. They have to have the ability to think long-range and work through the day-to-day details that need to be accomplished to move the district forward. Balance is the key.

Building administrators need to lead by example. Participate in staff development opportunities; be a part of the team, not apart from the team; and encourage classroom teachers to celebrate the successes they see. Principals need to get out and stay current. They must be aware of what is going on in the world outside the buildings in which they work. Finally, I believe, principals need to truly lead educational initiatives in the buildings in which they work, not just manage them.

Most importantly, classroom teachers need to BELIEVE in their students. They need to have high expectations and will likely find their students meeting those expectations more then they ever thought. Classroom teachers need to continue to celebrate student achievement gains - while assisting their lowest achieving students make gains at an accelerated rate.

Maybe there are no big secrets here, but rather reminders that when we all work together using the data and tools that we have, we can make a difference and help all students achieve more. Vince Lombardi once said, “Perfection is not attainable but if we strive for perfection, we can achieve excellence.” We have to try… if we don’t, who will?

Care to share your ‘secrets’?

Rebecca J. Blink, Ph.D. has been an educator since 1988. Becky is the author of Data-Driven Instructional Leadership and the Developer and Owner of Data-Driven Instructional Solutions, LLC. She’s seen education initiatives come and go, but thinks today’s changes are some of the most sweeping in over 25 years. You can reach Becky via email, or leave a comment below!

If your school district is like ours, you probably have an abundance of data, but do you know which data to use, or more importantly, how to use it? In the Iredell-Statesville Schools district, we have created and continue to sustain a data-driven culture where we use data to continuously improve what we do for our students. In fact, data-driven decision making is part of the foundation of our model of Continuous Improvement to Raise Achievement and Close Gaps. Not only do we use data to predict but also to prevent undesirable results from occurring.

We recognized early on the need for a central data warehouse to consolidate existing data from multiple sources into one repository. We were looking for a web-based solution with the ability to secure the confidentiality of the data with assigned access rights according to user roles and responsibilities. It needed to be robust, yet user friendly with the ability to drill through a hierarchy of data from the district to the student level and also offer disaggregation by NCLB subgroups. Our data warehouse has become a strategic tool, guiding decision making from the district to the classroom level.

The success of moving to a data-driven culture has also been attributed to alignment with our district mission, vision, and values. We are a school district committed to improving student learning, rigorously challenging students to achieve their academic potential while valuing continuous improvement, management by fact, with a focus on results. We have the capacity and support in place so data analysis is not randomized but focused and aligned throughout our district.

Predictive Assessments are given periodically throughout the year to determine the level of student learning and to track progress toward meeting curriculum goals and objectives. Predictive Assessment results are accessed through our data warehouse including customized reports revealing disaggregated results from the district down to the student level, as well as detailed results by items and objectives. Facilitated data analysis occurs in Professional Learning Communities under the guidance of our Instructional Facilitators. Their purposeful discussions utilize the five questions listed below:

1. What do students need to know?
2. How will they learn it?
3. How will we know they’ve learned it?
4. What will we do if they don’t learn it?
5. What will we do if they already know it?

Acting on the answers to the five data questions drives instructional planning and strategies for focused interventions as well as the capacity to work with other content area instructional staff members on shared instructional problems and solutions.

In the Iredell-Statesville Schools district, data is not only valued but is also highly visible. Graphs, tables, and other indicators of data can be found across the district from our Central Support Services down to student classrooms. Administrators, teachers, and students are empowered by data and recognize its role in the teaching and learning process. Students take ownership for their own learning and can often be found leading parent teacher conferences with their data notebooks and student portfolios. We acknowledge and honor the role of the learner in our data-driven district and strive to help all students experience success and continuous improvement.

Creating a data-driven culture does not happen overnight. Where are you in your journey to become data driven?

Sally is a veteran educator with the Iredell-Statesville Schools located in Statesville, North Carolina. She began her career as a teacher in an elementary classroom and also worked as an elementary Technology Facilitator before joining the Technology Department as an Instructional Technology Coordinator. She plans, develops, and coordinates Technology Professional Development and Professional Development with regards to accessing and utilizing the district data warehouse. Please feel free to leave Sally a comment below or contact her via email.

