Looking Forward and Predicting

Data is yesterday’s news or is it. In K-12 we do have a tendency to embrace the latest and coolest.  We can change from year to year depending on what new idea we (our administrators) saw at a conference, the Intermediate Unit now recommends, or perhaps it’s the newest ideas in the current hot selling book.

The district has workshop days to fill with training and often times there is no consistent yearly or multiyear theme.  One year I went to inservices on how to incorporate music into learning, multiple intelligences, peer mediation, self defense in the class room (don’t ask), and a health fair.  All were interesting and had good information but there was no underlying connection.

Staff training should be based on the needs that were determined in the strategic plan.  Instead we often adopt the latest hot ideas for K-12 pushed by the most popular consultants and authors.  The result is that data informed instruction is in danger of being supplanted by the next best thing.  Using data in the classroom is not sexy but it is a proven research based concept.  From finance to farming using data to make decisions is a normal and required process.

In K-12 we also use data but in a different way than other industries.  According to Bill Eriendson, assistant superintendent for the San Jose Unified School District in California, “School districts are great at looking annually at things, doing summative assessments and looking back, but very few are looking forward. Considering that our economy survives on predictive analytics, it’s amazing to me that predictive analytics don’t drive public education.  Maybe in education it’s considered a luxury, but it shouldn’t be; it should be the foundation for making decisions.”

Why do we not use predictive metrics in K-12?  It seems that there are plenty of analysts that can crunch the numbers and produce the key analytic metrics for most domains.  The barrier in education is not the number crunching but understanding the pedagogy and social issues which are vital to producing predictive indicators.  A good K-12 analyst must know both.

When those predictive factors are discovered there will be a wealth of research based indictors.  Imagine a true student early warning system that produces a hot list of students early on that gives the district time to intervene on specific determined areas in order to resolve the key issues.

I know that’s still far away but we are making progress toward that goal.  Research from the Chicago and Philadelphia schools have determined a few interesting predictors.  Below are two examples of recent predictive research.

• Among Philadelphia sixth graders who failed math and/or English, over 80 percent did not graduate within a year of their expected graduation. Although course grades were found to be highly predictive of falling off the graduation path, by comparison, fifth and sixth grade test scores were not (Balfanz, Herzog, & MacIver, 2007).
• A few absences matter greatly: nearly 90% of freshmen in Chicago Public Schools who miss less than a week of school per semester graduate in four years, compared to just over 60% of students who missed about one week (equal to five to nine days) (Allensworth & Easton, 2007).

Lots of work needs to be done. It will take some time for the indictors to be determined. Analyzing the data is tricky. For example an interesting part of the research showed that in 9^th grade attendance was a predictor of student graduation but in the student’s sophomore year grades are a more accurate indicator.

Teachers and administrators armed with this type of data can effectively target areas that have a huge impact on student success.  Predictive data opens up a new data analysis territory and data informed instruction takes on a new meaning.

Thomas DeMarco

OnHand Schools

Student Achievement Director

1501 Reedsdale Street Suite 5000 | Pittsburgh, PA 15233

Off. (412) 325-8000 x103 or (866) 430-2651 | Cell (412) 849-8556 | Fax  (412) 224-4774

http://www.onhandschools.com | tdemarco@onhandschools.com

         

Read about OHS on Pop City Media. OHS is expanding to Florida!

 

 

 

Professional Development: A Few Tips You May Not Find in the Literature

What the Literature Says

By this time, most of us are very aware of the important role that professional development plays in our goal to raise student achievement.  Over the years, much has been written as to the make-up of effective professional development.  You can go to the U.S. Department of Education website and find information that lists the “Attributes of Effective Professional Development” consisting of items such as:

• Results-driven
• Standards-based
• Job-embedded
• Differentiated
• Linked to learning needs (student and teacher)
• Collaborative in nature
• Sustained over time
• Discipline-focused/Content Rich
• Reflective
• Evaluated

Dylan Wiliam out of the Institute of Education in the University of London presented several year’s ago at the Governor’s Institute for Data Driven Instructional Practices.   Dylan makes a powerful case for focusing professional development around the use of formative assessments as he argues that the research indicates that is the most cost-effective way to improve teacher quality and thus student achievement.  (We will have a lot more to say about this in a later blog).   He further makes the case that teacher improvement takes time for a variety of reasons:

• Teachers don’t come at this as blank slates—they already have their own habits and have lived in classrooms for many years (even as students!).
• New knowledge has to go up against long-established, familiar, comfortable ways of doing things—ways that meet the traditional expectations of what a classroom should look like.
• It takes time and practice to undo old habits and become graceful at new ones.

