1. 2015-2016

2. Who is in the room? Superintendents/Asst. Superintendents Experienced Principals New Principals Teacher Leaders University/College Leaders Education Cooperative Representatives EPSB, KASC, KDE, REL Appalachia, Ed Venture, Education Consultants

3. Meet the PLEE Team Diane Still (Central Region) Sara Jennings (Southern Region) Heady Larson (Western Region) Leslie Moyer (Eastern Region) Ali Wright (Northern Region)

4. How did P 3 begin? Cross-state collaboration Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and Education Delivery Institute (EDI) A Kentucky Problem of Practice: Lack of Principal Support Statewide Evidence and Data No support for new administrators PGES Implementation Data Call to Action Sooner, not later

5. What is P 3 ? Principal Partnership Program Collaboration with Colleagues Collective Problem Solving Differentiated and Specific Here’s what P 3 is NOT: One-size-fits-all curriculum Telling/Showing ‘how it needs to be done’

6. What are the P 3 Focus Areas? Building capacity to increase effectiveness of principals: using data for decision making and to inform a system of continuous improvement mentoring/coaching skills/strategies, including providing meaningful feedback distributed leadership (developing effective teacher teams and teacher leaders) purposeful, focused collaboration with other administrators

7. What is the P 3 plan for the year? Statewide Kick Off (Oct) In-school support (Nov) Regional Work Session (Dec) In-School support (Jan-Feb) Statewide Work Session (Mar 1) Regional Work Session (April) At the end of today….our work begins.

9. Baseline Survey

10. What Is the Research Education Lab Program? Authorized by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002. Charged with helping to build a more evidence-reliant education system. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES). 10

11. How We Work: Research Alliances What is a research alliance? A partnership between education stakeholders and REL Appalachia. What is the purpose of a research alliance? Develop and carry out a research and analytic technical assistance agenda on priority topics. Who are the education stakeholders in an alliance? Schools, local education agencies, state education agencies, regional cooperatives, and other organizations (e.g., colleges and universities ). 11

12. Kentucky College and Career Readiness Alliance (KyCCRA) Member organizations: Southeast/Southcentral Educational Cooperative Central Kentucky Educational Cooperative (CKEC) Green River Regional Educational Cooperative (GRREC) Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC) Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services (NKCES) Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative (OVEC) West Kentucky Educational Cooperative (WKEC) Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) 12

13. KyCCRA Goals and Topics Goals Understand the use and effectiveness of strategies to prepare students for college and careers. Understand and increase student engagement in schools. Topics Dual enrollment/dual credit programs. Student engagement. College and career readiness Interventions. Educator effectiveness. Data use. 13

14. Today’s Goals Learn about employing principal leadership strategies in using PGES data to support teacher professional learning trajectories. Learn about activities for establishing common understandings around the use of PGES data to support teacher professional learning trajectories. Learn methods for distributing leadership in using PGES data to support teacher professional learning trajectories. 14

15. INTRODUCTION TO THE WORKSHOP Jeffrey C. Wayman Wayman Services, LLC jeff@waymandatause.com @WaymanDataUse www.facebook.com/datause www.waymandatause.com

16. Why Are We Here? There’s only one reason: to support a teacher’s professional learning trajectory. Not why we’re here: Because the state makes us. Because we want worksheets. Because we want to check the boxes and get on with life. Capacity, not compliance. 16

17. What does research reveal? As decades of research have demonstrated, great teachers and principals are crucial to student success. Principals’ actions account for 25 percent of a school’s total impact on student achievement 1 —significant for a single individual. 1 Leithwood, K., Louis, K. S., Anderson, S., & Wahlstrom, K. (2004). How Leadership Influences Student Learning. New York, NY: Wallace Foundation. Marzano, R.J., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. (2005). School Leadership That Works: From Research to Results. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 17

