Carmen Cuevas-Gross

 Responsive to Intervention (RTI)

Data for Instructional Improvement

"Five steps for structuring data‑informed conversations and action in education" 

Using data to guide decisions and actions can positively affect education practices and processes. This facilitation guide shows data teams how to move further, reporting data to apply data to deliberate performance. By using guiding questions, activities, and forms, this guide gives education data teams a layout, instruments, and vocabulary to support an informed conversation around the data they produce. Besides that, the guide walks data teams through five steps in using data for decision-making and purposeful action:

• Setting the stage
• Examining the data
• Understanding the findings
• Developing an action plan and Monitoring Progress
• Measuring success

"Five (Good) Ways to Talk About Data"  

Teacher-team meetings are essential to practical data analysis. Five (Good) Ways to Talk About Data deals with how schools move in the right direction working with data. They propose five components necessary for data-driven instruction and student learning assessment.

Component 1: Students are the shared responsibility of everyone.

A shared sense of responsibility does not allow any student to fall through the cracks. Instead, the more teachers from various grade levels know each other, the more they become responsible for all students. Teams share the responsibility of improving student gains.

Component 2: Conversations about data include healthy disagreement.

Teachers talk about what data means and how teams should use it. Data discussions involve different opinions. For example, teachers' conversations about data should be about asking questions and charting improvement plans.

Component 3: Conversations about data engender trust rather than suspicion.

For example, teachers' conversations about data should be about asking questions and charting improvement plans. Principals and teachers need to work together. There must be trust between the district, the school, the principal, and the teachers. We should use data to understand how we can improve, not point fingers.

Component 4: Data teams take a solution-oriented process.

Teachers must engage in reflective practice for data to improve teaching and learning.

Component 5: Data teams know what they should accomplish.

Clear guidelines for what teachers need to do should be in place. Leaders set the expectations for teachers' discussions about data. For example, some districts and schools have developed or adopted data discussion protocols to provide structure.

How are the two articles similar?

Both articles deal with data-informed discussions and education efforts of teacher-team meetings that are essential to practical data analysis.

"Five steps for structuring data‑informed conversations and action in education" walks users through five critical ways to use data for decision-making and strategic action.

"Five (Good) Ways to Talk About Data" deals with how schools move in the right direction working with data. Five components are necessary for data-driven instruction and student learning assessment.

 

What new learning did you have when you read the articles?

In Component 5: Data teams know what they should accomplish - I learned that leaders set the expectations for teacher discussions. For example, some districts and schools have adopted data discussion protocols to provide structure.

How can this information be helpful to you in your school?

Component 1: Students are the shared responsibility of everyone.

Component 1 is helpful because it discusses that teachers' shared sense of responsibility does not allow any student to fall through the cracks. Instead, the more teachers from various grade levels know each other, the more they become responsible for all students. Teams share the responsibility of improving student gains.

 

References:

Bourg, C. (n.d.). How educators can use student data to drive instruction. LSU Online. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://online.lsu.edu/newsroom/articles/how-educators-can-use-student-data-drive-instruction/

Datnow, A., & Park, V. (2015, November 1). Five (good) ways to talk about data. ASCD. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/five-(good)-ways-to-talk-about-data

Hamilton, L., Halverson, R., Jackson, S. S., Mandinach, E., Supovitz, J. A., & Wayman, J. C. (2009, August 31). Using student achievement data to support instructional decision-making. IES Practice Guide. NCEE 2009-4067. National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED506645

Hebbecker, K., Förster, N., Forthmann, B., & Souvignier, E. (2020, April 6). Data-based decision-making in schools: Examining the process and effects of teacher support. Journal of Educational Psychology.  Retrieved September 28, 2022, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000530

Kekahio, W., & Baker, M. (2013, September). Five steps for structuring data-informed conversations and action in Education. Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?ProjectID=360

Svinicki, M. D., Williams, K., Rackley, K., Sanders, A. J. Z., Pine, L., & Stewart, J. (2016, June 30). Factors associated with faculty use of student data for instructional improvement. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1134685