Many schools are using collected data to drive change. Test scores are analyzed and used to
lead curriculum improvement. Survey instruments provide feedback from students, staff, parents,
and the community that lead to change too. And data can be used to group students and to assign
teachers with proven skills to teach specific student groups. Those are just a few of the ways
in which Education World’s Principal Files principals are using data to lead their schools to
success.
Data has always been a force in the business world. Data related to sales and marketing, demographics,
and production costs are just a few examples of the numbers that, once analyzed, drive daily business
decisions and future projections. But, while data has long been a cornerstone of business, it
is only in recent years that school leaders have adopted the practice of using numbers to drive
school change and turn out an improved end-product -- students prepared to lead our world in the
21st century.
Today, almost every school administrator is using data as a guiding force. Daily decisions about
curriculum, student grouping, and almost any other facet of school life have data at their foundation.
We analyze data to determine everything from curricular issues to eighth grade dance themes and
the number of pep assemblies we should hold, principal Jim DeGenova told Education World. Even
our school’s code of conduct is adjusted according to the data we collect about student infractions
during the course of the school year.
At DeGenova’s school, Reed Middle School in Hubbard, Ohio, the building leadership team and
the entire staff have been trained in the Baldridge
Criteria, which provides a framework for assessing performance in a wide variety of key indicators
of school success. Everything we do is charted, discussed, and evaluated, he said. The information
is used to set new direction.
We also use data to assist in building staff consensus, added DeGenova. Even our non-certificated
staff and student council are being instructed in use of graphic tools to gather data and interpret
that data. This method takes the ‘I feel that it is good’ out of the equation and replaces it
with objective data that indicates the degree of ‘goodness.’
STUDYING TRENDS, ANALYZING NEEDS
At Saturn Elementary School in Cocoa, Florida, every decision we make is based on data, principal
Michael Miller told Education World. He and his staff have painstakingly reviewed the last several
years of FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) scores. We know the trends throughout our
building. We know the areas in which we are doing great, and we now what areas we need to work
on, Miller added.
The staff at Saturn has looked at school-wide needs, and each teacher has studied the last two
years of data to see where their individual strengths and weaknesses are, said Miller. Where weaknesses
are uncovered, staff members search for strategies to help them remedy those weaknesses.
Sometimes the numbers even suggest that staff assignments should be juggled to benefit students.
I had two fifth grade teachers, Miller explained. Scores revealed that one was very strong in
teaching reading and the other was very strong in math. This year they are teaming and teaching
their strengths to both classes.
We meet individually and in teams on a monthly basis to discuss FCAT scores from the previous
year, added Miller. We examine scores by gender, by free and reduced lunch, by ethnic background
We use all that data to target areas where additional staff development is needed and where we
need to purchase additional materials.
By doing this we raised our school grade from a C to within 5 points of an A, Miller added. We
are very proud to be a school with 67 percent free- and reduced-lunch students that has earned
a school grade of B.
Data has definitely made a difference for us, Miller concluded. Without data you have no focus.
You are just guessing what you think will happen.
Sixty miles up route 95, in Port Orange, principal Les
Potter uses the FCAT tests to set school-wide goals each year at Silver Sands Middle School.
Students who get low scores also get extra help, such as intensive reading classes, after-school
tutoring, and other special programs, said Potter.
We are very, very data driven, added Potter. I believe, in this age of accountability, that
is true of most schools in our country.
IN THE U.S. AND BEYOND
In Bermuda, data drives many decisions made by principal Gail
Graham at Whitney Institute Middle School. We use the Terra Nova tests of reading, language
arts, and mathematics at all three grade levels in our school every year, she told Education World.
The results of those tests are used to craft our School Improvement Plan objectives, which we
must submit to the ministry of education every October.
The requirements for those plans are very specific, explained Graham. School objectives in the
three subject areas state the improvement expected in the percentile ranking of each group of
students. Content objectives specify the expected improvement in various sections of the tests.
The staff, working in teams, determines the action steps we will implement to achieve those objectives.
It’s my job to ensure that the plan remains at the forefront of any teaching and learning decisions
we make, said Graham, adding that schools and principals are held accountable for achieving the
stated goals when the test results become available each September.
A climate survey is also conducted every year or two at Whitney, said Graham. I have developed
my own questionnaire, which addresses all areas of the school from the physical plant to the friendliness
of the office staff and includes questions about subjects offered, work done in classes, and other
opportunities offered at the school. I use the data from those surveys to make changes, initiate
new ideas, or sometimes to fight to keep things as they are.
Graham cited a recent attempt by the education ministry to scale back encore subject offerings
in favor of increasing time spent on core subjects such as language arts and math. (Encore subjects
include art, music, design technology, family studies, dance, business studies, and foreign language
-- to name just a handful.) I surveyed all students, all staff, and as many parents as I could
get responses from -- and the overwhelming response was to keep things the way they were, she
said. That data, as well as our better-than-average Terra Nova results, enabled us to prevent
this draconian measure at least for the short term.
USING NUMBERS ENSURES STUDENT GROWTH
At Southdown Elementary School in Houma, Louisiana, principal Betty
Peltier and her staff use standard score charts, which indicate where students should be at
the end of each grade level, to ensure that all students make documented progress. Our school
is one with a high percentage of students who come to school functioning below what is expected,
Peltier said. Our goal is to accomplish a year's growth plus for each student so that
in a minimum of years we catch up students who lag behind.
Each spring we chart student growth against the expected point growth for that grade, added
Peltier. The plus results have been very encouraging.
DEALING WITH DATA
Today, all principals must deal with data. The Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act
mandates that schools and their students pass proficiency tests at 4th, 6th, and 10th grade levels.
In Ohio, they have just given us the first draft of the new Ohio graduation test, principal
Tony Pallija
told Education World. Eighth graders will be the first class to have to pass the test to receive
their diplomas.
Pallija’s staff at Canton Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio, will be monitoring all test
results, analyzing them closely, and adjusting instruction. But they are not alone. Educators
everywhere are examining data like never before, Pallija added, because everybody -- students,
staff, and schools -- is being watched and graded.
Data Is Making a Difference in These Schools
Data has always been a force in the business world. Data related to sales and marketing, demographics,
and production costs are just a few examples of the numbers that, once analyzed, drive daily business
decisions and future projections. But, while data has long been a cornerstone of business, it
is only in recent years that school leaders have adopted the practice of using numbers to drive
school change and turn out an improved end-product -- students prepared to lead our world in the
21st century.