18. What does research reveal? Teachers say principals matter. In fact, 97 percent of teachers rated principals as very important to retaining good teachers—more than any other factor. 2 2 Scholastic Inc. (2012). Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on the Teaching Profession. New York, NY: Scholastic and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 18

19. What does research reveal? The only way to ensure effective teaching and learning in every classroom every year across an entire school is with a great principal. Principals are a primary driver of school improvement because they cultivate and retain effective teachers, build a school culture of high expectations, and strategically align resources to achieve goals. For teacher and student success, every principal must truly be prepared and supported to lead. Playmakers – How Great Principals Build and Lead Great Teams of Teachers 19

20. What are PGES Data? Principals have been asked to use a set of data for evidence-based evaluation of teachers. These data are: Student Growth. Principal Observation. Peer Observation. Teacher Self-Reflection and Professional Growth Plans. Student Voice. And the principal says, “Great…wait, what?” 20

21. The 10 Principal Leadership Strategies Base-setting strategies Data system support. Facilitating collaboration around data. Focusing data use on a broad context. Fostering common understandings. Functional strategies Asking the right questions. Communicating with data. Goal setting. Embedded strategies Distributing leadership. Ensuring adequate professional learning. Structuring time to use data. 21

22. Teacher Professional Learning Trajectory Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 22

23. Today We’ll learn about leadership strategies that principals can employ to lead teachers in using PGES data. We’ll do all of our learning collaboratively, in activities. After each activity (except the first), we’ll discuss pertinent strategies. Our lens: how do we support and affect a teacher’s professional learning trajectory? Then you go back and adapt to your context. 23

24. ESTABLISHING COMMON UNDERSTANDINGS: CALIBRATION Jeffrey C. Wayman

25. Calibration It’s important to arrive at common understandings in order to use data better (Datnow, Park, & Wohlstetter, 2007; Wayman, Jimerson, & Cho, 2012). Calibration exercises are anything that help educators share mental models about teaching, learning, and how data can serve. We don’t deliver these, we build them. Wayman, Midgley, & Stringfield (2006) suggested “calibration” exercises. 25

26. Calibration Activity The aim of this exercise is to help you see how one calibration activity can work in your context. Questions can be adapted to your context. If we’re going to improve teacher learning through PGES, we – as an organization – must know what “student learning” is. Then we can figure out how PGES data can support this. We’ll go through 4 questions and it won’t seem long enough (welcome to the world of a teacher). It’s the conversations that are important. Record your answers on the paper provided. 26

27. Calibration Activity Focus Question #1 What do we mean by “learning” and “achievement”? In discussing this question, you’re sharing perspectives and attitudes. You are not looking to come to consensus. Look to dig deep on areas of disagreement and commonality. 27

28. Calibration Activity: Focus Question #2 What data do you use to support teaching and learning? In discussing this question, list the things you currently use. If it includes PGES data, fine – but it doesn’t have to. Generate a list for your table. Include anything anyone uses. We’re only making a list. The “why” comes later. 28

29. Calibration Activity: Focus Question #3 What data do you need to support teaching and learning and why do you need it? Here, you’re imagining what could be. Don’t constrain yourselves to current data or PGES data. Again, generate a list for the table, including anything anyone needs. It’s critical to press each other on “why.” That forces us to be articulate about our practice. 29

30. Calibration Activity: Focus Question #4 What PGES data support this work? You’ve talked about various aspects of your work, now let’s focus specifically on PGES. What PGES data can be effectively worked into your previous answers? You don’t have to use all PGES data – just identify those that are useful. Remember, you can combine other data with PGES data. 30

31. Strategy Discussion Let’s draw this back to the research. In light of these two activities, three strategies are particularly relevant: Fostering common understandings. Communicating with data. Focusing data use on a broad context. (Recall that these strategies come from Wayman, Spring, Lemke, & Lehr, 2012.) 31