Thus, professional development must be sustained over time.

Some Things You May Not Find in the Literature

Over the past 10 years, I have been involved with a wide range of school districts both offering professional development and observing it.  From that experience, there are a number of “practical” considerations that I would like to offer for your consideration and that aren’t always discussed in the literature.

Timing Is Everything.  I am amazed that so many school districts schedule a fair amount of their professional development at the very start of the school year—sometimes the day before the first day of class.  This is probably the worst time possible for most professional development.  Why is this the case?  Because most teachers’ minds are primarily focused around the first day —are the books in, is the room set up—does the schedule make sense—how many students do I have—who are they—what am I going to teach that day etc., etc.  This is a very stressful time for many teachers and while some professional development at that time makes sense—reviewing the PSSA/AYP data, discussing priorities and/or changes—introducing new staff; it is not a good time to be doing the kind of professional development discussed above.

One Size Does not Fit All.  I have watched administrators go to extraordinary lengths to either include everyone in the same professional development or to make sure that everyone is assigned to a small number of professional development efforts.  While the intentions are good, too often the strategy is flawed.  Sometimes special area teachers (art, music, gym, language etc) are so far removed from the subject area that they get frustrated and angry and actually hurt the overall professional development effort.  So what do you do when you really need to focus on one area that is of limited interest to other teachers?  That answer is given next.

Trust the People You Hire.  I learned this trick from a wise principal who relied upon the professionalism of his staff to deal with the above issue.  He would develop his priority area and for those who didn’t fit nicely into this, he would give them an option.  They could attend the main priority session or they could develop a plan (that he had to approve) as to how they would gainfully spend this time.  Invariably, they came up with focus areas that made sense to them, to the principal and to the school.  So instead of having disgruntled teachers sitting in on a session that only tangentially affected them, they were developing their own professional development program—a win-win situation.

What Interests My Boss, Fascinates Me.  This old adage is particularly valuable for administrators.  A PD day is not the right time to get caught up with the mail or return some phone calls.  It is important that principals and other administrators become engaged in the priority professional development areas.  One of the very best at this is Bart Rocco, Superintendent at Elizabeth Forward.  He makes sure that his administrators are involved and he makes it a point to attend many of the sessions—not just as an observer but as an active participant.  It is not an accident that wherever Bart goes, school improvement follows.

Plan Your Schedule and Schedule Your Plan.  Make sure your professional development schedule makes sense.  I have seen districts that want to analyze benchmark assessment data during an in-service day, only to discover that the assessment was not given early enough to have the data available for the already scheduled in-service day.  Focusing in-service time on data can be very effective but it requires some planning to make sure the tests are given in a timely manner to insure the data is available.  Some benchmarks require time for the results to be available for the staff.  For example those using 4Sight data for this purpose must make sure they have factored in time to give the test, score the open-ended questions, send the results to the Member Center and have the results transferred to the EdInsight Data Window (or other software).

These are just a few of the things that I have observed over the past ten years.  I could go on and on—but let’s save other thoughts for another day.

