Using Data to Drive Instruction in Schools

Welcome to Class! Today, we are going to discuss how to collect data at your school site that would drive instruction for program improvement. Teachers and administrators begin the process at the start of the semester with the formation of departments and curriculum teams according to grade levels at each school site within the school district, like the MCSS.

For example, if there are three or four sessions of the 10th grade English, and there are two or more instructors teaching the same level course alike, they form a curriculum team to collaborate by planning and teaching same content standards (specific objectives) in the syllabus.

Pacing Caldendar

During the collaboration time, they design a pacing calendar outlining topics to teach, duration of instruction, assessment and scoring guide. During the instructional period (six weeks or a semester), you conduct peer observations or team teaching. After six weeks of instruction, grade level teachers create a common assessment tool to assess learning outcomes or student performance. Administer the test on the same day in your school, to maintain the integrity of the instrument.

These grade level teachers in each curriculum team meet to score the common assessment by using the same rubric or answer key. The School Assistant Principal for Instruction (API) plays a leading role in scheduling these activities for teachers to collaborate, create, administer and analyze test results. Data collected from these activities can be presented by the API during department or staff meetings with the hope of addressing gaps in student achievement. This will help teachers to make evidence-based decisions and review their instructional strategies for effective teaching and learning.

Working together with colleagues in the department to develop and implement a pacing calendar for common assessment leads to building a community of teachers and learners (Barth, 1990) for school improvement from within. Teacher collaboration replaces competition; validation replaces fear and suspicion; interdependence replaces isolation.

In my last assignment at Abraham Lincoln High School at San Jose Unified School District, I was a member of the English Department on the 10th grade curriculum team. In the course-alike groups, we designed and implemented a pacing calendar and common assessment (formative and summative). What I enjoyed most about this team work was the sharing of a variety of instructional strategies that enriched my own teaching methods for the benefit of the students.

Sharing Data

In essence, the key elements of data-driven instruction at the school site include planning the lesson together for a pacing calendar, implementing lesson plan, conducting assessment and collecting data for analysis and informed decision-making. We had five high schools in our school district and always compared our common assessment data with sister schools. This is how the district makes informed decisions student performance and teacher effectiveness. The data is a key indicator for student learning outcomes enshrined in the national curriculum.

This year, the Minister of Education, Dr. Jarso Marley Jallah, announced the enforcement of licensing program for all educators as part of implementing the 2011 Education Act, requiring all teachers to obtain a teaching license before entering the classroom. In addition, she announced the launching of data collection for school census to inform decisions about preparing budgets, number of schools and location, distribution of school materials, improving infrastructure, addressing teacher quality and digitized school permit processing.

But how reliable and relevant is the data collected by the Ministry of Education without a policy guiding the process? How reliable is the data collected from the school site under such circumstances when there is no guiding policy?

Developing A Policy Guide

In response to this binding constraint as a policy gap, the Ministry of Education has embarked upon the development of a standing policy to guide the data collection process. In a nationwide interview on “Education at Midweek” at ELBC on September 23, staff at Education Management Information System (EMIS) within the ministry revealed that the government has brought in an African Union delegation (from Kenya and Nigeria) to help develop a policy that would guide data collection. This was followed by a policy stakeholders consultation session in Monrovia.

With the formulation of a national policy to guide the data collection process, Liberia stands to benefit from standardized data collection and management in education that is relevant and reliable for planning and decision-making.

How many students are in your school? How many boys and girls are in your school? How many students are absent from your class today? How many teachers are there in your school? How many teachers are absent today? How many chairs are there in your school? How many students brought their textbooks to class today? How many students from your school sat to WASSE last year? How many of them passed? How many students sat to the University of Liberia entrance exams? How many of them passed?

Your answers to these questions will help you collect reliable, timely and relevant data about your own school on a daily basis. The class out!