Purpose Driven Data and Collaboration

Stacks of writing, mounds of math papers and a plethora of checklists, but now what?  As an educator it always seems that you have more data than you know what to do with, but the big question is, “What now?”  What purpose will the data serve other than to use as a grade?  How can this help me with my instruction?  These are precisely the questions asked at Jones Elementary, and the answers we have found, have been pivotal in our students’ success.

 So the first question we asked ourselves is what was the purpose of this data collection, what were we looking for?  We found that the best practice was to identify the standard we wanted to focus on and develop a grade level assessment that would target such skills.  We also maintained consistency by administering the assessment on the same day.  Once the assessment was given it was then our responsibility to grade the assessments and record our findings for each student on our data collection sheet.
Then we worked to find the purpose of the assessment as well as the data we had collected.  We met with our grade level team and analyzed the data, looking not only at the students’ results but our results as teachers.  We had an open and honest conversation about the areas of the standard we felt comfortable teaching, as well as those we weren't so comfortable with.  After a deeper analysis of the data we began to group kids according to the gaps in their understanding.  We placed them with the most qualified teacher to help close the gap.  We also utilized our math instructional facilitator; she helped us develop our skills and provided us with various techniques to strengthen our teaching abilities.  Our 4th grade team then had an extremely focused and purposeful intervention time, where the students were immersed in the content that was specifically designed for their needs.  At the end of our intervention period we re-assessed our students and were pleasantly impressed with the results.  Not only had our students made significant growth after our first intervention, but as a grade level we became stronger as teachers.

At Jones Elementary we have found that collecting data for a purpose, analyzing what the students are doing as well as our teaching strategies, and intervening to close the gaps for our students have been pivotal in our success.  Each student receives an education that is personalized for them, while the teachers are receiving valuable techniques and strategies to perfect their own craft.  We tell our students each day we are life-long learners; it’s our journey of data collection and collaboration that make that very statement the truth.