Sonya Ramirez HTH 320: Using Data to Inform Practice Put it to Practice Introduction I grew up in a fairly typical, urban

high school and received what I thought was a fairly typical, urban high school education. As students we werent encouraged to think critically or analyze content -- we were told what was right and what was wrong, the correct answer and the wrong answer. As an eager-to-please student dying to move up the social class through education, I was constantly seeking this right answer. I didnt invest time exploring or investigating answers for myself, I didnt care why the answer was the answer - I did know that I was told one response would lead to success while the other to failure. Today, as a teacher in a project-based learning school that encourages students to explore and investigate, I often catch myself going back to my old ways. This is particularly true when it comes to data. When I think about data I used to think numbers. When I think of numbers I think indisputable. As an emerging school leader that is constantly looking for direction and evidence, Im discovering that this train of thought is becoming less and less true. Data can imply a many number of things that may or may not include numbers -- as listed in Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making, examples of clasroom and other data may include curriculum-based unit tests, class projects, classwork and homework, attendance records, records from parent meetings and phone calls, classroom behavior charts. (13). And in fact, prior to even thinking about data, one must first clearly determine what one is in fact measuring. Ben Daley in unBoxed assumes that the goal is to measure whether or not students are successfully earning a degree. Since it is difficult to wait years to find out the outcome of this data point, it seems reasonable to keep track of some other data along the way that reasonably predicts college entrance and sucess (Daley). This data may include admissions, demographics, attrition, curriculum, college entrance exams, high school graduation rates, college acceptance rates, college attendance rates [and] college graduation rates (Daley). Although the goal for each school and student may be different, it is critical to understand that any data supporting a decision should go beyond static numbers and preferably includes a variety of both qualitative and quantitative responses. The quicker school administrators and policymakers clarify what the goal for each student is and understand that data should include much more than test score, the sooner we can measure what matters most. Big Picture Teaching at High Tech High North County, I engage in exciting inquiry-based, authentic work with my students. As opposed to feeding my students what I think is the right answer, as I experienced in my own education, I allow them to explore, take risks, make mistakes and learn and grow along the way. My role is to provide them with resources they need and to create a positive environment in which they actually can learn and grow. In order to make decisions that lead to higher rates of student success, I use various forms of data. The role of a school leader is very much the same. Too many school leaders base decisions on a single form of data -- test scores. Alfie Kohn in his article Standardized Testing and Its Victims reminds us, among many other criticisms of standardized testing, that norm-referenced tests were never intended to measure the quality of of learning or teaching and that the main objective of these tests is to rank, not to rate; to spread out the scores, not to guage the quality of a given student or school. Hence another reminder for why schools should be implementing other forms of data in addition to or instead of test scores. Additionally, Linda Darling-Hammond points out how placing such a heavy emphasis on test scores creates a negative impact amongst teachers as well as school leaders. She argues that changing the assessment itself in attempt to find more equitable results is unlikely to be

successful and the assessments are unlikely to be equitable because they stem from a distrust of teachers and fail to involve teachers in the reform processes (5). Kohn also adds that many educators are leaving the field because of what is being done to schools in the name of accountability and tougher standards. By placing less of an emphasis on test scores by collecting a variety of data and working with teachers to increase student success, school leaders will be demonstrating the type of collaboration teachers should be doing with their students to achieve the same goal. As Pasi Sahlberg, director of Finnish Ministry of Educations Center for International Mobility, responded when asked about the accountability of teachers and administrators, accountability is something that is left when responsiblity has been subtracted (The Atlantic). To avoid all the problems that are inherent to placing such a heavy emphasis on test scores, as a school leader I would like to use a variety of both qualitative and quantitative data with my colleagues in order to make decisions as a staff, similar to what I do with my students in my classroom. By working together, it allows both staff and school leaders to be on the same page in terms of the goal and it also allows everyone to be invested in the goal. Boudett, City and Murnane explain in Data Wise in Action how action plans should be collective endeavors. Whenever possible, developing an action plan should be a collective undertaking and in the case study presented in the book, the teachers catalyzed and supported collective learning across the entire school (122). They then continue to clarify that collaborating to devise an action plan is beneficial for two reasons: the first reason is that when teachers are involved in choosing the instructional strategies for the action plan, the more committed they are to challenging work of implementing them and the second reason is that the act of coming together to develop instructonal solutions to students learning needs can foster professional community among faculty (123). For these reasons and many other benefits that come with making decisions as a faculty, I hope to serve as a model for my colleagues by communicating and analyzing with the teachers I lead. Putting it to Practice For the project itself I implemented a staff survey which included both qualitative and quantitative data reagrding the displaying of student work. As a classroom teacher I recognized that especially compared to our other sister schools in Point Loma and Chula Vista, our campus has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to both the quality and quantity of student work that is curated throughout our school building. In hopes to include student voice into this procedure, some students and I have started a Curation Club. This is the first time High Tech High North County has had a student-run club that is focusing on the beautification of our school and I planned on analyzing the responses from the survey with these students in order to get a better idea of how the club could support and empower our teachers. The questions from the all-staff survey were as follows: November 2013 1. (Rate) How much power do you feel you have when it comes to displaying things (student work, resources, posters, etc.) within your own classroom/office? 2. (Rate) How much power do you feel you have when it comes to displaying things at our school outside of your own classroom? a. Explain your responses above. What issues/problems/obstacles prevent you from choosing 4 for the questions above? 3. What roles do you think students play in the curation process, if any? 4. What should our goal be as a school when it comes to student work display? 5. (Rate) How effective are we as a school when it comes to displaying student work? 6. What are some ways in which we could improve in displaying student work? 7. How often do you and how do you keep the curation process/exhibition in mind when you are planning/designing a project?

