Collaborative Inquiry

Collaborative Inquiry Performance Matters Improving Learning for All Students Maya Angelou Public Charter School Benay Hawkins, Facilitator August 11, 2011

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.James Baldwin

AGENDA • Warm-up and Reality Check • Defining Collaborative Inquiry • Teams and Team Building Who Norms How Often • Laying Groundwork for Data

Warm-Up & Reality Check “Getting A Pulse On Things”

Purpose To activate prior knowledge about data and share experiences with and perceptions of using data. Overview Participants select and share images that symbolically resemble their experience with data. Audience Data Team Procedure Pose a question that will elicit the group’s experience with data, such as “How often do you use data, and for what purpose do you use that data?” Distribute pictures to everyone. Ask each person to select a picture that reflects his or her experience with using data. After everyone has selected a picture, ask each person to describe the picture and to share why he or she selected the picture. Record their comments on chart paper.

Data: Then and NOW • Too often, questions about data in schools originate with administrators and district office personnel. Teachers feel no ownership or curiosity other than, Did we make our scores this year? and Do I get my bonus? Teachers cannot take the lead in data mining until they pose their own simple, measurable, and relevant queries.

Data Misconceptions • But teachers' reluctance does not mean that they are unmotivated: Most teachers care about their students' learning and want to excel at their work. The problem is that we frame data as an entity teachers need to meet and engage with, rather than as information that rises organically out of teachers' work with learners. When teachers don't embrace an idea or mandate, it's often because they feel overburdened: They don't see the time or need for a new professional love interest. There must always be a point to what administrators ask teachers to do with data.

Teachers Leading the Way • Teachers will take the initiative on this kind of self-coaching if administrators and teacher leaders facilitate three essential changes in how teachers approach data. Teachers must begin to: *Realize that data include more than end-of-year standardized test scores. *View collecting data as a way to investigate the many questions about students, teaching practices, and learning that arise for any committed teacher. *Talk with one another about what data reveal and how to build on those revelations.

Empowering Teachers • All teachers can learn to be both data lovers and their own personal data coaches if we encourage these expanded views about measuring teaching practice and learning. • Teachers will need support both to become assessment literate and to adopt workable ways to gather, analyze, reflect on, and discuss data. • Uncomfortable questions about the nature of standardized testing, school goals, and leadership may arise. • Administrators should help their learning community respectfully talk through tough questions. They will build teacher capacity and leadership in the process.

So…What is Collaborative Inquiry? • It is defined as a systematic improvement process where teachers work in Data Teams to construct their understanding of student-learning problems and generate and test out solutions through rigorous and frequent use of data and reflective dialogue. • When engaged in collaborative inquiry, Data Teams investigate the current status of student learning and instructional practice and search for successes to celebrate and amplify.

These simple questions should be used in the ongoing investigation into how to improve student learning • How are we doing? • What are we doing well? How can we amplify our successes? • Who isn’t learning? Who aren’t we serving? What aren’t they learning? • What in our practice could be causing that? How can we be sure? • What can we do to improve? • How do we know if it worked? • What do we do if the students don’t learn?

An Exercise in Collaborative Inquiry Use data sets to answer questions posed on previous slide.

In Summary, Collaborative Inquiry… …Uses voices of the school community for improvement …Requires teachers/administrators to work in Data Teams to build their understanding of student-learning problems …Looks at data as a resource that will help teachers teach better

Teambuilding Activity:“Alphabet Search for Coaches” A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Alphabet Search for Coaches • Form teams… • Choose team roles: • Recorder, Reporter, Timekeeper, Liaison, Facilitator. • Send your liaison to pick up a bag for your table. • Timekeepers get ready; your teams will have 15 minutes to complete this activity.

Your team is to fill your bag with objects from what you have with you right now at your tables: purses, pockets, briefcases, etc. Place one object for each letter of the alphabet, making sure that each item makes a connection to skills and talents needed to find success in the role of a coach/team player! Alphabet Search for Coaches

Alphabet Search for Coaches Example: B = Batteries Connection: Coaches “need energy” to persist in the face of challenge and change! • Recorders should record the letter, item and connection to being an effective coach/team player. • Any questions? • Begin Now!

Alphabet Searchfor Coaches DEBRIEF • Reporters stand and share your list of items and the connections your team made to the skills to find success in the role of a coach/team player! • Group insights?

