Portable Data Charts for Collaborative Teams

Why the Data Cards?
We are moving to an RtI framework in our district and part of that move requires better data use in our collaborative teams. Our collaborative teams of teachers (PLC's) have really started to use data in their results focused conversations, but often the data is too complicated to access or is housed in too many places. Sometimes, it's just having it on different screens on the computer that makes it difficult to really "see" how students are doing.

In an attempt to make the data more visible, accessible and concrete, the elementary instructional strategist (Janelle Thompson @janellejt) and I have come up with our portable data charts. We've used RtI colors (green, yellow and red) and incorporated them with our formative assessment tool, Skills Iowa, color coding (blue for exceeds standards).

In talking with other districts, there are some great ideas out there about how to make data more visible. We heard about designating a space for a data room, but we don't have space for that. We also heard about sticky notes that were moved across the wall, student pictures put in different categories, and other ideas that we took into account as we created our portable data charts. I'd like to tell you it's super complicated and we went all out cost wise to make the data charts, but alas, they are nothing more than pieces of construction paper laminated into one long chart. We move the student data cards around on the chart based on the instructional supports students need. We adhere them to the chart using "reposition glue" which makes paper into a sticky note. We decided against velcro because it was too expensive and it kept coming off. I'm sure good old masking tape could work too :-).

How to Create the Data Cards
To make the cards, we use an Excel spreadsheet merged into a Word project template. First, you need to get all your data into one place. Set up column headings in Excel that start with the student ID. This is helpful for data look up formulas you'll want to run to get all the data into one sheet (like VLOOKUP).

Once your data is housed on the same spreadsheet, open a Word document project gallery.  We selected labels and printed our data out onto blank business cards. The mail merge feature allowed us to bring our data onto the cards with a click of the button. We print last year's data on the card and teachers will write new scores on the card throughout the year as we complete district-wide assessments.

We used each student's photo from LifeTouch to make each student's data card more personal. For those students who were new to our district, we printed a picture to add to the card. I can't stress enough the importance of the pictures. It makes data mean so much more!

Using the Charts in PLC's
We use these charts in our PLC conversations (collaborative team time focused on student learning). Because we don't have a dedicated meeting space where the data can stay up, we fold up these charts after each meeting and clip them together with binder clips.  It's the binder clips I use on the command hooks in my office to hang the charts while we discuss student progress. The instructional strategists we have in our district are a huge help in using the charts and understanding the data. We are still working on their use consistently across grade levels. If you approach data in a similar way or are just starting to implement RtI like we are, be prepared for some questions like:

• When do we move kids from one color to the next?
• Whose job is it to deliver the interventions?
• What about those kids that are just on the line of being proficient? 
• How do we address students who may be proficient overall, but are missing a few key standards or skills?

Here's another article on the use of the data charts. More to come as learn more and as the secondary staff start to use them too. See page 5 of the ISFIS newsletter to read another explanation of the data charts.

Data Cards

Target Cards for Expected Growth on Iowa Assessments
I'm always looking for ways to make data more useable for students. I have to thank my mentor, Jill Anderson, from Norwalk Schools for sharing the district's data card idea with me (Created by Sandy Latham and Jan Jensen, I believe). When I learned of it 4 days before we started testing, I had to get it done for Van Meter students because it was so great!

You can print business cards is almost any word processing program, and I did a mail merge with an Excel data file that pulled our student scores and the Iowa Assessment norms into one document. The finished example is below.

Our students had the cards out in front of them when the started the testing, and teachers went over what their personal target was (based on the expected growth tables and their previous year's scaled score). Students really like to see the personalized card and appreciated the number of questions they had to get right. It was a more concrete example for them instead of the scaled score itself.

A practice we will continue for next year, one teacher had students write on the back of the card the amount of time the test took them and then collected all the cards at the end of testing. When we received the results, she handed back the cards along with the paper reports so students could see if they hit their target.

If you are interested in the files to help build your own target card, I've linked them to my web page for your convenience.

Providing Feedback

We've collected walk through data for a few years now. Last year we had almost 1000 pieces of data for our roughly 50 member staff and the year before that we had almost 1500 pieces. We used a template through eWalk which we created. There were checkboxes, radio buttons, and places to type notes. Feedback from staff (after they were use to administrators being in their rooms frequently), "Yeah, those numbers don't really help me know what to improve in my classroom." And what teachers said they liked best? "You remember that little yellow sticky note you left me? I really appreciated your note about what you saw in my classroom."

