| Teacher Supplies home >
Teacher Supplies News Center > Teaching educators to be data wise
Teaching educators to be data wise
Click
here to see our selection of Teacher Supplies.
 HGSE
course helps Boston public school leaders use data to improve instruction
By Bob Brustman
Harvard News Office
Last week, in public schools across Massachusetts, students were
racking their brains to show what they know on the Massachusetts
Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test. The test results, which
will be released in the fall, will provide data that show students'
proficiency in English language arts, mathematics, and science and
technology.
Kathryn Parker Boudett, adjunct lecturer on education and instructor
of the course, is co-editor with Richard Murnane and Elizabeth City
of 'Data Wise' (Harvard Education Press), a book that captures the
step-by-step process for using data taught in the course. (Staff
photo Jon Chase/Harvard News Office)
So where does it go from there?
Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) students are working
to turn these test scores into a viable teaching tool. Their class,
called "Using Student Assessment Data to Improve Instruction:
A Workshop," pairs principals and other education leaders from
eight Boston public schools with eight HGSE students. The work begins
by having each school take a hard look at its MCAS data.
"We always start the year looking at standardized test scores
because we feel it's a credible, logical starting point ... everyone
knows you're supposed to care about what these scores are,"
said Kathryn Parker Boudett, adjunct lecturer on education and instructor
of the course. "Our big punch line is that looking at MCAS
scores is going to raise more questions than it's going to answer."
MCAS will tell you where a school's problems are, she continued,
but it won't tell you what's going wrong with the instruction that
leads to the problems. "You can use MCAS to get a feel for
where your specific problems are, like reading, math, or writing,
but then quickly you need to start looking at other types of data."
And by other types of data, Boudett means any of the ways that
student work is evaluated: tests, quizzes, papers, class participation,
journals, etc. And it doesn't only include student assessment: Boudett
encourages the school leaders to go into their school's classrooms
and observe how the teaching is occurring. "Because that's
data, too," she said.
After looking at the mix of test scores and other types of data,
Boudett has each team identify a "learner-centered problem."
Then, the problem must be restated, said Boudett, as a "problem
of practice," or as a problem of teaching. "[Teachers]
are the ones who are going to have to learn to do something differently
so that the learner-centered problem is addressed," said Boudett.
"You're recasting your test results as something you can do
something about instructionally."
After the instruction in the classroom has been adjusted, then
teachers and school leaders can return to the MCAS and check their
progress toward goals they set when they first developed their action
plans, goals such as "We hope within three years our writing
scores will improve," she added.
Ludwig van Beethoven Elementary
In the real world, school leaders are reaping the benefits of the
process. As Eileen Nash, principal of the Ludwig van Beethoven Elementary
School in West Roxbury, put it, "Before I took the course,
we were analyzing our data, but we weren't doing it in an efficient
manner. This course has allowed us to become much more focused and
refined in not just how we look at data, but in identifying the
next steps once the data is analyzed." She added, "The
course is having a much bigger impact on my school than I anticipated."
Julian Underwood, the HGSE student who works with Nash, said, "Schools
are going through a process where they're expected to use data more
and more to improve student learning, but the amount of data can
be very intimidating. If you're a school like the Beethoven with
250-300 students, you have what seems like an insurmountable amount."
"The biggest challenge to the productive use of data is time,"
said Nash. There's lots of data available, but a finite amount of
time to decipher it. The key, as taught in the course, is to identify
information that points to a particular problem and then separate
that from the rest so the school can focus on what's wrong.
After reviewing recent MCAS results, the Beethoven team decided
to focus on substandard student writing. To gather additional information
about how writing is being taught and learned, the teachers at Beethoven
revisited written assignments to analyze the evaluation process.
"We then did a schoolwide writing prompt [written assignment]
that was scored by everyone on the staff. This gave cross-grade
levels a chance to see what skills the students are either mastering
or what skills the students still need to work on," said Nash.
The process was illuminating for the teachers at Beethoven. "The
teachers are all very well intentioned," said Nash, "But
it's hard to look at your own practice and be really reflective
about how your instructional strategies are getting across to the
kids."
Having other teachers observe and identify what they saw as successful
or unsuccessful teaching strategies informed them about what were
best teaching practices, Nash explained. And reframing the problem
from a learner-centered problem ("The kids don't write well")
to a practice-centered problem ("We aren't teaching the elements
of good writing") gave more ownership to the teachers.
As a result of the course and this analysis, Nash does see teaching
changing. Beginning next year, all teachers will be using a different
model - the six-trait model - for teaching writing. The model is
a way of assessing and teaching writing that focuses on six qualities
seen in outstanding written works.
Mixing the pros with the students
The HGSE students and the school leaders appreciated what each other
brought into the classroom. "A lot of the courses we get are
very theoretical," said Underwood. "This is a course that
bridges the gap between theory and practice by including practitioners
in every class."
For the purposes of the class, Boudett said that it's "powerful"
to have the principals of schools enrolled. "If a principal
is sitting there working on the project, it really increases the
chance that something will actually happen with the assignment."
Also, Boudett said that one of the goals of the class is to allow
the Harvard students an opportunity to see the process as it plays
out in action. People can get defensive, especially when the data
show that things aren't going well. "We think it's important
for Harvard students to see that taking care of how you have the
conversations around data is more important than creating a cool-looking
graph. ... If you can bring everyone into the conversation in a
safe way to talk about the data without fear of being blamed, then
you can make some progress."
The major goal is to actually improve the teaching at Boston public
schools. "We can make our curriculum just right and we can
build in a course design that allows students to get into the schools
and see what happens, but making sure that something changes at
the schools is the hardest part," said Boudett. "You can
imagine that if schools were able to easily change what they do,
then they would've done it already."
Not all of the participating schools make as much progress as did
Beethoven toward improving instruction.
"But what we do hear," said Boudett, "is that every
school has made some progress, every one of them has moved the ball
somewhat."
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/04.06/13-datawise.html
This weeks top selling teaching supplies
Click here to see more classroom
supplies & decorations
Discuss teaching ideas, lesson plans, classroom
strategies
and more on our teacher
forum!
|
