The Data Is In

This morning I received an email from our principal containing the data from our District Assessments for Q4 county-wide. The data was displayed through graphs, distributed by grade level and compared the percent of children scoring at the proficient range to our free and reduced lunch percentage. While our school has many things to celebrate, we clearly also have area of growth.

As I compare data grade level to grade level, I think of instructional trends I've seen in place by grade level. Our 4th grade students knocked it out of the park and coincidently, or not, this was the grade level which began implementing project based learning and uses the most technology within their classrooms. Conversely, the grade levels that underperformed had teachers who never unpacked their Mimios and do not use technology in their classrooms other than as entertainment for students.

Because the use of technology and innovative teaching strategies is a large push for our school in the upcoming year, I am eager to see the professional development opportunities we have to increase teacher's knowledge and comfort level with this skill set. I am also eager to see the segregated data for our learners with special needs as this will provide me with more specific data to analyze with our department.

I have purchased but have not yet begun reading, "Poor Students, Richer Teaching," by Eric Jensen. I'm hoping to find nuggets of information within the text that I can share with staff to aid in student improvement. Moreover, if the book contains valuable information on how we can enhance and better our teaching for our children, perhaps we can have a book study as a staff. But, most importantly, I am eager to observe how our administrative team works with grade levels to assist them in learning, implementing and adapting to the needs of the individual learner thereby making greater gains in student achievement. I wonder how they will tackle the learning curve that so clearly exists. I also wonder how they will address staff if they are not implementing the expected practices.

The start to this year will undoubtedly be interesting with our newest data driving planning and instruction. One in which I will be able to observe transformative leadership at work and hopefully learn a lot about being a highly effective leader.

Comments

  1. Karen DozierJuly 8, 2017 at 8:51 PM

    This is a powerful comment and one that demonstrates change needs to occur..."the grade levels that underperformed had teachers who never unpacked their Mimios and do not use technology in their classrooms other than as entertainment for students."

    I hope you enjoyed "Poor Students, Richer Teaching" as much as I did. Our district leaders and new teachers will be reading the book this year. So excited about this since I think it has a large impact on instruction and reaching our students.

    ReplyDelete

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