Learn more about how Iredell-Statesville Schools became a data-driven school district in this video or case study.

When it comes to data, “the way we do business” has a whole new meaning for my district. Teachers and building principals use data to analyze the successes of their students. One year ago, our district began using the school improvement process and setting SMART Goals (Thanks to Jan O’Neill and Anne Conzemius for their SMART Goals guidance.) We are encouraged by the difference one year has made.

After one full cycle of implementing the school improvement process, teachers and building principals looked at state and local assessment data to review the results from the past year and set new goals for the coming school year. Because of this, the conversations in their PLCs are focused, clear and at a higher degree of professionalism than ever before. The teachers used brainstorming, problem solving, encouragement, sharing and more as they looked at a variety of aspects of the data from gender, ethnicity, disabilities, etc.

Data teams in our elementary buildings now meet every six weeks to review student progress. Using a new tactic starting this school year, they are going to use the computer during these reviews, pul.ing up data from our warehouse system. This completely replaced the need to print out multiple hard copies of the data. By having the technology readily available, the elementary building principals are able to use the warehouse information as well as other data that is captured electronically. That way, everyone looks at the same information at the same time. This is a new way of doing business. Changing behavior is never easy but when everyone is on the same page—and in our case, an electronic “page”— it can make the business of changing culture more focused and ultimately more successful.

Beginning to develop PLCs and to use data to develop SMART Goals in those PLCs has been a journey. A great deal of learning, conversation, trust building, etc must go on for every student to benefit from the work of the teachers and principals. Already, I have really started to see the shift in the culture over the past several years as we bring in new teaching staff. And it’s not just the new people. Even our veterans are beginning to model the use of data to drive decisions. As with any journey, there are a few bumps along the road but I don’t think we would do it any other way in our district. Where is your district along the journey? Please feel free to contact me to share some of your thoughts.

Christine has accumulated thirty years of learning in 5 different school districts. Beginning her career working with special needs students, she moved on to being a building principal and now works as a curriculum director. She loves her adventures in learning, and hopes to experience new connections with others. Please feel free to leave Christine a comment below or contact her via email.

In this age of educational accountability, school quality is often judged solely on the basis of student achievement test results. It’s very easy for schools and school districts to focus their data analysis efforts only on the measures “that count.” Unfortunately, some schools are missing the fact that there are other data that can give them powerful information about how to ensure student growth at every level and in every subject area.

Qualitative data, especially questionnaire data based on well-constructed questions, can tell learning organizations much about what needs to change to get different results. Questionnaire data can tell a school if its staff is ready for change and what staff members believe needs to change to get different results. These data can tell teachers what students believe have to be in place in order for them to learn, and how to improve the learning environment. Questionnaire data can even tell a school and district what it would take to convince the community to vote positively for an educational bond or levy. This is powerful information since humans cannot act differently from what they believe.

Questionnaire data can help schools and school districts start their continuous improvement efforts from where they really are, saving the puzzlement about why improvement is not happening. Too often, well-intentioned learning organizations begin school improvement efforts from where they think they are, with respect to beliefs, collaboration, a vision, a solid plan, and leadership, as opposed to where they really are.

No matter the reason for administering a questionnaire, the steps in the process are similar:

• Start with a purpose—what do you want to learn?
• Adopt, adapt, or create an instrument complete with questions to get to what it is you want to know.
• Decide from whom you need the information.
• Determine a system to collect the data.
• Administer the questionnaire.
• Analyze and present the results.
• Share the information.

You can find more information on using questionnaire data in Victoria Bernhardt’s book with Bradley J. Geise, From Questions to Actions: Using Questionnaire Data for Continuous School Improvement (2009, published by Eye on Education).

Victoria L. Bernhardt, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Education for the Future Initiative, and Professor in the College of Communication and Education at California State University, Chico (on leave). Dr. Bernhardt received a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology Research and Measurement, with a minor in Mathematics, from the University of Oregon. Her B.S. and M.S. degrees are from Iowa State University in the fields of statistics and psychology. Dr. Bernhardt has directed the Education for the Future Initiative, since 1991.

