·
You
have read and reviewed the Texas Accountability Intervention Guidance documents
on Data Analysis and Needs Assessment Guidance document in week 2, and the
Improvement Planning Guidance document in week 3. How, as the
instructional leader, would you introduce and use these documents in your
campus improvement planning efforts with your faculty?
My
campus meets in the first week of July (before or after the 4th of
July depending on where it falls in the week) for two-and-a-half days of
inservice training. This training is considered “comp days”, and if a staff
member doesn’t make it to the training they have to make that time up at the
regional service center, or some other training. During the July meetings I
would use the data that is out, which will most likely not be from the most
recently taken tests (the TAIG results came out in August this year, and I
assume that trend will reoccur), to explain the TAIG system, in-depth
explanation and disaggregation of the indexes, and what the numbers say about
out campus.
In
the August in-service sessions before the fall semester I would assign segments
of TAIG results from the previous year’s data to PLCs, PLC assignments would be
given out during this time as well. The PLCs would break down the data that
they were given to its deepest roots and compare like data from the comparison
group schools. Prior to the data mining by the PLCs I would bring in a data
specialist from the regional service center to explain any updates to the
system, which will most assuredly happen. After the PLCs meet to mine for data,
we would all come back together and our entire staff would wade through the
results as a team. Together with the other administrators at my district and
the regional liaison I would take the results of the data and chart progress,
trends, and goals.
The
month of September would be set aside for data mining of the new data that
would come out in mid-August. One administrator would meet with each PLC (we
meet three times per week on Mondays, Tuesday, and Thursdays) during the month
to help us better understand the data and to help build a camaraderie with
staff in this tedious task. During the month I would create a calendar of
rotating responsibilities so that each teacher would have the opportunity to
take the lead at some point. This is important to me as I believe you don’t
really learn any skill/subject/task until you actually teach it. At the last
PLC meeting of the month each PLC would submit a short report on its finding
and ideas on how to move forward.
In
October we would have a Campus Leadership Committee (CLC) meeting where we
would work through the PLC and TAIG data. This is the committee where the
“rubber hits the road”, and we would also be looking for implementation
opportunities here, as well as any possible campus change ideas. One major
agenda item for the CLC would be planning an event where we would roll out the
data and information to parents and the community at large. I’m thinking that
the perfect day would be the last day prior to Thanksgiving break, which is a
half-day. This year we hosted the “Tribal Games” on that day. Our students are
in Tribal Councils, four groups per grade level, which are like the old home
rooms. Each tribe met in our Activity Center and went through a “Trust
Olympics” where I took the groups through a number of trust activities that
I’ve used in my years of youth ministry since 1988, culminating with trust
falls off of a five foot high platform, I know it’s not super high but everyone
did it including teachers, secretaries, aides, and janitors! Next we had an
academic scavenger hunt focusing on EOC questions, the seniors used SAT
questions, with riddles leading them from room to room. At the end we had a
beach-blanket volleyball tournament. It was a huge blast, and took some
planning by my PLC, but was worth it. We would invite the parents and community
to be a part of this activity and tie in an explanation of some data in a NON-death-by-powerpoint
way that helped educate and inspire our population.
