During this course focused on data analysis and school improvement I learned many things and reinforced my knowledge of others. One of the main new learnings from this course was that of the Using Data Process (UDP) and the Data Wise process. While I had participated in data analysis work before, I had never had the entire process presented like it was in this course. The idea of observations versus inferences during the analysis process was something that stood out as particularly important. It is critical that the data team or teachers separate the two to see only the facts first that are presented in the data instead of jumping to conclusions. The third thing I valued and found important in this course was the idea of monitoring and celebrating success that occur as a result of instructional changes made during the UDP.
To apply the learning that took place in this course we completed several field experiences including an elevator speech to get the staff enthused about the data analysis process, a data team summary, a data inventory, an instructional initiatives inventory, a data overview, and an action plan. The one that I found to be the most valuable was the data overview. For this field experience I took longitudinal data for the past five years of the CRCT/Milestones assessments for seventh grade life science at Dalton Middle School and compared and contrasted the results. By taking an in-depth look at this particular set of data I was able to pinpoint certain strengths and weaknesses that I could present to my colleagues in a visual form through a series of charts and graphs.
As I move forward, I plan to continue using and applying this learning of analyzing data in my school by spending more time on data analysis for the unit assessments and checkpoints throughout the year. Often times this process is reserved for the end-of-year assessments when it can be more beneficial used on a regular basis to drive daily instruction routines and strategies. While I see the importance of using the Data Wise or UDP, I anticipate having a challenge in creating a Data Team within my school because of the time out of the classroom it would require. As my school adjusts to new administrators in the coming year, I feel that we have too many teams and committees already in place and convincing them of the need for such a team might be challenging.
To apply the learning that took place in this course we completed several field experiences including an elevator speech to get the staff enthused about the data analysis process, a data team summary, a data inventory, an instructional initiatives inventory, a data overview, and an action plan. The one that I found to be the most valuable was the data overview. For this field experience I took longitudinal data for the past five years of the CRCT/Milestones assessments for seventh grade life science at Dalton Middle School and compared and contrasted the results. By taking an in-depth look at this particular set of data I was able to pinpoint certain strengths and weaknesses that I could present to my colleagues in a visual form through a series of charts and graphs.
As I move forward, I plan to continue using and applying this learning of analyzing data in my school by spending more time on data analysis for the unit assessments and checkpoints throughout the year. Often times this process is reserved for the end-of-year assessments when it can be more beneficial used on a regular basis to drive daily instruction routines and strategies. While I see the importance of using the Data Wise or UDP, I anticipate having a challenge in creating a Data Team within my school because of the time out of the classroom it would require. As my school adjusts to new administrators in the coming year, I feel that we have too many teams and committees already in place and convincing them of the need for such a team might be challenging.