Chapter 6 Leading the Data Teams Process: Standards, Assessment, and Instruction

The Teaching and Learning Cycle in the Data Teams

The Teaching and Learning Cycle in the Data Teams Process Standards drive our work, Priority Standards give teams focus.  Readiness and Supporting Standards  TEKS Assessment measures our teaching and student learning.  Benchmarks  Common Weekly Assessments  Summative and Formative Assessments

The Teaching and Learning Cycle Continued Analysis is needed to bring meaning and collective insight to data.  Collaborative discussions Collaborative planning is needed to ensure instructional integrity.  Data Teams use collaborative planning to determine strategies, resources, and process that will best help the learner. Teaching is both a Science an Art!!!

Priority Standard in the Data Team Process Teachers are overwhelmed trying to teach all the TEKS, Readiness and Supporting Standards they are required to teach. According to Marzano, Pollock, and Pickering in order to teach all the required standards would amount to over 15,000 hours of instructional time or in other words our system would move form K-12 to K-22.

The Priority Standards in the Data Teams Process Continued Teachers only superficially cover standards and do not provide the depth needed for understanding and higher level thinking skills.  Question: Is time to cut down on off task behaviors such as Pep Rallies and other non-essential events that take away from instructional time?

Priority Standards Ainsworth defines Priority Standards as those standards which provide students with a solid foundation for learning new content.  Readiness and Supporting Standards  TEKS Teachers need to know and understand their Reporting Categories (TEKS)

Curriculum Mapping I believe is just one the tools we need to use for understanding our Priority Standards. Curriculum Maps help narrow focus and allow specific concepts or skills to be measured in common weekly assessment. The unwrapping process allows for or provides students opportunities for students to develop deeper levels of critical thinking.

Exhibit 6.2 Curriculum Map

Strategies for Leading the Focus on Learning through Priority and Unwrapped Standards Instructional Data Teams: use these teams to prioritize all major concepts. we already use state standards to determine urgent content areas of need.

Strategies for Leading the Focus on Learning through Priority and Unwrapped Standards 1. District level: Creates opportunities for teachers to develop an understanding of the unwrapping process. Teams will create documents of power and unwrap standards to used in the district. Representatives should be selected from all schools and departments. Use the Accordion model, see hand out.

Strategies for Leading the Focus on Learning through Priority and Unwrapped Standards School level: Involve the entire staff. There are 3 objectives: to teach the purpose and process of prioritizing and unwrapping standards. to establish procedures and process when applying priority standards and unwrapping process. to translate the work of the Data Teams process and infuse the priority standards into the Data Team process create curriculum maps vertical team meetings master scheduling

Kilgo The best professional training for unwrapping the Priority Standards

Assessment According to Popham assessment measures the impact of teaching. We have and use Summative assessments well. We disaggregate state data to help us prioritize the state standards. We still struggling with the concept of Formative assessments.

Formative Assessments Teachers need to develop an understanding of assessment literacy. What are the different purposes of assessment. Teachers need to reflect on the use assessments in the classroom. Who is the primary audience for the assessment. Assessments measure the impact of teaching.

Assessment We have implemented bi-monthly assessments at each campus. We need to communicate the purpose of these formative assessment so that the teachers will develop a deeper understanding of this important concept.

Assessment The evidence gathered from these assessment must be used to adjust instructional strategies in the classroom. If the formative assessment is used to measure student’s learning during the instructional process and student’s fail to grasp the material then teachers need to utilize different modalities in their instructional delivery.

Writing as an Assessment Assessments need to move from multiple choice to a written response. Our students are able to read but have a difficult time comprehending what they read. Writing will help students reflect and grapple with the content producing a deeper level of critical thinking and understanding.

Formative Assessments in the Data Team Process Data teams should use assessments for learning with purpose of collecting evidence along the way. Data teams should use assessments that are short cycle measurements of student learning. These cycles assessments should take students no longer than 15 minutes.

Assessment Formative and Summative

Assessment Cycle Assessment 1: Is the student’s baseline. This provides teachers with evidence of the student’s level of learning. Assessment 2: Post instruction assessment. This is used to measure the level of learning that has occurred since the previous assessment. This is not a summative assessment.

Assessment Continued Assessment 3: Between assessment 2 and 3 RTI should occur and a reflection by the teacher and changes in teaching styles must occur. This will provide information on student understanding of concept and skills. Assessment 4: A formative assessment is given to measure student learning.

Assessment Continued This assessment process is a continuous cycle. Similar to the lesson cycle. Teachers need to gather information about the learning that is occurring during the instructional process, not after.

Primary Strategies when Leading the Focus on Assessment Data Teams Process 1. Find the assessment leaders in the school. These people are not necessarily the department heads. 2. Provide feedback to teachers on their use of formative assessments. Follow through 3. Guide teachers in the creation of an assessment map.

Collaborative Scoring in the Data Team Process The five step data team process is on page 38. School that experienced the most success were those that created and scored their own assessments. Data teams should score their common formative assessments collaboratively. Inter-rated reliability may be difficult at first, but with practice teams will become proficient and consistent when scoring assessments.

Involving Students in the Data Teams Process Feedback is one of the most powerful influence on student achievement. Involving students will raise their levels of concern. Feedback must be related to the learning objectives and reflect student’s performance. RTI is an example of how we use feedback.

Instructional Strategies in the Data Teams Process Instructional Strategies are define as deliberate actions of adults that impact the cognition of students. Examples: HYIS, CIA, and grounded strategies based on research. Professional development such as Kilgo and share fares will enhance a teachers understanding of collaborative planning and lead a deeper understanding of the unwrapping process.

The Classroom Teacher in the Data Teams Process Every thing we have discussed funnels directly to the individual classroom teacher. Teams must commit to using common instructional strategies, all of which should be researched based. The manner of delivery will lie with the personal style and approach of the teacher. The teacher must by into the Data team process.

In conclusion Data teams need to take an inventory the strategies used by teachers and their level of understanding in implementing different strategies. Data Teams should build capacity. Rely on expert to disperse learning to their teams. Data Teams should use action research, book studies, and cadres as methods to develop awareness of strategies. Data Teams should use coaching. Data Teams should model the use of research based strategies and increase the amount of feedback to teaches.