James Turner

JTurner@onhandschools.com

Teacher Evaluation is More than a State Exam Score

With the Race to the Top grant as the catalyst, teacher evaluation is the hot topic Du Jour. Back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a classroom teacher my evaluation was based on classroom management. If I didn’t send kids to the office I was considered an exceptional teacher.
Today a teacher can get the dog and pony out of the closet and put together a superb lesson for the few times a year principal observation happens. The objective and subjective evaluation systems that principles use range from worthless to terrific. There is very little consistency in the evaluation instruments from district to district. If you are going to evaluate teachers shouldn’t you use the same rules.
Teachers are the main component in the learning process. According to a report by the L.A. Times and the Rand Corp. that looked at 6,000 Math and English state teachers, found “teacher effectiveness is three times more influential than school attendance on student performance.”
Nations compare results on the NAEP and brag about their ranking. States rank their districts based on the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) percent on the state exam. Local districts receive awards or end up on the naughty list based on the student results from the state test. Now the spotlight is centered on teacher effectiveness. http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/08/17/better-schools-or-better-teachers/
What’s funny is everybody in the school and the parent community usually know who the good and bad teachers are. It’s not a secret there’s a science teacher that gave everyone in the class high grades but read the newspaper instead of teaching. Principals knew, other teachers knew, students knew, and parents knew what was happening. Since the grades were high, the complaints were few. http://gulzar05.blogspot.com/2010/10/school-grades-inflation.html
Now we have a third party objective (tongue in cheek) arbiter, the State exam as the teacher accountability measurement stick. It’s pretty easy to look at a student’s score on a state exam and determine whether the teacher did a good or bad job. More important, it’s real easy to explain that measurement model to the public. They get it. They even say things like “at my job, if I don’t perform I get fired”.
So what is the problem? Measuring a teacher’s effectiveness is complicated. Growth models are all the rage. All students should grow one academic year based on the assessment results. This is a good start for measuring teacher effectiveness. A student at the sixth grade level at the start of the year should be at the seventh grade level at the end of the year even if he is currently a tenth grader. These growth model systems sometimes called “value added measurement systems” are complex. SAS, a fortune 100 company built such a system for the state of Pennsylvania and its measurement algorithm is a proprietary trade secret. These models have some short comings. They can only measure growth if students take an exam each year. If a subject is not tested then measuring growth can’t be done and many subjects are not tested.
How do we measure all the other critical components students learn and used to become productive citizens? Twenty first century life skills like communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity are very important skills but not easy to measure.
New Jersey’s governor Christie has a bold plan to evaluate teachers, “As much as 45 percent of a teacher’s evaluation could be based on how much their students improve on statewide tests under a task force proposal released Thursday by Governor Christie.” Other states like Florida are using the FCAT (state exam) to measure and then reward teachers. Can Florida fairly grade its teachers?
Teacher evaluation will not go away. Designing a fair teacher evaluation system will be controversial and difficult. However, if teachers are going to be perceived as other professionals are perceived, it will be necessary.
We do live in exciting times.

Thomas DeMarco
OnHand Schools
Student Achievement
1501 Reedsdale Street Suite 501| Pittsburgh, PA 15233
Off. (412) 325-8000 x103 or (866) 430-2651 | Cell (412) 849-8556 | Fax (412) 224-4774
http://www.onhandschools.com | tdemarco@onhandschools.com

Read about OHS on Pop City Media. OHS is expanding to Florida!

And they have gladly taught; Teachers have not unbalanced our budgets; Our wars have

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)April 13, 2011

Author: Samuel Hazo

Apparently it’s open season on teachers. The dogmatized, rhyming governors of Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey and our own Pennsylvania have made it their mission to discipline and reform the teaching profession in the name of fiscal sanity. Why?

The given reason is that state treasuries, in order to remain solvent, need the money that would normally be spent on teachers’ salaries and benefits. This is the justification that usually translates as the “bottom line” in such matters.

What’s left unsaid is that there is a top line which identifies teaching as an essential and indispensable human service performed by professionals, without which the bottom line would not exist. Such professionals are as deserving of respect and just remuneration as are doctors, dentists, judges or, for that matter, governors.

Instead, the teaching profession is berated, particularly by those who never taught and who could not win the respect of students if they did. So they dredge up the old cliches — “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” They say teachers work short hours in a 10-month year and are spoiled baby boomers.

Such critics do not need a refutation as much as they need an education. They have the same mentality as the Bush brainiacs who conceived the “No Child Left Behind” folly, in which students are not educated for self-discovery and prepared for further study but simply trained to score well on standardized tests.

Teaching, in essence, combines both the conservative and liberal aspects of learning by preserving what is valuable and eternally relevant from the past and sharing it with others in the present. In this spirit someone once rightly defined education as a period during which students are absented from the present for a time in order to learn from the past so that they can better face the present in the future.

Ideally, all students should embody the spirit of the student-clerk in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” — “and gladly would he learn and gladly teach.”

