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When the dialogue about school
effectiveness is driven by important questions about student
performance, school staff will ask for more extensive data on
factors that affect student success. Clearly focused questions
(we call these “Essential Questions”) become a key stimulus for
involving school teams in a structured collaborative inquiry
process that engages everyone who has a stake in student success
to look deeply at student progress and the effects of school
policies, beliefs, programs, and practices on student
performance.
Our theory of action, or logic model, is based on the belief
that:
1. If educators begin by asking the right questions; and
2. Collect the right data to help answer those questions; and
3. Convert that information to knowledge using current research
and shared experience; and
4. Use what was learned from the data to take action to improve
systems, programs, and classroom instruction; then
5. We will see increased student learning and improved student
achievement.
To facilitate the work of leadership/data teams, PCG-CRM
provides examples of Essential Questions that are tied to an
examination of equity, program effectiveness, and continuous
improvement. We find that most Essential Questions can be broken
down into 4 large categories:
1. Questions about educational context
2. Questions about student engagement
3. Questions about student achievement
4. Questions about student, parent, and faculty
perceptions
Questions that combine data to cut across these categories
are the most powerful in getting to the root cause, that is, the
problem that must be addressed in order to see improvements in
systems, programs, classroom instruction, and ultimately in
student outcomes.
Our professional development addresses multiple aspects of
data use, such as:
- The critical role of leadership in building data
quality, capacity, and culture
- Overcoming barriers and resistance to data use
- Creating structures that support collaboration and
communication
- Formulating researchable Essential Questions
- Developing assessment and data literacy
- Utilizing protocols for structuring data use
conversations
- Building a data overview
- Conducting inquiry-focused, data-driven faculty meetings
- Looking at student work
- Examining instruction
- Developing data-driven action plans
We bundle these topics into a variety of formats to meet the
unique needs of our clients. Formats include:
- A yearlong professional development workshop series
- On-site data coaching and co-facilitation for leadership
teams and data teams
- Weeklong data institutes
- Daylong targeted data leadership workshops
PCG-CRM's professional development is designed for school and district
instructional teams, data teams, instructional coaches, data
coaches, administrators, and teacher leaders. Our ultimate goal
is to build the capacity of district and school personnel to
lead and facilitate the use of data for continuous improvement.
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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
