1. This PowerPoint instructional module is the property of ADE
Arkansas Professional Pathway to Educator Licensure
and is prepared for APPEL instruction and training only.
Written April 2017
Do not use without permission
Ann Crosser at ADE

2. Data Driven Decision Making in PLCs
APPEL Year 2, Day 7
Questions about today’s module?
Contact Karen Johnson-

3. Who Has Worked in a PLC? Gerry Brooks take on PLCs
Gerry Brooks in Team Meetings
Gerry Brooks on Grade Levels

4. Learning Outcomes Participants will:
1.Develop an understanding of the common vocabulary and key concepts of PLCs
2.Understand how the implementation of PLC concepts will benefit both students and educators
3. Become familiar with types of assessments, their purposes, and how they are used in a PLC to improve student learning
4. Become familiar with tools to analyze data
5.Assess the current reality of their school district’s successes in implementing PLCs and in using data driven decision-making
5 minutes

5. What are Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)?
Ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. (

6. What is an Effective PLC?
PLCs are made up of collaborative teams whose members are committed to continuous learning through :
Gathering evidence of current levels of student learning (Common Formative Assessments)
Developing strategies and ideas to build on strengths and address weaknesses in their instruction
Implementing those strategies and ideas
Analyzing the impact of the changes to discover what was effective and what was not
Applying new knowledge in the next cycle of continuous improvement

7. What a PLC is NOT When teachers get together to lesson plan
A group of teachers participating in a book study
A group of teachers who meet to talk about students

8. What are advantages and possible roadblocks to successful PLCs?
Table Discussion
What are advantages and possible roadblocks to successful PLCs?
5 minutes

9. 4 Critical Questions of Learning
Effective Collaborative Teams focus on these
4 Critical Questions of Learning
What is it we expect students to learn?
How will we know when they have learned it?
How will we respond when they don’t learn it?
How will we respond when they already know it?
Possibly stop here for table discussions

10. What tools or resources will a PLC need to answer Question 1
Table Discussion
What tools or resources will a PLC need to answer Question 1
(What is it we expect students to know)?
5 minutes -

11. Q1-What is it we expect students to know?
To make data-driven decisions, you have to be crystal clear on the data you need.
“Teachers who truly understand what they want their students to accomplish will almost surely be more instructionally successful than teachers whose understanding of hoped for student accomplishments are murky.”
Popham, Test Better, Teacher Better: The instructional Role of Assessment (2003)
Need to have lots of standards copied and ready to go. Use R.E.A.L chart to determine essential standard and then use template to practice breaking it down

12. Question 1-What is it we want students to know?
Essential Standards

13. Essential Standards
Standards that have been determined to be the most important for students to know
Essential standards are the “need to know” not the “neat to know.” Choosing essential standards in PLCs are how a school/district can ensure a guaranteed, viable curriculum and can honestly tell parents it doesn’t matter which teacher your child gets. Essential standards are the ones teachers guarantee they will teach every student and will continue to intervene for those who do not master them.

14. Activity 1 Practice breaking down an Essential Standard
Website for AR Standards
R.E.A.L chart (example)
Basic Unwrapping Template
Participants will use the R.E.A.L chart to determine if a standard should be considered essential, and then participants will use the Basic Unwrapping template to practice breaking it down. Students will need access to Arkansas standards; the first link will take participants to the Arkansas Department of Education website where they will be able to find standards.

15. Journal Reflection over Question 1
Why is it important to determine essential standards and break them down into learning targets? How does this tie into making data-driven decisions?
This reflection should take approximately 10 minutes. Give participants five minutes to write a reflection, then have them share out with either their table and the whole group. Emphasize that understanding exactly what we expect our students to know allows us to accurately assess them for this learning and intervene as needed.

16. Question 2-How will we know when they have learned it?

17. Question 2-How will we know when they have learned it?
Assessments

18. Formative Assessments

19. Formative Assessments
Considered to be part of the learning
Check for learning along the way and guide teachers’ future instruction
Require both the student and the teacher to do something with the information
Low Stakes- they have low or no point value
Formative assessments help you uncover what students don’t know. Once we know that, we can share the information with students. Students should learn and revise what they don’t know once they learn it. Revision is the most powerful formative strategy we have.

20. Formative Assessments
What do they look like?
Exit cards
Graphic organizers
Summaries and/or reflections
Conversations with students
Practice checklist for do-overs
Kahoot

21. Formative Assessments
How it is valuable for the student?
They receive immediate feedback about their strengths and weaknesses.
They have an opportunity to revise their work based on their new understanding.
They understand how they are progressing toward mastering the standards.
Because teachers are responding to students’ understanding and misconceptions immediately, this is where the most change in learning happens. (Wiliam, 2011)

22. Formative Assessments
How is it valuable to the teacher?
Teachers gain information about the effectiveness of their instruction, student needs (individually and as a class), and next steps.
Teachers are able to give students precise feedback and provide interventions based on this information.

23. Common Formative Assessments

24. Common Formative Assessments (CFA’s)
Common formative assessments are created and agreed upon by an entire group of course or grade-level teachers.
It is recommend that teachers use CFA’s to assess the hard-to-teach, hard-to-learn standards
CFA’s formatively assess learning goals that are essential to know, hard to learn, and hard to teach.

25. Common Formative Assessments (CFA’s)
Why are they beneficial?

26. Common Formative Assessments (CFA’s)
They establish consistent expectations within a grade level, course, and/or department regarding standards, instruction, and assessment.
In order to develop CFA’s, teachers have to be on the same page with the essential standards, their expectations for each essential standard, and their pacing for teaching them. One of the many benefits of giving a CFA are the discussions about teaching and learning that occur as teachers develop consistent expectations for all students.