Since all teachers are in fact but older students, they should personify and perpetuate this spirit all their lives (as most good teachers do). For them, teaching is what great educator Gilbert Highet called it — an art. And the best teachers, over and above their professional qualifications, not only know what they are talking about but have the good of their students at heart. The students who benefit are forever grateful.

Listening to the patronizing remarks of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is to be left with the impression that he regards teachers as house servants whose status and rights should be determined by the head of the house, namely, himself. Surely he and his similarly motivated governor colleagues know that the war-drain on the federal government is a major reason for dried-up federal social and infrastructure assistance to the states, some of which would certainly have been ticketed for education.

They know as well that the corporations in lock-step with them (and which contributed to their campaigns) have benefited mightily from no-bid contracts that the former administration gave them to re-construct what we had destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan. (For the full story of this collusion I refer you to Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine.”) But instead of going after the war-lovers and the war-profiteers, these governors are going after, among others, teachers.

In a country that ranks 12th in college graduation and in which students rank 17th in science and 12th in math, what savants except the governors believe that reducing the salaries and benefits of teachers, enlarging class sizes and letting some teachers go would improve the situation? If this is the meaning of fiscal sanity, what is fiscal insanity?

The wars in which we have been involved since 2003 (Afghanistan and Iraq) have been widely considered illegal and unwinnable. And the ongoing costs are astronomical.

Using conservative figures, exclusive of Libya, U.S. wars now cost about $5,000 per second, $300,000 per minute, $18,000,000 per hour, $432,000,000 a day. And each year: $157,680,000,000! The total cost of eight years of war is $1,261,440,000,000. That is almost the equivalent of the deficit. And war money, let us remember, is money down the drain.

Here is a civilian parallel. The annual budget of the University of Pittsburgh, including the medical schools, is about $2 billion. That amount would fund the ongoing, feckless and illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for not quite five days!

Anyone who can add can see that the wealth of the country is being disproportionately divided and that at-home expenses are being relegated to the bottom of the barrel. If governors see that their treasuries are in trouble because the costs of federal adventurism are taking away money that should rightly have come to them, they should forthrightly place the blame where it belongs — on the president and Congress. It certainly makes no sense to impose the burden of budget-balancing on teachers, under whose tutelage the future of the country depends.

It’s been said that fighting for the rights of others is really fighting for one’s own rights since human rights are common to us all. Supporting teachers whose rights to bargain collectively for just wages and benefits have been arbitrarily jeopardized or suspended is as good a place to start as any. And the time to start is yesterday.

Memo:
Samuel Hazo is McAnulty Distinguished Professor of English emeritus at Duquesne University (samhazo1@ earthlink.net).

Copyright (c) 2011 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Record Number: 1104135734717

Kaleidoscope of Data

Dr. Stefan Biancaniello

 Throughout the past several weeks we have been exploring ideas about data.  More specifically we discussed a model that provided an opportunity to think about how multiple kinds of data interact.  We learned that if we can identify the collateral data within the scope of our decision process, we increase our potential for understanding how that diverse data impacts our decisions. We can strategically observe information about who we serve, what they believe, how they are achieving and what supports exist to underpin decisions.  Once we have these data within our sights we can mix and match various data pieces.  Then, just like looking through a kaleidoscope we can watch how data can shift, change conditions and adjust perceptions.  Now we have reached the part of our discussion when it comes time to ask, so what is your point?  And that my friends, is a very good question.  The answer relies on a personal reflection that reaches deep into the fiber of who we are and what we believe.  You see, even if we understand and accept the premise that it is important to be able to focus multiple kinds of information and pay attention to this data as they  interact, we may be puzzled over its applications.  Even though we are aware of the tremendous diversity that exists within our communities, schools and classrooms that can and does foster a wide array of beliefs about our roles and our successes, there may remain some doubt as to whether we can make a difference.  Even though we may maintain some support for the need to measure student progress there are suspicions of how much these assessments really impact learning.  Even though we believe we are trying our best we have questions of how we are to accomplish the tasks we have been given.  So why spend vital time and effort? 

