GUEST BLOGGER: Mary Anne Mather, Using Data Senior Facilitator & Social Media Liaison on Twitter & FaceBook
As powerful as an inquiry process might be, it is only good if practiced regularly.
Recently, we met with teams of teachers in Florida who are learning the TERC Using Data process of school-based collaborative inquiry. Between our two scheduled face-to-face sessions, these data teams returned to their schools to apply the process they had learned and dig deeper into their own data analysis with colleagues. One returned with an epiphany. “I thought we were learning a quick way to ‘fix’ things. I now realize that there is no quick way to do this. You just have to take the time to engage in the process, understand what to do to get results, and do it!”
Meaningful data analysis, pinpointing student learning problems by triangulating multiple data sources, deconstructing student work samples, finding root causes for emerging problems, and launching a plan to tackle these problems takes time.
Anyone who has ever integrated inquiry into classroom instruction knows how time-consuming it is…and how valuable. The same holds true for a data analysis process based on collaborative inquiry. (more…)
Using Data for Meaningful Change 