MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: Deborah Swensen Assessment Director Utah State Office of Education Aaron Brough Educational Data Specialist Utah State Office of Education Creating a Culture that Cares – about Data

WHY ARE WE EVEN HERE?

Culture  Culture Norms and Beliefs  Personal  Organizational - shared structural systems that provide legitimacy and a rationalizing structure  resilient  How created paradigms formed for organization’s adaptations to external environment coalitions based on shared values which each member must assimilate voluntarily

Sustained Change  Culture established Purpose  Provide meaning  Provide direction Process  Formal  All stakeholder know how and to whom, who leads and who influences whom (Darling-Hammond, 1993; Schein, 1982).  Informal  Social system of interaction and sharing of beliefs (Schein, 1984)  Loosely coupled weak or infrequently with minimal interdependence.

Organizational learning  Double loop learning  Intertwined with power and control  Adaptation to External environment  NCLB: standards based accountability  High School Accreditation

Why Culture of Data  Demonstrate post High School readiness  Accountability for academic progress Diagnose strengths and weaknesses Assess student performance with respect to expectation  Uniform instruction of state core skills Professional development Pre-service teachers  Basis for school wide decisions

Step One  Know where you are  Look for connections to the work already doing in schools/districts/classrooms  Determine what you need to know

Step Two  “If you don’t’ know where you are going, any road will take you there”  Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland  Vision Common purpose Roadmap Grounded on in-depth review of variety of assessment and evaluation measures Integration of an amorphous collection of goals, dreams, challenges, and ideas in a concrete direction Validates core of the power and authority of legitimate ideas in the school

Reality Vision

Data for Learning  “We are data rich and information poor”  Rick Dufour  “Abandon belief that adults represent most important assessment consumers or data-based decision makers in schools.”  Rick Stiggins

Participants  Who are the stakeholders?  What are their understanding of reality?

Explore your school  Assume role  Look at the data What does it tell you Does it answer your questions  Determine your own beliefs for your school Reflect what and how students learn  Develop a profile and school vision Does this include the beliefs of all stakeholders?

Share about your School  What do you know?  What else do you need to find out?  Who else needs to be involved?  How was the experience? Positive Barriers

The Leading E.D.G.E. & Stages of Team Development  Four Stages of Team Development Forming Storming Norming Performing  Instructional Behaviors Explain Demonstrate Guide Enable

FORMING Stage  Low Skills  High Enthusiasm  Limited Productivity  EDGE Style Explaining FORMING

STORMING Stage  Low Skills  Enthusiasm plummet  Slight Increase of Productivity  EDGE Style Demonstrate STORMING

NORMING Stage  Increasing Skills  Enthusiasm grows  Significant Increase of Productivity  EDGE Style Guide NORMING

PERFORMING Stage  Highly Skilled  Enthusiastic Group  Productive Team Work  EDGE Style Enable PERFORMING

Stages of Team Development

Conclusion  If we operate individually rather than from a collective set of beliefs, our effort to improve student learning is fragmented.  Keep relevance, coherence and power of creating data culture  Keep collegial environment for participating in schools

Utah Programs for Culture of Data  Accreditation Process  Data Mentors

Data Mentor Program The purpose of the grant is to:  Assist local educators in working with Assessment and Accountability data to improve professional practice and student achievement. The focus will include two major purposes of using data  To assist educators in evaluating previous years’ data to evaluate student achievement and instructional effectiveness.  To assist educators in accessing and analyzing longitudinal data for current students to facilitate instruction. Areas of Emphasis

Accreditation School profile Vision and DRSL (Desired Results for Student Learning) Analysis of Instructional and Organizational Effectiveness  Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Leadership, Assessment, Community Building, Continuous Improvement and Learning, Community Building Action Plan

High School Accreditation Benefits  Promotes collaboration and Collegiality  Focuses on student learning  Continuous improvement of school efforts  Represents a school/community effort  Continuity in school programs  Periodic self study and analysis

S.M.A.R.T. goals  Specific- focused on tangible performance areas  Measurable  Attainable stretching beyond what is being done, yet reachable  Relevant central to the school’s mission and purpose  Trackable capable of being counted and time bound