With the public release a couple of weeks ago of EQAO results, now is a good time for educators to reflect upon how data can be effectively used to inform teaching and learning practices. This important inquiry is a major focus of Lyn Sharatt and Michael Fullan's Putting Faces on The Data.
Putting Faces
on The Data
by
Lyn Sharratt & Michael Fullan
The central premise behind Sharratt and
Fullan’s Putting Faces on The Data is expressed in the book’s
Introduction: “To focus best, teachers need to combine technical expertise with a strong emotional connection to what they are looking at.” Of course, what they are looking at are the children they teach.
The co-authors begin by reviewing, from their
earlier book Realization, 14
parameters for successful district reform.
They include:
- Shared
beliefs that each student can achieve high standards and that each teacher
can teach to high standards;
- Daily,
sustained focus on literacy instruction;
- Principal
leadership;
- Early
and ongoing intervention;
- Collaborative inquiry; and
- Cross-curricular
connections.
In Chapter 2, Sharratt and Fullan report on their 2011 action research. They asked five hundred or so educators
working in Canada, the U. S., and the United Kingdom 3 questions:
- Why
do we put FACES on the data?
- How
do we put FACES on the data?
- What
are the top 3 leadership skills needed to put FACES on the data?
For Question 1, nearly half of the respondents’
answers were focused on the personal, emotional element. The largest number of responses to Question 2
was centred on assessment for and as learning, to determine the next steps in
learning. With respect to Question 3,
the respondents indicated that the top leadership skills are know-ability (knowledge of best
practices and structures), mobilize-ability
(being visible and getting people moving in the same direction), and sustain-ability (building and sustaining
strong relationships). Most importantly,
an effective leader participates as a learner.
An effective analogy is made between the
important work teachers do in knowing and
growing each child and the work of a sculptor who chips away at the marble
to reveal the “lovely apparition” (sculpture) inside. Teachers chip away at
the marble of system and school data of today to determine how it can best
inform instruction tomorrow.
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| School Data Wall |
In the
chapter on assessment, practices such as the following are recommended:
- Co-plan
using student diagnostic data
- Make
learning goals and (co-constructed) success criteria visible;
- Use
on-going formative assessment and reflect on mid-course corrections;
- Provide
oral and written descriptive feedback;
- Use
peer and self-assessment; and
- Create
data walls.
The rationale offered on confidential data
walls which track all students’ assessments is particularly good: “Once all
students are placed in their levels on the data wall, and the overlaps of
plummeting, staying still, and soaring students are noted, teachers stop saying
I because it becomes a we challenge – teachers own all the
FACES.” (79)
In their chapter on instruction, the
co-authors recommend a 3-tiered strategy of instructional intensification:
- Good first teaching practices;
- A case management approach for students
who struggle, whereby a meeting is held involving a number of school
staff, including the principal, and the student’s work is examined and
supports are recommended;
- Further
intervention steps, such as a Reading Recovery program, when students still
fail to meet with success.
The good teaching practices the authors
recommend include the gradual-release-of- responsibility approach to reading
and writing, differentiated instruction, cross curricular literacy connections,
and rich authentic tasks that involve higher-order thinking, and student
inquiry. With respect to the last
practice, they maintain that “skill in higher-order, critical thinking is the
new basic for 21st-century (teaching) – the additional foundational
literacy skill that accompanies the ability to read, write, speak, listen,
view, and represent.” (112) The
co-authors also introduce a very useful term – instructional intelligence, which they argue occurs when teachers
combine high-yield instructional strategies that consider every learner’s
needs.
In Chapter 5: Leadership – Individualizing For Improvement, the point is made
that a principal should participate with teachers as a co-learner and
co-leader, being the knowledgeable other who
knows how to use data to improve instruction in every classroom in the school. A principal should conduct both data talks
and classroom learning walks to monitor how each teacher is using data to move
students forward. A principal possesses mobilize-ability when he/she “walks a
fine line between push and pull” with teachers, and when he/she de-privatizes
practice, “making teaching and learning transparent to all and debatable by
all.” (169) The authors recommend an
annual learning fair as a “live report” on evidence of student
achievement. As for sustain-ability, the principal possesses it when he/she uses
distributed leadership and empowers “second change agents” ( ie. a literacy
coach) in the school.
Putting
Faces on the Data concludes with the question Who “owns” the FACES? If one has read the book carefully, the
answer is self-evident – all stakeholders in a child’s education!
Putting
FACES on the Data is an ambitious book that
covers a lot of ground with respect to student achievement and the use of
data. In many ways, the book reads like
a blueprint for principals and school district leaders for student success. The case studies and Narratives from the
Field spread throughout the book add concrete examples of how many schools and
districts have met with success by putting faces on the data.
Recent Professional Development
10th Annual Summit on Emergency Disaster Planning
On October 1-2, I attended the 10th Annual Summit on Emergency Disaster Planning. To call the sessions I sat through during the summit "intense" is an understatement. There were several presentations on school shootings and other crisis situations. Particularly gripping was the review of the Newtown tragedy which was presented by Robert J. Rader, Executive Director, Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) and the debriefing on the Chardon High School (Chardon, Ohio) shooting on February 27, 2012 which was delivered by Chardon principal Andrew R. Fetchik and superintendent Joseph Bergant.
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Yours truly with Eric Roher at the 10th Annual Summit
on Emergency Disaster Planning Conference
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Other informative sessions I attended included Clicks and Stones: Cyberbullying in Canadian Schools and Universities, featuring one of Canada's foremost experts on educational law, Eric Roher of Borden Ladner-Gervias, and Emerging Trends in Targeted Violence, which was presented by Tony Beliz, Deputy Director, County of Los Angeles Department of Mental Health.
The latter introduced me to a new word and phenomenon - isonection, which refers to the social isolation that may result from obsessive indulgence in social media.
