Unlocking the Power
of New Data
As networks adopt new assessment strategies to better align to research, leaders have shared subtle but important shifts to their school-wide data practices to maximize the potential of new foundational skills data and use this data to allocate resources to support their literacy instructional priorities.
Leaders have unlocked the power of this new data by:
- Articulating the role of assessments in their strategy
- Investing in teacher buy-in by clearly articulating the role of assessments
- Using the data to set and evaluate network priorities
- Using data to align and communicate across a network
Clearly Articulating the Role of Assessments in Your Strategy
From the start of the year, leaders state their high level assessment strategy and how it supports their literacy priorities. Leaders shared that without taking the time to name the type and role of each assessment, the intentionality of their assessment strategy can get lost throughout the year. Todd Purvis, Chief Academic Officer, KIPP New Orleans Schools (KNOS) advises, “Understand the assessment first. At first, we thought the program would take care of everything kids would see on the assessment. Build your team’s depth of knowledge around assessment and science of reading first so curriculum use becomes more purposeful.”
Grounding early on in the purpose of the assessments can help build buy-in at key points in the year. Below is an example of how KNOS has done this in their Early Literacy Blueprint:
High Level Strategy
- We prioritize assessing the word recognition strand in K-2. In order for students to read to learn, they need to learn to read. Teaching reading is a science. In order to do it well teachers need to understand precisely which skills students have mastered and which skills need more practice. Mastering foundational literacy skills in K-2 will support students in becoming skilled and critical readers for the rest of their lives.
- We progress monitor students in order to gain a quick snapshot of their performance. These one minute measures allow teachers a glimpse into student mastery at that moment in time. Student skills are dynamic and ever-changing. We monitor the progress of all students below grade level biweekly to determine how students are performing against the grade-level norm, and to determine how we need to adjust our instruction.
We use curriculum-embedded mastery tests and check-outs to monitor students’ mastery of grade level content. Teachers, coaches, administrators, and academic team members analyze this data weekly to cater instruction, coaching and support to the students who need it most. - We deliver incredibly strong and targeted Reading Mastery instruction, and ensure that students are mastering content at a pace that will get them on or above grade level. Using data with surgical precision, DIBELS progress monitoring, mastery test, and lesson progression data is reviewed in weekly replicable data cycles by teachers and coaches.
Investing in Teacher Buy-in for Assessments
Leaders found success when they made intentional moves to make assessments part of their culture. This was especially important for leaders who were adopting new assessments, as shifting the north star metric creates understandable uncertainty for teachers. Teachers familiar with old assessments may be slower to embrace new assessments and data. Leaders recommend taking time and being intentional about building teacher and coach understanding and buy-in to new assessments and new data. Todd Purvis shares, “We felt like we were pulling people along shifting practices and realized we were holding the knowledge about the value of the shifts to a small group of people. This won’t work unless we flip the tension so everyone is rowing the boat themselves. That buy-in happened when we prioritized developing a shared understanding of the assessment and its connection to a shared research base.”
Leaders shared a few ideas on this below:
Celebrate. Purvis shares, “We introduced a slew of celebrations around the data. We had a top reader award every time we assessed, we showed up with balloons and showed up with certificates. We had nonstop communication - it was everywhere for kids and teachers. That has made a huge difference.” Celebrating not only helped everyone see the amazing progress students were making but also built momentum around implementing research-based instructional practices.
Make the data unavoidable. “One of our strengths is the intensity of structures we have in place. This is in front of people nonstop. We do site visits every six weeks across the whole KIPP NOLA region - involving school literacy teams, regional leadership, and Lit. It’s a production,” explains Purvis. Leaders used this data to inform coaching meetings and upcoming professional development sessions. “Before, we’d have weeks where you could forget about data. Now you cannot.”
Highlight proof points. At KNOS, the team often asked, “What is feasible?” They answered that by identifying a few initial proof points of classrooms where teachers and students broke through. They studied those classrooms, wrote case studies, did site visits; whatever it took to learn, spotlight, and share best practices happening in classrooms.
Using Assessment and Observation Data to Set and Evaluate Network Priorities
As teachers build their muscle for using data to inform daily lessons (see "Don’t Wait - Weekly Data Meetings as a Lever for Change"), network leaders build muscle for setting network-wide priorities. For Nashville Classical Charter School (NCCS), after pivoting from STEP to aimsweb assessments, they reworked their existing data systems and structures to focus on unpacking the new assessment data and using this new data to set schoolwide, foundational skills aligned priorities. With their knowledge of the reading research as well as each grade level’s scope and sequence, leaders were strategic about setting priorities that aligned to upcoming skills and targeted trends in the data.