27. Common Formative Assessments (CFA’s)
They encourage teachers to work together to determine which strategies and/or teachers are most effective in teaching each learning target. This information can be used to improve instruction.
Once CFA’s are given, teachers should analyze the data collaboratively to determine which strategies and/or teachers are most effective in teaching each learning target. For example, if a group of 7th grade English teachers analyze their data and realize that students in Teachers A class did extremely well on finding the best evidence, she can share the strategies and/or materials she used for teaching this skill.

28. Common Formative Assessments (CFA’s)
They facilitate a systematic, collective response to students who are struggling.
As teachers analyze CFA data together, they are able to identify and share ideas and strategies that are working for students. In addition, for schools that have time built in the day, they can use this information to develop intervention and enrichment for students where all teachers work together to help have the most impact on students. (we will dive into this more later)

29. Summative Assessments

30. Summative Assessments
measure the level of success or proficiency that has been obtained at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against a standard or benchmark.
High-stakes, they usually have a high point value

31. Summative Assessments
What do they look like?
End-of-unit tests
Final project
Essays

32. Summative Assessments
How it is valuable for the student?
Students are able to prove what they know about a standard

33. Summative Assessments
How is it valuable to the teacher?
Teachers gain knowledge about what their students have learned during the unit
They can be used formatively if teachers or students use this information to make adjustments

34. Balanced Assessment system
Emphasize that the image illustrates the frequency that assessments should be given. Students should have many formative assessments and very few standardized tests. Teachers should spend the most time thinking, designing, analyzing, and responding to assessments at the bottom of the pyramid.

35. Methods to Analyze Data
Common Assessment Team Protocol
Common Assessment Analysis
Protocol for Examining Data
Analyzing data does not need to be complicated. It can be as simple as “pile, stack and plan,” which is where teachers assess student work and group them in piles such as “got it,” “partially gets it,” and “doesn’t get it” and then uses that information for future instruction and interventions. Linked are three different data assessment guides. A suggested activity is to give participants time to discuss each one with their table group. Encourage them to look for similarities and differences.

36. Activity 2
Create a data assessment analysis guide that you feel would be beneficial for you and your PLC?
You can choose one of the plans we just analyzed, you can combine them, or create your own.

37. Question 3-How will we respond when they don’t learn it?
SYSTEMATIC INTERVENTIONS

38. What is a successful intervention?
Must be directive- a required part of the school day
Often the students who most need interventions are not able to come before school or stay after school. They are also often the same students who will not volunteer for extra help. Interventions are necessary for some students to learn so they can not be optional.

39. What is a successful intervention?
Must be targeted instruction provided in a small group or individually
The more targeted the intervention the more successful it is. This is why it is so important that essential standards are broken into learning targets and frequently assessed using formative and common formative assessments. The goal of interventions is “by student, by standard.” To best intervene, a teacher has to know precisely what the student is struggling with.

40. What is a successful intervention?
Must be in addition to (not in place of) the general curriculum

41. What is a successful intervention?
Must be provided consistently for a minimum of 3 times a week over a period of at least 6 weeks

42. What is a successful intervention?
Cannot be more of the same instruction, presented the same way

43. What is a successful intervention?
Must be research-based, systematic and administered by trained professionals

44. Question 4-How Will We Respond When They Already Know It?
ENRICHMENT

45. Enrichment
provides extended learning opportunities to students who have already mastered the basic curriculum.
gives students more time to study concepts with greater depth and complexity.
provides opportunities for students to pursue learning in their own areas of interest and strengths.

46. Enrichment Examples of Enrichment: Different work – not just more work
High-level thinking skills applied to content
Choices for students
Flexible groups (may change daily or weekly)
Enrichment needs to be purposeful, focused, and planned.

47. Intervention/Enrichment Plan
With your table group, analyze the Intervention/Enrichment Plan provided for you.
What are the strengths of this plan?
What are the possible issues with this plan?
What changes do you recommend for this plan?

48. Activity 3 - To be uploaded to Moodle
Create an intervention/enrichment plan proposal for your current school.
Make sure to include the data you would use in order to determine student need.
Rubric
Make sure they understand what is in the rubric and how to upload to Moodle.

49. Putting It All Together

50. Solution Tree Website (click on Free Resources tab)
PLC Resources
Solution Tree Website (click on Free Resources tab)
Sign up for a free account
Preview one or more webinar/video
Look at 3-5 reproducibles
Read 1-3 articles or blog entries
Be prepared to share your 3 top take-aways with the class.
Participants will need to create a free login on the Solution Tree Website. After previewing for 20 minutes, have participants share what they learned and/or their favorite video/resource

51. Reflection- Journal Entry
Think about the current reality of your school. What are your school’s strengths in making data-driven decisions and in which areas does your school need to continue improve?
How can you help your school and/or PLC improve in the area of making data-driven decisions?
This is a required journal that is private between the participant and the facilitator only. Sharing must be optional.

52. Reflection on Learning Outcomes
Can you?
1.Develop an understanding of the common vocabulary and key concepts of PLC’s
2.Understand how the implementation of PLC concepts will benefit both students and educators
3. Become familiar with types of assessments, their purposes, and how they are used in a PLC to improve student learning
4. Become familiar with tools to analyze data
5.Assess the current reality of their school district’s successes in implementing PLC’s and in using data driven decision-making
5 minutes

53. HOW NOT TO HAVE A STAFF MEETING

54. Post Survey http://ppn.pw/fiw7nexv
Q and A session
Post Survey