8. Would you be open to the Curation Club approaching you regarding your responses to this survey and your thoughts/opinions on curation at HTHNC?

In order to ensure that the students in the club were invested and engaged with this data-driven process, I collaborated with them from the very beginning. After I brainstormed the questions for the survey, I asked them to critique it and add any additional questions they felt were necessary in order to successfully support teachers in curation. A majority of the students were very engaged and some revisions were made based on their feedback (for example, Question 7 was added based on comments from a student curator). Once we felt the survey was complete, 2 representatives from the club attended a staff meeting to explain the purpose and need for this survey. By including (and at times strongly encouraging) students and having them participate in both of these steps, it allowed the students to become much more invested and engaged in the process. When talking with individual students, they expressed that they felt the work that they were doing was truly meaningful and that it was their work -- something they took ownership of and was proud of being a part of it. All in all, we received 21 responses (out of the 30 or so staff members) and some of the results are as follows:

During the discussion itself, I decided to use the following format: Analyze data/responses Celebrations Areas of Growth Questions/Concerns Next Steps

I decided, especially since this de-brief is with students, to approach this meeting in a more informal, open-ended way since I wasnt sure which direction the conversation would steer. I prefaced the discussion by reminding the students that there are a lot of cool feedback (also known as constructive critiscms as opposed to warm feedback which is more positive feedback) but that it was a good thing because it validated the purpose of our club and that there truly is a need for us. Despite my cautionary preface regarding cool feedback, I was still concerned about how the students may react to some of the narrative responses that were not exactly positive. Therefore as I worked on this project, the question came to mind: How can school leaders facilitate a dialogue regarding data that may reveal controversial and maybe even emotionally daunting issues? Looking back on the video of the discussion with my students, I feel I made the right choice by not dwelling on what some of those responses might have meant or implied and instead had the students look forward. For each response that made us wonder, students volunteered to follow-up with the staff that wrote the response. That way, the students could clearly understand what the teacher meant to say as well as how the teacher felt the club could be used to help teachers in terms of curation. I felt this allowed our meeting to end in a much more positive, looking forward attitude as opposed to dwelling on the many unclear, vague responses we received. However many other questions linger when I think about analyzing data with my fellow colleagues; what if we were unable to contact the people that responded to the survey? How would the meeting have ended differently? Would adults have reacted the same way that my students did? As a facilitator how might I have structured the discussion differently had it been with my adult colleagues as opposed to my students? Despite the positive start to this possibly endless discussion between the staff and the Curation Club students, it is just the beginning of a long journey. Now that the students have looked at the data, we must now devise an action plan based on the responses. Like everything we do at our school, I will not tell the students what the right answer is (most likely, I am unaware myself). Together we will investigate, explore and probably make mistakes until we figure out what the best plan is for our school. My hope is that the rest of this process will go just as well as the initial step since I sough a variety of both qualitative and quantitative data from my colleagues and also given the fact that I have included the students in the discussion from the get-go. Since the students have shown that they are in fact invested and engaged in this data-driven, decision-making process, I hope that, regardless of the type of feedback we receive, my students and I can always look forward and work together to improve ourselves and our school.

Works Cited Boudett, K. P. & Steele J. (2007). Data wise in action.

Daley, Ben. (2009). Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink. Unboxed. Darling-Hammond, Linda. (2013). Performance-based assessment and educationl equity. Transforming curriculum for a culturally diverse society. Kohn, Alfie. (2000). Standardized testing and its victims. Education week. Partanen, Anu. (2011). What Americans keep ignoring about Finlands school success. The Atlantic. US department of education. (n.d.). Retrieved from website: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practice_guides/dddm_pg_092909.pdf