 I don’t think we have to look far to find an answer to that question.  There has not been a time, at least in my memory, where educators have been asked to do so much more with so much less.  It is common knowledge that how we fund education needs some rethinking, but that is a discussion for another time.  Today, in an arena of budget shortfalls, high accountability and increasing global demands on our schools and our students, we are approaching crises situations in many communities.  The twenty-five students in your classroom now or the one hundred twenty-five students you see each day could very easily and quickly jump to thirty-five students in the classroom and one hundred seventy-five students per day or more given the current economic crush.  The resources that were available to support schools and teachers are disappearing.  In the face of budget cuts schools are losing programs, eliminating positions that provided vital instructional support for struggling learners and emergent learners.  To face these critical issues, administrators and teachers will not only have to do more with less, they will have to increase success rates regardless of the shortfalls.  Schools and teachers will face increasing accountability with decreasing funding sources.  Quite a dilemma! 

 Oh and one more thing, in this caldron we cannot just set our sights on surviving these conditions, we must focus on thriving in this pressurized environment.  Our children and their ability to compete on a global platform depend on this.  There is the point we were looking for earlier. It is all about our children and the responsibility we have to ensure their success.  You see, no one promised any of us this would be easy.  It is a time-worn cliché for sure but so apropos here, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going!”  The point, can the effective use of collateral sets of data help us to be more effective helping children to be more successful?  Can we use the model of our kaleidoscope to bring varied data pieces into our field of vision so we can begin to understand the picture the data depicts?  Can we begin to read the data, watch how it interacts and learn the story that it tells.  Can we then use what we know to write new chapters in that story of student learning?  Will be able to apply what we have been discussing; the importance of being able to focus information, to understand its impact on teaching and learning, to transform pieces of data into information and information into knowledge and then knowledge into wisdom and finally wisdom into action to meet the challenges we face today and will face tomorrow?  Those questions require a personal commitment from each of us.  If our conversations have done nothing else I hope they have stimulated your thinking, inspired your creativity and energized your spirit.  Our children need new thinking.  Our children need you.  You make a difference!

 Until next time!

Kaleidoscope of Data (Part 4)

Dr. Stefan Biancaniello

In any decision-making process, information is the key element. It defines the scope of the issue at hand, sculpts perspective and in essence dictates potential action.  With that being said, it is imperative for decision-makers to insure they are critical, comprehensive and insightful on how they manage the information they use in whatever decision-making process they are engaged whether it be planning, implementing or assessing programs, practices or protocol.  

Virtually every issue we confront in our environment is dynamic and multi-dimensional, fluid and interdependent requiring decisions, whatever they may be, to reflect that very same level of interconnectivity.  To reinforce this thinking let me ask you how many times have you heard yourself or others for that matter say “there is simply no easy answer to that question?”  If you are like me, that response seems to be the rule rather than the exception in most issues.  Not only are today’s issues complex, they are, like our modern-day environment, global in scope and sequence.  For example, how often have you thought that one decision made ignited a domino effect on all kinds of other issues some that were in your field of vision and others that came out of nowhere to impact things you did not even know were connected?  Yep, welcome to the dynamic world of decision-making.  No “easy button” to be found! 

At this point I am not sure that there is an answer to this challenge of making quality decisions in a complex environment, but there are definitely strategies that can provide support.  We have been tugging at this image of a kaleidoscope for a while now and I hope you have at least gained some comfort with that image as a model for thinking about how information interacts and causes shifts in reality at different points in time. Last time we talked briefly about how we might use our model to strategically create opportunities for specific information to interact thereby exerting some control over that delicate balance of interactive data. 

 Suppose now we took an even deeper look at that possibility. Victoria Barnhart has produced a thinking frame that might be useful for our discussion here.  She is one of several educational thinkers who have spent much time pondering this challenge.  She has produced categories of information that impact educational decision-making that fit very well into our model.  In her process there are four spheres of information that all interact in the arena of educational decision-making. 

 Each of these spheres represents specific kinds of information:

 (a) Demographic

 (b) Perception

(c) Achievement

(d) School process  

 They overlap each other and create areas where one or more of the spheres share the same space, they are interconnected.  In that image there are areas where each sphere has its own defined space and there are areas of connectivity where two spheres overlap, some where three overlap and one place where all four overlap.  

