Using Data to Drive Instruction
"The data-driven decision-making process occurs when teachers and administrators base educational decisions on the analysis of gathered student and program data" (Frazier & Hearrington, 2017, p. 151).
My district uses i-Ready as its assessment platform to monitor student progress at the elementary and intermediate level and will soon use this same program at the middle school level. Teachers administer i-Ready diagnostic tests to students three times per year. Each time a diagnostic test is completed, the program creates a personalized instructional plan for each student which caters to their individual academic needs. The data we collect from these assessments is used for intervention purposes and is now used as our evidence pieces for the Literacy Act. Parents receive reports after each diagnostic assessment which details their child's performance and academic abilities.
My role as a reading coach is to analyze the data and then provide teachers with the tools to either close gaps for their students or provide strategies to push students with higher academic abilities. This is not a new concept and is one that I am very familiar with; however, something that is new is the important role technology coordinators play in this decision-making process.
According to the Department of Education National Education Technology Trends Survey (NETTS) of 2008, using electronic systems to gather and manage student data increased drastically in a short span of time (Frazier, & Hearrington, 2017).
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My role as an instructional coach and the role of a technology coordinator are surprisingly similar. Teachers need ongoing support to constantly provide students with effective reading instruction in order to improve students outcomes, therefore, coaching has to be in-depth and sustained over time (Sweeney & Harris, 2016). This also holds true for the technology coordinator especially when it comes to using electronic systems. A technology coordinator plays a pivotal role in ensuring that teachers are prepared for the use of Student Information Systems (SISs) by providing ongoing professional development opportunities (Frazier, & Hearrington, 2017). Because I love technology and find it easy to navigate, I have taken for granted the fact that not everyone has this same passion and may need to be trained and guided through various platforms. The decisions made by both an instructional coach and technology coordinator can make a major impact on a school or even a district.
Collaboration Dreams
"create opportunities for teachers to engage in professional learning, which serves as the “practice” that occurs in mastering other types of tasks."
Partnering with the technology coordinator would create an opportunity for teachers to look at their data in a different light which, ultimately, fosters growth in their students. This partnership would also provide deeper insight for me to get started with student-centered coaching cycles and aligns with Sweeney's 7 Core Practices for Student-Centered Coaching (below).
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Diane Sweeney Consulting. (2022, February 3). Getting started with student-centered coaching. Diane Sweeney Consulting: The Place for Student-Centered Coaching. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.dianesweeney.com/getting-started-with-student-centered-coaching/
Frazier, M., & Hearrington, D. (2017). Technology coordinator’s handbook, 3rd edition (3rd ed.). International Society for Technology in Education.
Sweeney, D., & Harris, L. S. (2016). Student-Centered coaching: The moves (1st ed.). Corwin.
3 comments
Frazier & Hearrington (2017) state, "data informs and guides the decisions necessary to improve student performance and school success" (p. 152). This statement really sums up why we collect data in the first place. When analyzed and used correctly, data can really give you the insight to close learning gaps in students, thus raise school success. According to Chitwood (2018),"responding to student achievement data has been a key process in education for many years". I would like to think our practices have improved over the years. However, we must be careful not to get caught up in the data for numbers sake. I think there is sometimes a ton of pressure placed on teachers to achieve a certain number on a test. While we should strive to be successful, let us use the data for drive instruction and make a difference in students academic journey. I really enjoyed the blog. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Chitwood, N. (2018). The Effectiveness of Leadership Behaviors in Influencing Data-Driven Decision-Making by Teachers.https://www.proquest.com/docview/2029189625.
Frazier, M., & Hearrington, D. (2017). Technology coordinator’s handbook, 3rd edition (3rd ed.). International Society for Technology in Education.
April,
ReplyDeleteI understand all about the data driving decisions. We have been using i-Ready for a few years in my district. I like the reports that are available from their website. It is hard to know for sure how accurate some of them are, though. Some students rush through them or just click randomly without any effort. This is very obvious when a student will have dramatically different grade level equivalencies within just a couple of months. There is no way a student will improve 3 grade levels in 3 months time. There is also not a way that a student can test on grade level but then drop to 3 grade levels behind. I’m very skeptical when I use these reports to write IEPs and goals for students. We switched our math data source to HMH this year and it’s about the same. The reports are not as detailed as the i-Ready reports but still give an overall grade level equivalency. We have used those to place students in math intervention courses. This is actually part of my research paper for this program. Frazier and Herrington say, “Data from the school, district, and state levels is becoming more readily accessible and available (often posted on district or state department of education websites), and there is increased interest in using this data to make effective decisions” (p. 152). With an SIS that can pull all student data (e.g., grades, quarterly diagnostics, state testing results, transcripts, etc.) into the same location, this will become even easier.
Frazier, M., & Hearrington, D. (2017). The Technology Coordinator's handbook. International Society for Technology in Education.
Data driven instructional decisions are so critical in all aspects of the classroom and school. Many educators spend a great deal of time in the data gathering phase or data analysis phase and fail to actually move the data into practice through changes in instructional practices and decisions. I love your idea for collaborating with the Technology Coordinator to give new teachers a crash course in IReady. My district has also utilized IReady for several years, and the reports provided help tremendously in the data gathering and analysis phases. I also appreciate how there are next steps for each student on their pathway and in small groups based on needs. One early step in any change process is to gather data. Sheninger (2019) states, "Present the data and supporting research, and together build a shared vision and strategic plan for the identified change" (p. 59). Sheninger also lists all the different types of data that should be reviewed and analyzed prior to making changes or shifts. I think it is also important to remember that IReady is one piece of data; I am always interested in ORFs and conferencing with each student in terms of reading proficiency and data gathering as well.
ReplyDeleteI also had a question about your Technology Coordinator. Do they work with the systems or overall technology management or are they a Technology Coach or Integration Specialist? Those would be very different job descriptions, and I currently serve as the Technology Integration Specialist at my school. I have led trainings about IReady, but I have also led other trainings on how to use different tech tools to gather formative assessment data and change instructional decisions based on that data as well. I feel that this can be powerful for teachers as the IReady Diagnostics only occur three times per year. I think it is a great idea to identify new teachers for this professional development; a survey about who needs this additional support may also be useful as some veteran teachers may need additional support in the different levels of IReady usage in the classroom. You could even offer a 101 and 201 professional development for IReady. Xie et. al (2021) discusses how supporting teacher shifts through quality and personalized professional development really can change teacher practices over time (p. 20). Also, when data driven decisions are part of the shared school culture, these professional development sessions become even more meaningful and impactful to all participants.
Xie, K., Nelson, M. J., Cheng, S.-L., & Jiang, Z. (2021). Examining changes in teachers’ perceptions of external and internal barriers in their integration of educational digital resources in K-12 classrooms. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 1–26. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.1080/15391523.2021.1951404.
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital Leadership (2nd Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US).