2. School Planning Councils Collaborative Inquiry to Improve Student Achievement with Bruce Wellman Webcast February 16, 2005 Host: BC Ministry of Education in Richmond SD #38 Part 2: Innovations in Professional Growth Public Education and Webcasting in BC: Oct. 2004 to May 2005

3. Purpose  To explore group development, planning and monitoring to improving student achievement.  To connect productive data use to the work of School Planning Councils.  To use a planning cycle to guide dialogue, collaborative inquiry and decision-making.

4. Focusing Questions to Improve Achievement 1.What do we talk about around here? 2.How do we talk? structures protocols norms consciousness 3.What don’t we talk about around here? 4. Why don’t we talk about what we don’t talk about….?

5. Talk together about each of the four questions and your SPC: what do we usually talk about? how do we talk together? what don’t we talk about? why don’t we talk about these things? This is the end of Part 1 of the webcast. A few minutes are provided here for you to discuss these questions: If you need more time, pause your media player so you can complete your discussion.

6. Do you need to establish some protocols for talking together? What might those include? Do you want to move your discussion to different topics? How might you do that? Additional questions you may wish to pursue at this time are as follows:

7. Thinking about the work Improving Achievement is like….. Because…….

8. Crafting the Container  Starting the Conversation  Structuring the Conversation  Sustaining Thinking in the Conversation

9. The Planning Cycle

10. T hink and Share One way we use data to guide our work…. Join a partner and share your responses

11. Say Something 1.With a partner 2.Read silently to the designated stopping point. 3.When each partner is ready, stop and “say something”. * the ‘something’ is a key point, an interesting idea or personal connection 4.Continue the process until you have completed the selection.

12. Guiding Assumptions  Data have no meaning  Knowledge is both a personal and social construction  There is a reciprocal influence between the culture and the thinking and behaviour of its members  Understanding should precede planning  Cycles of inquiry, experimentation and reflection accelerate continuous growth and learning  Norms of data-driven collaborative inquiry generate continuous improvements in student learning

13. This webcast recording provides 10 minutes to begin the exercise “Say Something” with your partner, using the document “Guiding Assumptions”. Stop at the end of each section and talk about the understanding you have with your partner. If you need more time, pause your media player when the timer reaches zero so you can complete your discussion.

14. : Whole Group You may wish to talk together about the things you learned, and the questions you have after your partner conversations in the “Say Something” activity.

15. Collect Information  Qualitative and Quantitative Data  Levels or Altitudes  A Data Matrix  Commonly Used Measures

16. Analyze : Understanding Data What data are you considering?  Provincial:  Performance,  Participation,  Trends  District  School/Classroom

17. Analyze : Understanding Data What does the data tell you about the achievement of all students? Aboriginal students ESL students Special Education students Boys and Girls

18. All Students Where are you being successful? Are there groups that need more attention? Time constraints during the original webcast allowed only a few minutes to discuss these questions. If you need more time, pause your media player so you can complete your discussion.

19. Data-Driven Dialogue Activating and Engaging  What are some predictions we are making?  With what assumptions are we entering?  What are some questions we are asking?  What are some possibilities for learning that this experience presents to us?

20. Data-Driven Dialogue Exploring and Discovering  What important points seem to “pop out”?  What are some emerging patterns, categories or trends?  What seems to be surprising or unexpected?  What are some things we have not yet explored?  What other data sources might we need to explore?

21. Developing theories of causation  What inferences/explanations/conclusions can we draw?  What additional data sources might we explore to verify our explanations? Data-Driven Dialogue Organizing and Integrating

22. Developing theories of action  What are some solutions we might explore as a result of our conclusions?  What data will we need guide the implementation and monitor the work? Data-Driven Dialogue Organizing and Integrating

23. This recording provides 9 minutes for discussing ‘Activating and Engaging’. If you need more time for discussion please pause your media player when the timer reaches zero. Activating and Engaging Choose one data sample to look at Decide on a question Make some assumptions and predictions about what you might find

24. This recording provides 8 minutes for discussing ‘’Exploring and Discovering’. If you need more time for discussion please pause your media player when the timer reaches zero. Exploring and Discovering What important points “pop out” from the data you are using? What surprises are you seeing? What other data might you want to explore?

25. “ Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.” Jose Ortega y Gassett