 Let’s stop here for a moment and think a little more deeply about this image.  What do these individual spheres bring to the decision-making process?  How do they interact?  What role could they play if set into our kaleidoscope where we could turn the lens and watch them interact?  The demographic sphere represents the community we serve, the diversity of people, their needs, their goals.  It focuses on the who will be impacted by our decision.  The perception sphere represents the beliefs of those we serve, how they see themselves and how they see us as we interact with them.  The achievement sphere represents our results you know the assessments scores and the success levels of our student within the place we call school.  The school process sphere represents the organization, the school and how it supports the work, manages the time and resources available filtered through the roles, rituals and routines of the staff.  Within each of these spheres and alive within the areas in which these spheres overlap there exists rich and valuable information, data about who we are, what we do and how we can succeed.  In each sphere there is discrete information, like number of students, age, race, social economic condition of students and families.  There is data on what people believe about what is important to them and their children.  There is a plethora of information on whether students demonstrate achievement across multiple assessment tools and procedures.  There are the hard number lines of how many staff and what resources exist within the organization, together with a seemingly endless set of questions of how to allocate those resources.

What is most important however to quality decision-making is being able to figure out how all of these pieces fit together.  Understanding how they relate to and act upon each other.  In the model this is where the spheres overlap. These are the convergent zones where who we are, what we believe how we respond and are supported interact.  That is where issues, beliefs and needs comes face to face and truly impact decisions.

In our final session we will look at how we can use this dynamic information to produce insight.  We will explore how the image of our kaleidoscope can help us integrate these spheres and generate pictures that inform our thinking and practice.

 Until next time!

Elizabeth Forward School District uses EdInsight / iPads in Classroom

 

 We tested the assessment component of OnHand Schools today using iPads!  Everything went very well and no problems!!  The students entered the room, took an iPad and then logged in to take their 3rd 9-week math assessment.  Our great administrators at the middle school will then review the data with the teachers.  At EF, we don’t slow down even after the PSSAs are over. Great stuff! Thanks for ALL your support at OnHand Schools!!

 

Todd E. Keruskin, Ed.D.

Assistant Superintendent

Elizabeth Forward School District

Kaleidoscope of Data (Part 3)

Dr. Stefan Biancaniello

 

Please enjoy the 3rd installment of Kaleidoscope of Data.  Look for part 4 next Thursday March 31st.

 

 

So what data do we use to inform decision-making?  How do we define the amount and variety of that data?  What are the criteria necessary to shape that data into information we need and can use? These are pretty interesting questions.  They are not simple to answer and it is probable that an answer will generate more questions.  They represent the kind of inquiry that is necessary to support a process of continuous improvement.  In that arena seeking answers is a journey rather than a destination. They are perplexing, intriguing and thought-provoking.  They also provide a link to our last discussion. Remember, we ended last time with this thought.  “The data we use to measure and monitor, motivate and manage may exist as discrete pieces of information however that information interacts in a dynamic process we must learn to read and understand.” 

For just a moment, let’s try to wrap our brains around that statement of learning how to read and understand a dynamic process.  How might we do that?  If we accomplish that, will we be on our way to finding solutions for those questions of what data, how much data, and what criteria?  For the how part we need to think about producing opportunities that allow us to gather information in one place so we can examine it.  For the accomplishing part we will need to think about the enormous diversity of data we have at our fingertips and how all that data impacts our reality.  Let’s explore a strategy to help with that.  You probably already guessed this, so it won’t be a surprise, we are going to incorporate and extend the concept of a kaleidoscope in this strategy.  Why? Well, continuing the image of a kaleidoscope helps to visualize how different kinds of data can and do intermingle.  Perhaps most important to this process is developing a perception of the kaleidoscope  as not only an entertainment tool, but  a thoughtful, creative and useful tool as well.  Instead of just observing the color dynamics in a kaleidoscope, what if we could determine the color variety?  

Here we go!  Suppose we were to build our own kaleidoscope.  Why would we do that and how would that work?  Well, first we know that if we have any hope of succeeding in addressing those complex questions we have been discussing, we need to focus our thinking.  Building a kaleidoscope, which is a tool designed to focus vision, is at least a good start and it gives us a working model of how data can interact.  We know that there is a vast array of colors available to produce the crystals in our kaleidoscope. 