Quarterly
NCCS’s leadership team comes together (see meeting agenda here) to review the assessment data to inform priorities for the upcoming quarter using a “quarterly response to data cycle” (see below). “Once we look at and assess the data, we celebrate the wins and ground our [next] priorities in that data,” shares Emma Colonna, Managing Director of K-8 Humanities, Nashville Classical Charter School. “We establish a teamwide priority and grade level priority so teachers know which instructional areas to focus on. Our teachers are bought-in and want to know how to close skill gaps.” After aligning their team around these priorities, NCCS’s leadership team develops action plans around curriculum and instruction, observation and feedback, and professional development to provide targeted support to their teachers.
This data cycle is used in Nashville Classical Charter’s Leader Professional Development.
See below for a literacy priority example from NCCS and the focus for each grade level.
| Team Priority: We will provide consistent, high-quality and efficient phonics-based feedback to each scholar. | ||
| Grade Level | Q3 Instructional Focus | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten |
|
Now that scholars have demonstrated proficiency with grade-level expectations for phonological awareness metrics (IS, PS), they should begin to move scholars toward drills and routines focused on decoding. Scholars who are still struggling with phonological awareness should continue to practice during Tier 2 and 3 blocks. |
| 1st Grade |
|
Through semester 1, scholars have shown mastery of foundational phonological awareness and early decoding skills. Significant growth has been made in nonsense word fluency and word reading fluency, and we want to continue this growth trajectory. As scholars increase their automaticity with isolated words, they should begin engagement in connected text fluency at the phrase, sentence, and passage level. |
To follow up on priorities, NCCS schedules quarterly classroom walkthroughs and follow-up coaching meetings. During walkthroughs, a group of district leaders, principals, and teacher leaders visit every K-2 classroom and use a foundational skills observation tool to capture what is happening in the classrooms, specifically focusing on the observation indicator aligned to their instructional priority. Emma Colonna explains, “We work with our K-2 teachers to build buy-in. In all of our walkthroughs, we explicitly look for evidence of progress towards those quarterly priorities, name strengths and areas of growth, and develop coaching plans and professional development training if we see a teamwide gap.”
At the end of the year
In addition to using data to set quarterly priorities and coach teachers, Nashville Classical Charter School analyzed aimsweb end of year data as well as staff surveys and other data points to make shifts to their instructional program in grades 3-4 for the upcoming school year. Based on the successes and lessons learned in K-2, they are:
Adding an additional class section per grade so students receive more individualized feedback and support
Shifting their staff model to mirror K-2, which has departmentalized literacy and math classes so teachers can really build their content knowledge expertise
Adopting high-quality instructional materials across all grade levels so teachers are focused on internalization and adapting to students’ needs instead of creating materials
Using Data to Align and Communicate Across a Network
Several years ago, Mastery Charter Schools named K-2 literacy as an annual priority and shared aligned, network-wide Key Performance Indicators (KPI). “It was very helpful to already have data structures in place, because it enabled us to set clear, schoolwide goals. We also set aside time quarterly to review progress towards key benchmarks and set our literacy priorities for the next quarter,” shares Molly Getz, Deputy Chief Academic Officer of K-12 Humanities at Mastery Charter Schools.
The network-wide KPIs work to ensure that leaders at all levels are centering the same data points and allow the network support team to progress monitor and decrease gaps across their 14 elementary schools. Using this data, the network support team can identify high priority schools and reallocate content leaders and principal manager time to support. At Mastery, this might look like collaborating on data analysis with priority schools, participating in school walkthroughs and observations, developing action plans, or providing additional capacity for coaching.
To support leaders proactively, the Mastery network team provides schools and leaders guidance on teacher and school inputs that support students in meeting the KPI as shown below.
Randy Dowell, Executive Director, KIPP Nashville, also offers an important insight into how he supports the early literacy work at the network: “I support Kate and give her a platform to share this as a priority to make sure we’re approaching it in an unconstrained way. Progress monitoring is where I lean in the most: highlighting the data, asking questions, and encouraging solutions that give us a better understanding of how it’s all working between the first, midyear, and end of year assessments.”
Next Steps for Unlocking the Power of New Data
You can establish a strong data culture by articulating how assessments fit into your strategy and support your priorities, being intentional about shifting teachers’ mindsets about assessments, and creating time and space to use data to evaluate progress towards your priorities and commit to action. These efforts will not only help you build buy-in amongst administrators and educators, but will also equip your team with the tools to take action and reach your schoolwide literacy goals.
