Data-Driven Decision Making and Dynamic Planning

Paul Preuss

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781317924135
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

This book will help you understand how to integrate data-based decisions into the daily work of the school. It is a practical and relevant handbook for converting data into wise decision-making and planning. It will give you the skills to successfully make data-based decisions, measure student learning and program effectiveness, evaluate student progress, use data to improve instruction, integrate a "Dynamic Planning" process into the daily operation of your school.

1

Introduction: The Context and Overview

Over the fifty-eight years that I have been engaged in public education, as a student or professionally, I have observed or taken part in several fundamental shifts in national educational policy. Each wave of reform washed over the educational establishment as a Tsunami, creating major streams of action as well as backwaters of inaction or delayed action. Each of these shifts created its own bureaucracy and established new operational rules for educators. Each came with new terminology, concepts and acronyms. Each shift required a steep learning curve until it became more fully integrated into the ongoing process of public education.

On May 17, 1954 The United States Supreme Court issued its decision in the Brown vs. Board of Education case “that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.” This was the first major wave of recent reform. In 1957 President Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce the Supreme Court’s school desegregation order. In that same year the first Civil Rights Act in 79 years was passed in Congress and signed into law. The battle for equal rights for all continues to this day.

The second of these waves was the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 which was the federal government’s response to the 1957 orbiting of Sputnik I by the Russians. The fact that the Russians had beaten the United States in orbiting a satellite was seen as prima fascia proof that we lagged in science and mathematics. NDEA’s primary focus was the support of stronger education in science, mathematics, and foreign language at all levels of learning, public school through university. NDEA marked the first time that the federal government took such massive steps to support education and it contained specific prohibitions blocking any attempt to federally control local administration, curriculum, or instruction. NDEA began the progression of federal programs in support of education which, over time, became increasingly regulatory.

The third was Title IX, of the educational amendments enacted in 1972 that required that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” One of the larger impacts of Title IX was on the development of vastly larger sports programs for girls and women and an increase in the variety of educational access for both males and females. Of course there were many other educational dislocations brought about by Title IX and our country today is once again substantially different because of it.

The fourth was the 1975 passage in Congress of Public Law 94-142 which is now called the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). Again federal funding was used as a lever to require each state to develop and implement plans and policies to “assure a free appropriate public education to all children with disabilities.” Once again, our country and its schools are substantially different today as a result of this law.

The fifth fundamental shift was the growth of teacher unions that took place across the country during the 1960s. By 1970 more than half of all U.S. teachers were members of either the National Education Association (NEA) or of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). In the wake of increased membership came increased political clout and in many states collective bargaining was written into law. Today the clout of unionized teachers politically and educationally is substantial.

The sixth and most recent fundamental shift is the greatly increased demand that schools be held accountable for student learning and that such student learning will be assessed in a standardized manner and reported to the public at least on an annual basis. Although many state education departments were moving in this direction, the movement became an avalanche upon the January 8, 2002 signing of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Federal legislation by President Bush. This most recent reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is built upon four major initiatives:

♦ Strong accountability for results

♦ More freedom for states and communities

♦ The use of proven educational methods, and

♦ Providing more choice to parents

NCLB requires that all students be assessed in reading and math each year in grades 3 through 8 and at least once in high school. Based upon the results of these assessments schools not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) are identified as Schools in Need of Improvement (SINI). Details regarding the complexity of NCLB are best found at: http://www.ed.gov/nclb/overview/ as it is not my intent to dwell on its specifics but rather on its implications for educational leaders and for all those concerned with improving student learning.

While the causes for this sixth shift are multiple, the root causes can be grouped into a category called “economic ramifications of the global market place.” We, as a nation, can no longer tolerate allowing a third of our students to leave high school without the basic skills to function and compete in the world marketplace. Once upon a time, perhaps even in their parent’s lifetimes, there was sufficient room for them on the lowest rungs of our economic ladder—no longer. Thomas L. Freidman’s book: The World is Flat best captures both the context and urgency for this belated reformation of America’s schools It is in the midst of this sixth fundamental shift that this text is being written and it is upon the required use of data in response to this latest shift that its content is focused.

From the practitioner’s point of view there are several key processes that have been made necessary by NCLB. These include:

♦ The use of data to measure student learning and program effectiveness

♦ Public accountability for student learning by reporting out the data

♦ Organizational and professional consequences for student failure to learn

♦ The use of student learning data to improve learning results

♦ Databased Decision Making

Schools now find that they are not only required to amass and use large amounts of student learning data but that this data must be used to inform instruction, parents, and the general public. Each school building and school district is required to issue an annual “report card” showing the degree of learner and cohort proficiency in at least the areas of math and English language. Failure to meet required goals or failure to meet annual yearly progress toward these goals result in consequences for the building or district and/or its leadership and staff.

As with each of the previous waves of educational change, there have been states and districts that are well down the road toward implementation while other states and districts ranged anywhere from close to far behind. As these first adopters rapidly moved forward, the gap between them and the last adopters grew larger. As a result we now have a full spectrum of data-enabled and accountable schools, districts, and states. Although this variety among states, districts, and schools appears as a patchwork quilt of programs and processes—some complete, some incomplete, and others yet to be started—it is obvious that the national trend since the signing of NCLB is forever increasing the knowledgeable use of data to inform decisions about improving student learning and for providing system accountability to stakeholders.

