Creating a Data Driven DecisionMaking Culture

1
Creating a Data Driven Decision-Making Culture

• Presented by
• Williamsport Area School District
• Jodi Harris, Director of Educational Data
  Analysis
• April 2008

2
Williamsport ASD Profile

• WASD enrollment - 5,800, 30 Minority, 55 ECD,
• 23 Special Needs
• 10 school buildings 6 EL, 3 MS, 1 HS
• 2007 AYP subgroups 10 schools with ECD student
  subgroups, 6 schools with IEP student subgroups
  and 6 schools with African-American student
  subgroups
• 2003-2004 Phase II PVAAS Pilot

3
WASD EL PSSA Math
2002 2004 includes grade 5, 2005 includes
grades 3 5, 2006 2007 includes grades 3 - 5
4
WASD MS PSSA Math
2002 2005 includes grade 8, 2006 2007
includes grades 6-8
5
WASD EL PSSA Reading
2002 2004 includes grade 5, 2005 includes
grades 3 5, 2006 2007 includes grades 3 - 5
6
WASD MS PSSA Reading
2002 2005 includes grade 8, 2006 2007
includes grades 6-8
7

• Like pushing on a giant, heavy flywheel, it
  takes a lot of effort to get the thing moving at
  all, but with persistent pushing in a consistent
  direction over a long period of time, the
  flywheel builds momentum, eventually hitting a
  point of breakthrough.
• - Collins, J. Good to Great. New York,
  NY Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 2001.

8
Step 1 Commit to Using Data

• Fall 2003 Consultant works with schools to
  create Comprehensive School Review documents
  (CSR)
• Spring 2004 WASD enters Phase II PVAAS Pilot
• Summer 2004 Director of Educational Data hired

9

• Helpful Hint 1

Provide support to make data more accessible for
the people who need to use it!
10
Step 2 Develop a Plan

• Fall 2004 Data Director meets with CSR teams
  What data do you need?
• Fall 2004 WASD team attends Battelle for Kids
  Value-Added Conference in Columbus, OH
• Spring 2005 PVAAS Professional Development
  Plan created

11

• Building Data Team

• District Data Team

• Superintendent
• Assistant Superintendent
• Data Director
• Curriculum Supervisors
• Director of Special Education
• Psychologist
• Union representative
• DVAS

• Principal
• Assistant Principal
• IST Teacher
• DVAS
• 3 additional teachers

12
Building Data Team Membership

• Principal/Assistant Principal
• IST Teacher
• EL at least one primary and one intermediate
  teacher
• MS HS at least two teachers from different
  grades

13
Building Data Team Membership Additional
Membership

• Guidance Counselor
• Special Education
• Title 1 Reading Specialist
• Literacy Coaches

14

• Helpful Hint 2

Technical expertise should not drive data team
membership!
15
Step 3 Professional Development

• September 2005 1 day PVAAS training session
  with District Data Team membership, including
  building teacher representatives
• October 2005 1 day training session with
  building data teams including PVAAS, PSSA results
  and 4Sight results
• December 2005 Superintendent met with each
  building data teams

16

• Helpful Hint 3

Building administrators need to understand PVAAS
before training teachers!
17
PVAAS Questions
Did the curriculum fit the students? Does the
grade level curriculum (or delivery of the
curriculum) allow for students starting behind to
catch up with others? Did the instructional
strategies work? If value-added was below than
the strategies used did not meet the needs of
your students. Did all students have an
opportunity to make progress from where they
started?
18

• Helpful Hint 4

A set of data may help generate questions, but
you must look to other data sources to find the
answers.
19
The data team generated and shared a
presentation on the use of data which resulted in
teachers being more receptive to PVAAS. Teachers
then became eager to proceed with using real-time
data, such as 4Sight, as a tool to reflect on
their own instructional practices. Bruce
Elliot, WASD Principal
20
Step 4 Keep Moving Forward

• Fall 2006 Data Director led 1 day data team
  sessions to review achievement, growth, and
  process data
• Fall 2006 PVAAS student projections shared at
  parent teacher conferences
• December 2006 - Superintendent met with building
  data teams
• Spring 2007- 4Sight Protocol established for
  2007-2008 school year including inservice time
  set aside for data analysis, goal setting, and
  using data to determine instructional priorities

21
PVAAS PD Plan What Worked?

• The DVAS concept helped build data leaders.
• The inclusion of IST teachers helped prepare
  buildings for RTI.
• The inclusion of primary teachers brought data
  down to kindergarten level teachers.
• The PD plan helped establish strong support from
  the teacher union leadership.

22
PVAAS PD Plan Revisions

• District Data Team will meet only as needed.
• High school data team has unique training
  considerations.
• Secondary building data teams benefit from
  Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies
  representation.
• Special Education representation is now present
  on every building data team.
• Data teams now present summary to entire faculty.

23
Data, Data Everywhere.

• Principals PSSA Results (including
  demographics, classroom teacher, course grades,
  EAP tutoring hours, 4Sight results, attendance)
  for prior students and incoming students.
• Teachers PSSA Results by Classroom (grades 3-8
  11) and Classroom Composite Report (grades
  1-8)(including PSSA results by reporting
  category, EAP tutoring hours, interventions,
  demographic information)

24
High School Data Analysis

• PSSA results correlation to attendance, course
  grades, course type, academic track, etc
• 9th Grade Academy selection protocol
• Course scheduling protocol 4Sight
  results/course grades
• Graduation Rate credits earned in 9th grade,
  course grade distributions, number of students
  failing multiple courses, etc.

25
The results came first the buy in came next.
Data-driven instruction does not require buy-in,
it creates it. - Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, Data
in the Drivers Seat, Educational Leadership,
December 2007/January 2008, P.46
26

• When you let the flywheel do the talking,
  you dont need to fervently communicate your
  goals. People can just extrapolate from the
  momentum of the flywheel for themselves Hey,
  if we just keep doing this, look at where we can
  go! As people decide among themselves to turn
  the fact of potential into the fact of results,
  the goal almost sets itself.
• - Collins, J. Good to Great. New York, NY
  Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 2001.

27

• Contact Information
• Jodi Harris, Director of Educational Data
  Analysis
• Williamsport Area School District
• 201 West Third Street
• Williamsport, PA 17701
• [phone] ext. 3491
• jharris_at_wasd.org
• www.wasd.org