Tip of the Week

Schools all over the state (and country) are communicating data to stakeholders through the use of data walls. Businesses have been doing this for decades. This article reviews some of the considerations when using data in various school settings, based on some of the observations I have made in schools over the past several years, as well as teacher feedback.

Personal Data Walls:

Teachers have re-discovered the importance and impact of sharing a student's progress with the student, and inviting that student into the data-driven decision-making process. Special educators have had students track their progress (fluency graphs, sight word checklists, DRA levels, etc.) for years. More and more, classroom teachers are having students do the same in the general ed classroom, and are seeing the impace on even the youngest learners.

First-grade teachers at O'Brien STEM Elementary School in East Hartford use file folders as personal data walls for their students. Students graph their writing scores five times a year and post the graph on the left side of the folder, as well as keep track of their mastery of their first grade sight words in a graph on the right side of the folder. Photocopies of the graphs are sent home periodically to communicate with parents, and the students use their folders during conferences. The folder format creates a handy way to send scores and student work to the receiving second grade teacher at the end of the year.

Classroom Data Displays

In a previous post ("Getting Data Teams Up and Running, 2011"), I shared one of the best classroom data displays that I've seen, where the second grade team at Mayberry Elementary School in East Hartford created a "walking data wall" to show student progress in the DRA2. Teachers at O'Brien found that placing their student reading group table near the display helped keep students focused on their goals. They also met with parents at this table, so that parents could see where their children fell in relation to their peers, in their reading progress.

Public Data Displays

When it comes to displaying data outside the classroom, teachers and schools have to make some decisions:

Who is the intended audience for this display (parents, other students, other teachers/staff)?
If parents, what is the intended purpose of the display (to inform, to teach, to call to action)?
If students, how will students (in your class and others) use the data? How will their attention be drawn to it?
If other teachers, how will the data be highlighted? What will be the intended action?

Recently, I met with teams of teachers at O'Brien STEM Elementary School, in East Hartford, where we discussed how to make hall displays parent friendly. Here are some suggestions for sharing data with the community:

Use a small amount of data to show the reason behind the current classroom work (e.g., a bar graph showing DRA2 data to show why 'retelling' is the current area of focus in Grade 2). Parents can support school focus more easily if they understand why it is important.
Avoid "sorting" words like "below basic," "proficient," "substantially deficient," etc. While we may use these words as teachers, they do not evoke positive and encouraging thoughts in parents. Better to provide the goal, and visually show progress toward the goal. People will get the picture, without the "punishing" words.
Use lots of visuals to show, rather than tell. Classroom teachers can share photos and vignettes of ways that they addressed the data focus, to show parents the kinds of activities that support learners in that area.
Provide a pocket folder with "take-home" ideas. One fourth grade teacher at O'Brien provided parents with ideas on how to support the grade-level focus at home. Other teachers provide a classroom newsletter as part of the display, to make the display interactive.
Turn your display into a "waiting room." If there was something I wanted parents to see, I placed a desk next to it during parent conferences. Waiting parents could interact with the display while they waited for their turn at conferences.

The photo at left shows one school's approach to making hallway data displays parent-friendly. Click the photo to see their description of the display.

School Data Displays

I was at E. C. Goodwin Technical High School last week, and got a chance to take a good look at the data display they had in their main office conference room, before the school data team meeting convened. Here were the components of the display, simply tacked to the bulletin board):

General Data:

The School Improvement Plan (front page with main goals showing)
CAPT data graph, showing 5 years of standardized assessment data (reading, writing, math and science) for 10th graders
NOCTI data graph, showing 5 years' performance on the standardized trades exam
The school professional development plan and calendar for the year
CMT and CAPT (state assessment data), disaggregated by student graduating cohort)
Guiding questions for the School Data Team

Reading/Writing Data:

CAPT data graph showing 5 years of reading scores and 5 years of writing scores
The Reading Action Plan from the SIP
The most recent English Department Data Team process summary (i.e., their most recent data team minutes)
A narrative description of their current strategy focus (a teacher-created strategy to make more meaningful connections to literature)
Dipstick data on a scoring rubric

Math Data:

CAPT data graph showing 5 years of math scores
The Math Action Plan from the SIP
Math screening data (from STAR Math) - grade-level profile
The most recent Math Department Data Team process summary
A narrative description of their method of selecting a targeted group of struggling ninth graders for a focus group on working with exponents
Dipstick data (via "quizlets") for the targeted student group

Climate Data:

Office discipline referrals for the year, by month
A narrative of school-wide strategies being implemented to address ODRs

Other Data:

CAPT data graph showing 5 years of science scores
The most recent Science Department Data Team process summary
A bulleted instructional plan to address the current student learning focus (developing a problem statement) in Science
Summaries of professional development to address literacy, numeracy and comprehension strategies in the trades

The display clearly showed the alignment between district, school and departmental goals, as linked by their four guiding questions (as shown below). On a montly basis, the team gathered for brief reports, by department, then discussed school-wide strategies to address themes that emerged across disciplines. For example, their most recent debrief revealed a student learning issue around making meaning from text that was technical in nature: assignement directions, math word problems, scientific procedures, technical manual specs, etc. They then discussed the adoption of a school wide strategy for paraphrasing technical texts (going from part to whole), as well as a school-wide strategy for analyzing problems and procedures (whole to part).

For more examples of public data displays, see my Pinterest board on School Data Walls. The examples show different formats that schools have chosen to present data. Choose the format that best suits the purpose and culture of your team and school. I will continue to add to the board as I see examples to share, so check back often.

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