This morning’s edition of the Glens Falls Post-Star (2006, Nov. 11) contained an article about the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, NY, schools “developing an on-line system that will allow parents to check their children’s attendance records, grades, homework, and classroom schedules.” Of course teachers and administrators will also have access to this information. The program being used is the “Pearson School System’s Powerschool,” which is reported as being used in 7,800 schools across the country (see: http://www.powerschool.com/). Across the nation there are many other programs and processes that enable schools and districts to accomplish similar things.

It is hoped that:

♦ Teachers and administrators have been trained to the point of proficiency in order to make use of this tool.

♦ The system has committed to making databased decisions

♦ Parents have been trained to the point of proficiency

♦ Parents have the ability to go online in their homes

♦ The system has provided sufficient additional trained staff to oversee and maintain the system.

♦ The tool becomes established within the culture and norms of the diocesan schools to the extent that it becomes a regular way to do business rather than just one more add-on or passing fad.

One can hardly imagine our schools or nation today without the influence of the previous five fundamental shifts. In the not too distant future it will be equally difficult to imagine our schools or nation without the influence of educational data, educational accountability, and educational data-driven decision making. This sixth wave is upon us and remains the focus of this text.

At the risk of being too brief, my intent is to provide school district personnel with sufficient depth of understanding to be able to process the concepts and skills of data, databased decision making and dynamic planning without belaboring them. In this way I hope that this text serves as a relatively quick and easy “in-the-trenches” handbook for all those engaged in school improvement. Over the past few years many educators have become increasingly better informed regarding the proper use of data to improve student learning and I trust that this text can build upon that base. While there are also an increasing array of resources lined up to serve schools in need of improvement, there are also few conceptual overviews of how to place all of this activity within the context of an operating school system. This text was written with the hope of filling that void and providing the overview necessary for successful implementation of a dynamic and productive school improvement effort.

The concepts within this text are based upon the my 31 years as a school administrator; my coauthoring of the Unified Planning Processes; my experiences as the Co-Chair of the New York State Comprehensive District Education Planning Steering Committee (CDEP); as Director of the New York State Center for Comprehensive Planning; and upon my experiences in training, consulting with, and facilitating the planning process in schools across New York and other states.

The chapters that follow are sequenced in a linear and logical manner but with the caveat that very little in the today’s world of public education remains logical and/or linear. Each chapter is related both to what precedes and proceeds it—hence all of the text’s content is linked in other than a linear manner. It is much more a web of understandings confined within the linear boundaries of our language and its means of transmittal – the linear sentence and book. So feel free to bounce around the text as you desire. No doubt you will find all that you require by the end of your journey. The pages that follow make my case for databased decision making and dynamic planning for districts, schools, and classrooms.

Chapter 2 introduces the concept of Databased Decision Making and the essential concepts related to its success. It includes a model illustrating the various kinds of data and how they are used together to convert data to wisdom.

Chapter 3 deals with a concept I developed in 2004 that I have called “Data Pathways.” It is my attempt to explain the many ways in which educational data can and is being used to inform decision making and how many individual data sets are needed to transform data to information, information to knowledge, knowledge to understanding, and understanding to wisdom.

Chapter 4 focuses upon the relatively new process of using student proficiency data to compute annual student progress. This process is referred to as “value-added analysis” as it computes the amount of learning (progress) that has occurred within a student over time that can be directly attributed to the “value-added” actions of school.

Chapter 5 explains the key concepts of: Data-Driven Decision Making, Systems Thinking, Key Indicators of Student Success, and Root Cause Analysis. Understanding and making use of these concepts is essential for the success of all school improvement efforts.

In Chapter 6 I explain what I have come to believe must become the culmination of all that has been covered in Chapters 1 through 5—and that is a truly Dynamic Planning process. Dynamic Planning is a process of planning that is no longer annular but instead becomes a consistent aspect of all processes within the school. It is the way the school goes about its business and, of course, it includes data and data-driven decision making. Although the term is certainly not original with me, I found over 113,000 Google hits in 0.13 seconds, it is the term that I believe best describes the vision I am attempting to share. One writer called it “planning on the fly” and I suppose there is a simple truth to that, but there is more, as you will see in Chapter 6.

Chapter 7 is an invitation to Make It Happen: The Crucial Step in Creating a truly databased, results-oriented planning process for the district, school, program, or classroom and contains a listing of 18 components, or tasks, involved in getting started toward full incorporation of Databased Decision Making and Dynamic Planning. Each of these tasks is discussed briefly.

Within the text I have identified additional resources for those who want to explore various items further. The Bibliography has been purposefully limited to those few texts that I have found most meaningful out of respect for the demands upon the reader’s precious time. A Glossary and listing of acronyms has been prepared to add clarity.

Hopefully, my goal to provide a brief but sufficient guide for “in-the-trenches” educators on the concepts and skills necessary for successful implementation of databased decision making and dynamic planning have been realized within the following pages.

2

Data and Databased Decision Making

In the Introduction I wrote of the sixth fundamental wave of reform in education: the demand that schools become accountable for student learning. This wave has greatly increased the necessity for and the use of data. Like each of the previous five waves, the sixth wave has brought new vocabulary as descriptors for numerous new concepts. Databased Decision Making (DBDM) is one of the larger concepts to emerge from this shift. A similar term used to describe the same concept is Data-Driven Decision Making (D3M).

Both terms were “googled” as part of my preparation for writing this ch...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• FM Page
• Meet the Author
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• 1 Introduction: The Context and Overview
• 2 Data and Databased Decision Making
• 3 Data Pathways
• 4 Value-Added Analysis
• 5 Key Concepts
• 6 Dynamic Planning
• 7 Making It Happen
• Glossary
• Bibliographies
• Tutorials