I’ll ask you two questions:

1. What does it look like to be data driven?
2. How do we do it?

In April 2010, I attended Education Week’s Leadership Forum (“Making Data Matter “). Panelists and speakers focused primarily on the ways school districts use data to measure student learning and to evaluate teacher performance. The audience’s questions often reflected concerns about the data’s timeliness, staff training and time constraints, as well as fears about data as an unfair measure of teacher performance. Over the course of the day, I heard these two questions asked repeatedly.

For the past few months, I’ve been thinking about these two questions. And I’ve concluded that there’s an opportunity to give something back to the educators who teach my and your children day after day. In my ten years of working with educators and customers of Follett Software, I have heard many stories about experiences with data and becoming data-driven. Let me share one of those stories with you.

Iredell-Statesville Schools is a wonderful example of a district that took a specific educational process—its curriculum review—and accelerated that process with technology. Located roughly 30 minutes north of Charlotte, North Carolina, the district, each summer, hosts volunteers from across every grade to make adjustments to their curriculum and ensure that it is vertically aligned. They analyze their state test data and any gaps between the state averages and their own scores; conduct item analyses in grade-level groups to identify specific skill gaps; revise test questions as the data indicate; and update curriculum guides. The technology makes the process more efficient because it automates the data collection and the reporting, which allows the teachers to spend their time discussing the implications of the data and making decisions. The technology does not make the necessary changes, in other words, but instead it accelerates the pace of positive change.

Congratulations to Iredell-Statesville Schools for achieving their vision to become a top 10 school district in the state of North Carolina—with no increase in funding. The district's successes are an illustration of how schools can make data a part of their instructional practices and program reviews.

This video shares some of this story from their own perspective. I hope you find it inspiring and instructive. If your school has made data a part of your instructional practices, please share it below or email me. I would be pleased to hear from you and to share your idea in a future post.

Theron Davis is the TetraData Product Marketing Manager at Follett Software Company. He fervently believes that a good education can change a person’s life. And he considers it a privilege to serve educators who teach our children and thus shape the future.

In the last decade, educators have made increasing use of educational data to improve student learning. The simultaneous emergence of software and storage capacity have allowed for both data querying and manipulation. The largest focus, as one would expect, is on data related to instruction, students and learning results. However, there are many other factors that contribute to learning that lie outside of this focus. Root cause for student failure can often be far removed from the failure itself, both in time and location.

Essential school processes such as student and staff placement, scheduling, time-space-dollar allocations, staff supervisory processes, alignment among and between buildings and grade levels, school culture and hiring practices can all bring about reduced student learning if they are sub-optimal. Process data is essential.

The perceptive domain* is also an extremely rich, but typically untapped, source of data if it is sought appropriately with the proper instrumentation. Staff, parents, students and community members all have perceptions about the school which they will honestly share if approached with a purpose, a request for help and the belief that their input will make a difference.

The “Impact Newsletter” for March 25th, 2010 contained an excellent article on a similar line of thought: “The Numbers We Need” by Frederick Hess & Jon Fullerton.

Once ALL data sets for the school’s key indicators of success have been completed, it’s not enough to simply identify where improvement is needed. Root cause must be sought for what is holding the system back and it must be removed. ALL data sets need to be explored to their depths. Otherwise, the issue will end up being patched, covered over with additional resources, or the situation will be made worse. Schools do not have the resources to afford any of these negative results. Educators know better and can do better. In fact – many schools are doing just that – we just need more schools and their leaders to see the benefit of true root cause analysis and data-based decision making, and learn the discipline of how it is done.

Are you digging deep and finding the root cause of student failure – or, conversely, student success? How does your district use data to make their decisions? Do you, or the district, feel you are on the right path when seeking root cause?

*See Victoria Bernhardt “Multiple Measures” PDF article.

Paul Preuss is a retired New York state educator who spent most of his years in educational administration & supervision. He was one of the leaders of NY’s Comprehensive District Education Planning process and has authored texts on root cause analysis and data-driven decision making.