HEATHMONT COLLEGE

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HEATHMONT COLLEGE Creating a Community of
Curiosity John Handley, Principal May 2008
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Purpose of todays presentation To share some
insights from my learning in the Data Wise Course
at Harvard University Grad School in 2007
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BACKGROUND OBSERVATIONS To create higher levels
of student engagement order
Aim (a) Reinforce that Teaching Enables
Learning (b) Teachers feel high levels of
success and satisfaction (c) Teachers value and
commit to high levels of collegial
support (d) High alignment across and within the
school Source Professor Richard Elmore (Harvard
Uni)
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• We know
• Quality of Instruction is the principal cause of
  student learning
• Up to 70 of variation in learning outcomes can
  be attributed to variation across classes at the
  same school

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• Students have high level capacity to adapt
  behaviours to be different in classes with
  different teachers they pick up quickly on
  variability in teacher expectations.
• Students from lower social class (SFO) will only
  succeed as learners from the way we teach

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• Discipline and behaviour are everybodys
  responsibility in a high functioning school
• People learn to do the work by doing the work

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• It is important to manage energy as well as time
  to sustain high performance and personal renewal

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Hence, it is important that we enable teachers
to

• talk to each other
• speak with common voice
• deal with discipline at point of occurrence
• Establish strong normative structures to
  participate in conversations about instructional
  improvement i.e. separate the practice from the
  person, keep conversations at a descriptive level

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• AND
• We progress to teachers regularly meeting to
  evaluate the effectiveness of teacher practice
  through analysis of student work
• How might we do this?

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Data Wise A Roadmap for our data learning
journey
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DATA WISE

• The Power of Protocols
• Norms for open, honest conversation
• Meeting habits that support inquiry, dialogue,
  reflection
• Opportunities for direct action
• Facilitative leadership capable of encouraging
  participation, ensuring equity, building trust
• Reference The Power of Protocols, An Educators
  Guide to Better Practice,
• 2nd Edn, McDonald, Mohr, Dichter, McDonald,
• Teachers College Press, Columbia Uni, New York,
  NY 10027

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DATA WISE

• PREPARE Work Together
• INQUIRE Seek the Truth
• ACT Do the Right Thing
• Reference DATAWISE, Boudett, City Murnane,
• Harvard Education Press

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DATA WISE

• Organise and collaborate
• Promote Interest get a Data Wise Team together

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DATA WISE

• Create a Data Inventory what, where, how, why
  to date?.

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DATA WISE

• 2. Build Assessment Literacy
• Create opportunities for data exploration
• Make good graphs to catalyse brainstorming
• Recognise need to analyse different types of data
  remember student work is most valuable data

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DATA WISE

• Creating a Data Overview
• Build a Story
• Create Charts
• Create a Presentation

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DATA WISE

• Dig into Data
• Looking at Student work (Steve Seidel)
• Digging into Gaps (Ron Ferguson)

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DATA WISE

• Looking at Student work
• Evidence compare work with explicit
  expectations or standards
• Precise, shared vocabulary
• Collaborative conversation with explicit norms
  (use protocols)

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DATA WISE

• Digging into Gaps Look for data that can help
  us reduce the gaps in achievement
• Tripod Project for School improvement
• CONTENT, RELATIONSHIPS, PEDAGOGY
• Ronald F. Ferguson, Harvard University

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STUDENT ENGAGEMENT TARGETS

• Feel trusting, safe and welcome in the school
  environment
• Behave cooperatively and abide by school rules
• Embrace mastery skills more than socially
  comparative skills
• Work diligently and remain resilient in response
  to setbacks
• Achieve satisfaction and a sense of a connection
  between our effort and progress

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Learning Conditions found to be best predictors
of Engagement Targets

• Feasibility multiple explanations, outside help
• Relevance connections to real life
• Enjoyment
• Teacher Support and Demand
• Peer Support levels of teasing

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TEACHER SUPPORT DEMAND

• Encouragement
• Optimistic about student outcomes
• Deep understanding of students, their strengths
  and areas needing improvement
• High expectations of students behaviour and
  commitment to learning
• Holding students to account

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DATA WISE

• 5. Examine Instruction Richard Elmore

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DATA WISE

• Highlights
• Wide Ranging collection of student data
• Selective data is examined by team of teachers in
  preparation for instructional learning
  (assessment as, of, for learning)
• Teachers regularly meet to evaluate the
  effectiveness of teacher practice through
  analysis of student work

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DATA WISE

• Develop an Action plan
• Embed in A.I.P. and Strategic Plans

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DATA WISE

• JUST BECAUSE YOU TAUGHT IT DOESNT MEAN THEY
  LEARNT IT!
• Hilary Shea, June 2006
• Hence, need for activities that bridge gap
  between teaching learning
• e.g. week in review

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DATA WISE

• Plan to assess Progress
• Identify evidence you will use to measure
  increasing effectiveness of teaching to improve
  learning

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DATA WISE

• Act and assess
• What is the data telling us about our school?
• What is data telling us about instructional
  learning in our school?
• What are the implications for my classes?

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Data Wise A Roadmap for our data learning
journey