What Is A Data Team? • Group of teachers/teacher leaders and ideally building administrator • 4 to eight members • Team works together to use data and improve student learning • Can be organized by department or content area

What Do Data Teams Do? • Collect and analyze a variety of school data • Develop and adapt common assessments • Commit to norms of collaboration • Identify student learning problems, verify causes, generate solutions, and monitor results • Develop data-supported action plans • Communicates findings and plans with staff • Oversee implementation of the action plan

Expected Outcomes of Data Team Meetings • Analyze data and work with school teams to develop appropriate strategies • Monitor leading indicators • Engage in data dialogues that lead to the creation of action plans to address areas of concern impacting student achievement • Reflect on activities underway and their contribution to progress • Remain focused on identifying problems and focusing resources to address them over the course of the school year

May Sep Dec Mar Nov Aug Feb Jun Jan Apr Oct Jul Set Expectations and Goals Plan and Execute Follow-Up and Follow-Through Sample Annual Timeline • Start of the year • Initial meeting in August/September to discuss baseline data • Set objectives and targets for the year – school, department, district • Review SIP activities • During the year • Quarterly Meetings tied to testing calendar • November meetings to discuss beginning of year assessments and other core formative metrics for 1st QTR • February meetings to discuss January assessments and other core formative metrics for 2nd QTR • End of the year • June meeting to discuss April and May assessments and other formative metrics for the third quarter

Quarterly Data Team Meetings • Analysis • Review of formative assessment data from the quarter by subject and grade level • % of students scoring proficient and advanced by grade level on the benchmark assessment tests • Data analyzed by sub-group • Data on grades, absences and suspensions • Teacher observations • Data can be presented in graphical format • Comparison against targets set at the beginning of the year • Review of status of activities and corresponding data analysis

Quarterly Data Team Meetings • Problem solving • Discuss what activities are working or not working • Are there any problems identified by the quarterly data? • Are there any new challenges encountered in the school? • Determine if additional support required • Record the requested support for follow-up at the next meeting • Track action items on a template for subsequent follow-up • What needs to be done • By whom • Due date

Establishing Data Team Norms Activity: Establish norms to be used in Data Team meetings

Analyzing and Using Classroom Data

How Will You Analyze Your Data? Your purpose in analyzing classroom data is to determine what your students have learned, what they need help to learn and how you need to plan instruction to ensure that they all do learn. In an Educational Leadership article entitled, "Developing Data Mentors," by Beverly Nichols and Kevin Singer, the authors say that "gathering student-assessment data is not enough. Administrators and teachers must learn to analyze the data and apply this information in the classroom."

Analyzing Classroom Data There are a number of key questions that an examination of classroom data should address. Which content standard indicator(s) was the teacher assessing? What percent of students demonstrated proficiency? What implications does that have for instruction? Which students have not demonstrated that they can do this? What diagnostic information did an examination of student work provide? Based on individual student performance, what do I need to do next to move the student to proficiency? Based on the class performance, what re-teaching do I need to do? After reassessing, did my students demonstrate proficiency? Is my re-teaching or other intervention resulting in improved student performance? When we compare performance by subgroups (e.g., by racial group, gender, students with disabilities, ESL students, or students in the free and reduced meals program), do we see any groups not performing as well as the whole group? If so, what are we going to do about that? Do we have any students who are not attaining proficiency across indicators? What diagnostic information do we have about them to inform instruction? What interventions have we tried? What interventions do we plan to try next?

How Will You Discuss Your Data? You use the same questions to discuss the data as you did to analyze it. The discussion allows you to see how students in other classrooms are doing and to hear what other strategies teachers are using to move students to proficient.

Data Displays • Why graph classroom data? The value of graphing data is that it gives a visual depiction of the information that, when done well, allows the reader to make quicker meaning of the data. This is particularly true when you have a lot of data that can't be quickly assimilated in a table format. • What graphs are useful? You select the type of graph you want to use based on the information you are looking for. Popular graphs include bar graphs, line graphs, and pie graphs.

Analyze and Graph Classroom DataActivity Identify a question that you would like your data to answer and use that question as your title. Graph your data in a format that would give you the information to begin to answer your question. Clearly label the graph and write a brief description of what the data tells you and what you are planning to do about it.

Closing Activity • Ball-Toss This is a semi-review and wake-up exercise when covering material that requires heavy concentration. Have everyone stand up and form a resemblance of a circle. It does not have to be perfect, but they should all be facing in, looking at each other. Toss a ball or bean bag to a person and have the person tell what they thought was the most important learning concept. They then toss the ball to someone and that person explains what they though was the most important concept. Continue the exercise until everyone has caught the ball at least once and explained an important concept of the material just covered.

Thank You for Your Time Feel free to contact me at: hawkinsstc@gmail.com 301- 325-6816 -Cell

Collaborative Inquiry