Unexplored Opportunities in Professional Development to Build Equitable / Ethical Use of Data That Helps Us with Instructional Planning

All Content Focused PD Has Nuggets of Possibilities – Part 1

The typical place where teachers participate in PD that directly touches on “ethical” use of data is when the new features of Internet applications are introduced. Or, as part of an on-boarding process when beginning a new teaching assignment in a new school or district. On these occasions, we become acquainted with FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) and COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) are highlighted. We are given guidelines for the use of social media, how to protect the images of our students and any personal information about them. We’re increasingly all becoming more aware of the disastrous possibilities lurking around all of our communication devices. This is good! We must keep learning and be wary as each new technology moves into our classrooms and homes.

The reality, however, is that the brief amount of time that technology vendors devote to this topic, doesn’t get close to addressing the larger issue of how the data generating in their systems – interim and benchmark assessment systems, personalized learning systems, data analytic programs, is being used ethically and equitably as we strive to make the best instructional decisions for our students every day. We know the value of pop-ups to inform. Why aren’t more data providers, creating pop-ups to provide ethical suggestions for teachers to explore when considering results of one chart, graph, or table? Questions to ask with links to additional data to interrogate in ways that shed new light on decisions.

I’m pleased to say, that examples of schools using data unethically, are few and have never occurred in any of the districts where our team has provided PD and coaching in data use over the years. Still, more is needed to help all of us be aware of areas where our lack of knowledge about contexts and content may lead us to making decisions based on false assumptions about student learning. And, indeed, it’s possible to use data poorly to justify never challenged assumptions. Which is why, in our book, The Ethical Use of Data in Education, we offer suggestions for altering the landscape of Teacher Preparation Programs, as well as PD across the spectrum of teachers’ professional experiences.

When you think back to both your undergraduate and graduate studies in education, what were your experiences with exploring student, community or content data as it relates to student learning progressions, impact of poverty, cultural background differences, or neurological challenges experienced by many student learners? What guides teacher preparation programs in developing their courses of study and intern programs for rising teachers? The answer is state standards for teaching and state codes of ethics. And to date, only two states explicitly mention FERPA. Nineteen mention protection of student privacy. However, few states or professional organizations, go far enough to guide TPPs in developing course content that fully develops our knowledge of what it can mean to use data responsibly.

More to come. What is your experience?

 

Braving Nature For the Sake of High-Quality PD

By Mary Anne Mather, Managing Editor
TERC’s Using Data for Meaningful Change Blog

The 2013 annual Learning Forward Conference in Dallas, Texas faced quite a challenge this past December as a major ice storm glazed the area in a slick crust of sheer slippage. Flights were canceled, and Texas-based drivers found themselves snarled on impassable roads. Using Data, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was scheduled to present a full-capacity, all-day session on Monday, December 9 entitled Effective, Continuous Data Use Requires Prepared Leadership. Would we make it? Would our participants?

 

Teacher Teams Help Test Scores. Really? Always?

GUEST BLOGGER: Mary Anne Mather, Using Data Senior Facilitator & Social Media Liaison on Twitter & FaceBook

I was bolstered by this bit of news from Tennessee via Learning Forward about the efficacy of teacher teams that meet regularly to share data and strategies. The article is a sound-bite about the good news for student achievement in Wilson County that leaves me hungry for the details about how their meetings are structured, what data they look at, and how that data inform practice. From the published results, they seem to have discovered the perfect storm where collaboration, data, and strategies/solutions meet to make a difference. I, for one—as a facilitator of processes to help conjure similar storms, applaud them!

But the news item also reminded me that there’s more to this kind of success than simply meeting as a team and sharing “what works.”

 

Using Data Tip #6: Beginning a Causal Analysis Process: Why Asking “Why” Once is Not Enough

GUEST BLOGGER: Mary Anne Mather, Using Data Senior Facilitator & Social Media Liaison on Twitter & FaceBook

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Albert Einstein

Once a school or grade-level data team has analyzed several data sources to pinpoint a student learning problem, they often feel ready to leap into action and solve it. To ensure that the solution pursued produces the hope-for results, it’s essential to engage in a collaborative process of causal analysis to identify the “root” cause of the problem.

There are many tools that support root cause analysis, one of them is referred to as Why-Why-Why—a question-asking technique used to explore cause and effect relationships. Why-Why-Why helps a group look beyond symptoms to underlying causes by taking the identified problem and asking why it exists at least three times—each time probing more deeply.

 

Anatomy of a School Improvement Communications Plan

Guest Blogger: Dr. William L. Heller, Using Data Program Director, Teaching Matters*

Summer has arrived, and the last of our current data institutes, like the school year itself, has come to an end. But as the participating data teams leave, carrying not a diploma but an action plan, they realize that their work is only just beginning. It is not a graduation; it is a commencement. And the first step in the journey ahead is to introduce the action plan they developed to the principal, administrators, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders in their school communities. This requires another planning document—a strategic communications plan, inviting others to invest in a shared vision for bringing the action plan to reality.

So…what are the elements of a good communications plan that will get others behind the action plan?

 

Data Blind Spots—Data Use Continuum Tool Can Improve a School’s Vision

By Diana Nunnaley, Director, TERC’s Using Data

Depending on where you sit, and which frame of reference shapes your work, you either celebrate charter school efforts or think charters reflect a “right” wing or “left” wing  (take your pick) conspiracy to undermine the role of public education in the United States.