We also know there are at least that many kinds of data out there with the potential of impacting our decisions.  If we are strategic in selecting the data pieces, thoughtful in organizing the data pieces into useful categories represented by color variations, we can expect that our tool will provide some interesting insights for us as we turn the lens.  By choosing colors (identifying the data we will observe), we are defining the contents of our kaleidoscope.  Are you with me?  OK, when we look into the eyepiece we see a multi-colored collection of crystals, or pieces of data.   Here is where the dynamic part comes in.  By adjusting our lens (turning) we can observe the shifts of the crystals and their interactivity that produces fluid motion. When the lens is still, a unique design appears.  We choose the pieces that will interact; we establish the parameters of the interaction by placing those colorful pieces of data into one end of our focusing tool -our kaleidoscope.  All the ingredients are present for us to observe how data interacts through the intermingling of those color crystals. By thinking about a simple childhood toy we can establish a model for analyzing data and a process for gaining insight into how the data produces reality and/or results.  Now how cool is that?   

Returning now to the issue of whether reading and understanding the interaction of data will help us answer our complex questions we need to note that this will only occur if we are successful in choosing our data sets effectively.  In our exercise so far with the kaleidoscope we have made mention several times of the significant amount of data that is present around us.  How we choose what data to put into our kaleidoscope is a critical and fundamental question. Those decisions will shape the vision we will see through our lens and ultimately shape how we use and respond to that vision and that data.  There are models out there to help us with that.  These models frame data into categories and generate perspectives on how different sets of data generate information and how to use that interactive information to answer prevailing questions and inform decision-making. 

That topic my friends will be the focus of our next talk.

Thank you for attending the March Quality Classroom Consortium Meeting!

We would like to thank everyone who attended the Quality Classroom Consortium meeting this morning. Special thanks to Cindy Shaffer at the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit for her assistance in preparing and promoting this event as well as the keynote speakers and  those teams who led the break out sessions. 

We look forward to your feeback and seeing all of you again in the fall!

Kaleidoscope of Data (Part 2)

Dr. Stefan Biancaniello

Dr. Stefan Biancaniello’s 2nd offering in the “Kaleidoscope of Data” series. Look for the 3rd installation next Thursday, March 24th.

Let’s begin this talk by revisiting last week’s thoughts.  So what about that image of a kaleidoscope of data, just how does that work?  Well, first we must think of each one of those tiny colored crystals as a unique piece of information.  Each color could represent a category of data.  That means that individual pieces of the same color or shades of the color could represent discrete and distinct information within that category. 

Alright so now you are probably thinking, “what does that mean? “  Here is an example; if all of the green crystals represent attendance information, then each piece could be a different type of attendance data, (daily attendance, classroom attendance, afterschool program attendance, tutoring attendance etc.). Red crystals might be standardized test scores, (Terra Nova, SAT, PSSA ACT etc). Are you getting the picture?  What is contained in the transparent end of our kaleidoscope are pieces of data representing a vast array of information that filters into our vision.  The cylinder provides a focus on those data.  As we turn the cylinder, those pieces of data intermingle and generate colorful, and interesting arrays, of color combinations.  Following our scenario then, these combinations of color pieces represent the inter connectivity of pieces of data.  The pictures or designs that are unfolding depict how those pieces of data are interacting to create a situational reality.  In that space and time we can observe how different pieces of information interact and the resulting evidence that interaction produces. Sometimes the pieces partially cover each other in the array and prism new color mixes.  If we are paying attention we can spot those subtle variations in the colors as they overlap and  if we are strategic we can gain insight into the impact of the overlaps on the picture or design in that specific moment in time.

So, if we know what the data are within our lens, we have the potential to understand how each piece of data impacts the other and the situation at that moment. If we shift the focus and turn the cylinder, the data pieces move, the picture changes, and a new pattern of data interaction exists. At this point it is important to remember that the pattern, the data mix, we are observing is volatile because with a slight turn of the cylinder the image shifts.  When the crystals move the picture changes , the data rearranges and new design emerges.  So let’s stop here and revisit this kaleidoscope analogy to insure it is making sense.  The data we use daily to measure and monitor, motivate and manage may exist as discrete pieces of information, however that information interacts in a dynamic process that we must learn to read and understand.

 That my friends will be the focus of our next conversation.