I came across this great video posted on Edutopia on how by tracking progress and building on it, a New Orleans preschool creates a culture of improvement for the whole school. It shows how the school is utilizing data by creating a cycle of continuous learning - How and why teachers collect data to assess areas for student growth and how that data, in turn, is being used to support the development of classroom teachers. Teachers now say “Data drives everything we do!” It's a fantastic example of how data culture enhances learning and provides tools for teachers for immediate intervention and places resources where they are needed most. The school realized that for them to be successful and provide high quality learning, they had to embrace a data culture! It’s about collecting evidence, facts about your learners and then taking action upon it. You can watch the full video here.
Building and Leading a School Culture that Values Data Informed Dialogue to Improve Student Learning
(This post is by Megan Brazil, Elementary School Principal, United Nations International School, Hanoi. The post was first published online in 2016.) In a ‘silo schools’ approach, teachers have generally been left to work independently on collecting, understanding and using their own classroom data to make decisions about instruction, planning and assessment. Many schools have not yet made the successful transition from individual to collaborative: to enable teams of teachers to collectively analyze learning data in order to improve learning outcomes for all students. What we know to be true in many schools is that teachers still spend a disproportionate amount of time planning instruction, but don’t place the same emphasis or effort on finding out if the instruction really worked. Perhaps then, less importance has been placed on finding time for teams of teachers, coaches and administrators to take a look at the ‘back end’ — the learning that has taken place as a result of the planni