Title

CLASSROOM-FOCUSED IMPROVEMENT PROCESS (CFIP)

Time
&
Collaboration

CFIP was completed in Spring of 2013 with my third grade team. I gathered
applicable information and resources for data reform at my school through my
ILPD 740course; Data-Based Decision Making.
According to mdk12.org, "CFIP is a process, not a plan. As such, it does not
prescribe a rigid format, as most School Improvement Plans do. Rather, it is a
question-based protocol for data dialogue to be carried out by collaborative teams
as they focus on planning their next instructional unit, leaving the daily lesson
planning to the creativity of individual teachers."

Content
&
Description

CFIP (Classroom-Focused Improvement Process) is a protocol developed by a
former professor of mine, Dr. Ron Thomas, and his partner; Dr. Mike Hickey. The
purpose of using CFIP is to collect real time (current) data. By looking at this
data, my team and I were able to follow steps to make data driven decisions for
instruction and address individual needs for differentiation (both enrichments and
interventions) without wasting valuable time. The protocol is an efficient action
plan that follows these 6 steps below;
1. Be sure everyone understands the data being analyzed.
2. Pose a question or two that the data can answer.
3. Look for class-wide patterns in the data.
4. Act on the class patterns, including re- teaching, if needed.
5. Address individual students needs for enrichment and intervention remaining
after re-teaching.
6. Decide on and implement at least one way that instruction will be improved in
the next unit. (mdk12.org)

Justification
&
Reflection
Woodholme Elementary is a relatively new school, and our student data practices
have been in place for the past 8 years. A leader improves productive data
analysis through settings norms and protocols. Just as mentioned in CFIPs
framework and Thomas article, leaders should set team guidelines for data
analysis so that outcomes are consistent across the board, measureable, and so
teachers are held accountable.

All of this data is used to design small group instruction that targets student
needs. Teachers have too much data to analyze and assess effectively during
common planning. Data analysis happens during grade-level meetings, faculty
meetings, and independently.

All teachers are being held accountable for improving student performance, but
many teachers do not buy in to horizontal or vertical articulation in data
dialogues, due to the nature in which these dialogues take place. For these team
collaborations to be successful, a set of norms need to be established by the
leader and team members to de-personalize the content of the discussions. Not
only do they need to set a guideline of norms to build equity within the group, but
they also need to set up objective, data-relevant questions that are time efficient,
factually based, and that build a comfortable climate for sharing strategies and
methods for student achievement. Based on the readings from my data course,
these critical elements must be followed in order to make protocols a success in
CFIPs framework.