32. Fostering Common Understandings Creating opportunities to build shared ideas regarding teaching, learning, and how data serve. Think of it as “shared mental models” (Senge, 2006). All activities are created with this in mind. It’s the process that’s important Teachers like this. It respects them, involves them, gives them a voice. Imagine the difference if they are allowed to do this with PGES – instead of doing what someone told them to. 32

33. Distributed Leadership Principals were already having trouble getting these things done before PGES. Distributed leadership or distributed work? Developing leadership not only gets things done, but it builds capacity. Careful! It can also create in-groups and out-groups. Aspen Institute (2014) recommends focusing on skills, not people. My research: expertise, not experts. 33

34. Distributed Leadership Activity Each table has a list of tasks related to PGES data that support teacher professional learning trajectories. As a group, identify… 1. Specific skills needed to support this task. 2. Personal characteristics needed to support this task. Think skills and characteristics – not people. Feel free to insert your own tasks. Record your group’s results on the sheets provided. 34

35. Strategy Discussion Let’s draw this back to the research again (Wayman et al., 2012) You can see common understandings, communication, and broad context throughout distributed leadership. But four additional principal leadership strategies are important to discuss in effectively distributing leadership: Distributing leadership. Facilitating collaboration around data. Asking the right questions. Goal-setting. 35

36. Distributing Leadership Creating opportunities for staff to perform, create, and own data-related activities. Maybe these take on new meaning after the activity? Creates investment and ownership. Lean heavily on collaboration. Be skill-oriented, not person-oriented. Are you distributing leadership…or distributing work? Are you really creating “distributed power”? 36

37. Facilitating Collaboration around Data Structuring ways for staff to work together with data on issues specific to their practice. Collaboration is the lifeblood of data use. A good opportunity to build common understandings around PGES. Creating time to collaborate is important, but structuring what happens during that time is really important. Be there. Participate in collaborative meetings with faculty and staff. 37

38. Asking the Right Questions Providing support for staff to identify relevant problems and choose appropriate approaches. Helps staff focus data use and avoid being overwhelmed by data. It’s really hard to do this unless you know what teaching and learning is. Don’t let it slide – principals must hold staff accountable for good questioning if PGES is to be effective. 38

39. Goal Setting Setting benchmarks, and tailoring data use to support attainment of those benchmarks. Lay out a clear path and destination. Goals should communicate what we’re about. Set goals collaboratively. Support the work of reaching the destination. 39

40. PROFESSIONAL LEARNING Jeffrey C. Wayman

41. PGES in Support of Professional Learning Everything we’ve done so far has been focused toward supporting teacher professional learning trajectories. Our activities focused on common understandings and distributed leadership because those are critical to PGES. Our activities incorporated many diverse strategies. Let’s turn this around – let’s talk about the strategy first, then do our activity. Ensuring adequate professional learning is one of the principal leadership strategies suggested by research (Wayman et al., 2012). 41

42. Ensuring Adequate Professional Learning Ensuring that staff consistently engage in immediately relevant professional learning opportunities. Professional learning should be immediate, relevant, coherent, and of sufficient intensity. PGES as a whole is gigantic. Time commitment alone is huge. But you can make it small by embedding it in everyday work. Don’t get caught up in traditional formats. Everything is a professional learning opportunity. Teachers should have many learning groups. Link learning plans/activities coherently over time – multiple years. That reflects real life, right? 42

43. Professional Learning Trajectory Activity Everyone was asked to bring a PGES component they are working on. Group up to talk bout this work: mentor/mentee, district-based group, table, whatever. Using the work you brought, apply what we’ve learned today in two tasks: 1. Place the work on a timeline. Note strategies, PGES data use, and support roles. 2. Expand this plan to connect to next year – or two years, if you can. We’ll share back in a whole-group discussion. 43

45. What’s next? On site support visit by PLEE Coach Regional Cadre Sessions (December) On site support visits by PLEE Coach (January-February) State network meeting—March 1, 2016 Regional Cadre Sessions Possible Summer Convening to begin work for Next Year

46. Connections