A blog post is too short a space to weigh into the considerable arguments both pro and con that can be made regarding the place for charter schools in America. To my thinking, charters are a natural consequence of Americans seeking a solution to a social problem. We may not agree on the substance of the problem or the direction of the solution, but in a society that values and applauds entrepreneurial efforts, charters are here to stay. That is, they have a place until we learn more about the experience (hopefully by examining the data) or, have a collective epiphany about the impact of poverty on kids’ success in learning and activate the collective will to change the way we fund and support local education.

Charter School Vision Equally Blurred

Based on my experience working in schools across the country, the reality is that teachers in charter schools bring the same passion and desire to help children learn as teachers in any other public or private setting. They face the same staggering challenges and then some. And they bring the same blind spots to the table when examining their student learning data.

 

Mixing Business and Pleasure: A Conversation About Teacher Evaluation

GUEST BLOGGER: Mary Anne Mather, Using Data Facilitator & Social Media Liaison on Twitter & FaceBook

A beautiful morning walk in Falmouth, Massachusetts

A recent weekend wedding celebration on Cape Cod brought together a stirring mix of sapphire shimmering ocean, stunning bride (who I had the joy of watching transform over the years from little girl to accomplished young woman), and satisfying conversation with long-time friends—an enjoyable mix of hilarity, nostalgia, and sometimes serious discourse.

During several early-morning walks with friends connected through our work as educators, the more serious discourse returned time and again to an impassioned discussion about teacher evaluation. This conversation was prompted in particular by a June 4 Washington Post article, Maryland Teacher Evaluation Redesign Bogs Down. We were somewhat stunned to learn two pieces of data: 1) Almost a year ago, Maryland won a $250 million federal grant to build a “transparent and fair” teacher and principal evaluation model that would tie their success to student test scores and learning, and 2) The state is seeking a year’s extension to fully execute the evaluation system it has yet to develop.

“Two-hundred fifty million,” my friend mused. “They could hire 250 people and pay them a million dollars each. With that kind of brain trust you’d think something could be developed in a year.” We laughed, but think about it.

 

Measure What You Treasure: Soccer Goals, Factory Lighting, and Monitoring Plans

GUEST BLOGGER: Dr. William L. Heller, Using Data Program Director, Teaching Matters*

There is an important lesson to be learned from a soccer game played between Barbados and Grenada at the 1994 Shell Caribbean Cup. In this tournament, tied games would go to sudden death overtime, and any subsequent goal scored would be a “Golden Goal” worth two points. Barbados needed to win by two to progress to the next round, and in fact they were ahead 2-0, when Grenada scored.

With just minutes left in the game, a quick-thinking Barbadian player scored on his own goal, tying the game in order to invoke sudden death and buy some time for his team. Grenada’s players then tried to score on their own goal, hoping to lose by one, but Barbados was able to successfully defend Grenada’s goal. The game went into overtime, and Barbados won 4-2.

You would think that it would have taken a great deal to get these players to go against years of training and experience to want to score on their own goals, but all it really took was a momentary change in their accountability system.

We’ve seen a similar effect this year in New York City middle schools.

 

Building Capacity For Using Data Well: Who should lead the data initiative?

By Diana Nunnaley, Director, TERC’s Using Data

Two thoughtful building administrators wanting to invest in a meaningful and effective initiative for data use in their schools recently came to me and asked. Who is the best person to lead a school’s data initiative?

Both of them, in their initial thinking, wondered if the best approach might be to have a district or building  “data person” present analyzed data findings, student learning problems, and identified solutions to the faculty. While this solution might address budget and scheduling constraints, in my experience it falls short of building and sustaining meaningful data use in a school. I have found that, in many cases, the “data person” is better with formulas and answers than with helping a broader group of stakeholders ask the right questions in order for them to recognize their own place in the CAUSE, as well as their place in the SOLUTION, toward enacting improved student achievement.

So…who IS the best person to lead a school’s data work? The best person is really a data team, led by a designated data coach who assumes the responsibility of organizing data meetings and resources, but who shares responsibility for meeting facilitation, data analysis, verifying causes of student learning problems, and identifying solutions. Together, the team members participate in focused professional development that builds common vision, language, and facility with an iterative process for engaging in data dialog. The REAL question is, “Who should be on the data team?”

 

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo: Wouldn’t it be great?

GUEST BLOGGER: Jennifer Unger Director, The GroupWorks, Grafton, MA. Jennifer is a senior facilitator for TERC’s Using Data.

As a facilitator of learning, one of the great conundrums I see participants grappling with is the growing realization that I, as the facilitator of their learning, may not be a magician, and that they must actually use the tools, resources and processes that I provide in order to initiate the changes that they desire. It is simply not enough to attend a working session and leave saying, “Been there-done that.”

Now I know this for a fact because I do it all the time—whether I am attending a Michael Fullan workshop or reading a really great book (most recently, Mike Schmoker’s FOCUS). Somehow, there is that deep, abiding belief that just engaging with their ideas will change me. While it may be a first miniscule beginning step, alas, I know that it will not change me any more than watching tons of exercise videos will help me lose weight. Change is something that I must DO and, as Ghandi said, BE

Which leads me to the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) that was introduced to me by my colleagues Susan Loucks-Horsley and Susan Mundry, and, its sister, the Innovation Configuration. Two of the foundational underlying assumptions of these models/frameworks are that change takes time and that change is a process, not an event.