How do you move from data collection to meaningful, personal feedback? My staff love receiving little quick sticky notes from me when I am in their rooms, but how does one keep track of the little personal notes of feedback to see growth over time? My staff have made it very clear to me that while they are comfortable with idea that I am in their rooms quite a bit, they don't feel walk through data is helpful for their personal growth. How can I make sure I'm giving each teacher the personal feedback?

Because I imagine these questions are on the minds of other administrators, I thought I'd share my latest idea for providing my staff with personal feedback while also being able to keep a record for myself of whose room I've been in and what types of comments I'm leaving. I am using my iPad app called Penultimate with a stylus to jot down notes and email them immediately to teachers. I can take pictures of things I see happening in the classroom and jot a quick little note with it too. This app allows me to organize the notes in notebooks, so I can keep track of them in any manner I wish. Right now, I am organizing them by date so I can keep track of whose room I'm in and when.

My next idea came after this Monday's professional development where our staff spent time focusing our instruction using the book, Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding in Today's Lesson. There is an action tool for classroom walk throughs in that book that I scanned and saved as a picture in iPhoto. I clipped small sections of the photo and brought it into my app. See my note to Sue below.

Penultimate is certainly not the only note taking tool out there that can send notes via email. I like it best so far for two main reasons: 1) I can write on the pictures I take and photos I bring into my note and 2) I can rest my hand on the screen and still write.  I came across this blog post about different note taking apps and am sure there are more apps out there to meet this need.  Providing positive feedback with thought-provoking reflection questions is great feedback for students... and teachers.

Sustaining the Vision

I was asked to attend the ISTE Leadership Forum as a panelist discussing the steps our district has taken to share and sustain it's vision of what education needs to be for the students of Van Meter. I appreciated the opportunity to sit next to and learn from Patrick Larkin, Chris Lehman, and Sheryl Abshire. As each of us built on the five minute description the prior speaker gave sharing the vision in our own districts, a few common themes came to light.

First, the vision has to be something you live, not a mere statement you post. There are a variety of ways to do this, but for us it includes asking your staff and community, "What key points are part of who we are?" and "What do we want to see for our kids?" In this discussion common themes come to light and these common themes become part of the "elevator speech" that each staff member can give in 30 seconds or less describing what our district is striving towards. In Van Meter we want to empower kids so they can:

• Communicate

• Collaborate

• Innovate

• Solve Problems

• Think Globally

• Live Ethically

We also mentioned providing time and resources for staff to learn and collaborate. Van Meter embraced a Professional Learning Community (PLC) model for professional development three years ago to help teachers collaborate around meaningful, shared goals. Teams meet weekly and work towards their SMART goal tied directly to student learning. How can we best help students improve their learning? This question drives the use of technology in our district, not the other way around.


The most notable theme in our panel discussion was around administrators modeling the vision - walking the talk. For me to do this, I ask the question as I'm planning each professional development session, "Am I creating a learning experience for staff that mirrors the type of experiences we want to see for students?" Did I pick the best tools to make their learning happen at deep levels? Administrators model the fearless use of technology as tool. 


A brief discussion in the airport with a Canadian gentleman on my way home from the conference reminds me of our district's vision.
"How do you stay ahead of them with all that technology?" 
"I don't try to. I want them next to me when I have to find a solution to a problem."

Value of Walk Throughs

Feedback is a critical piece in the learning process. When the Iowa Core's Characteristics of Effective Instruction outlined "Assessment for Learning," educators just received a head nod to the long standing belief that teachers need to check for student understanding along the way instead of just at the end.

It follows the same logic that walk-throughs, quick 2-3 minutes of classroom observation, would serve a very similar purpose in a system's learning process then. Often misunderstood as part of the evaluation process, walk throughs are snapshots and data points that help inform planning and professional development. It allows the observer to see what's being implemented in the classroom.

In Van Meter, walk throughs take place in various forms. They can be conducted by administrators, master teachers, teams of teachers, and individual collaborative team members. The focus of the walk through depends on it's purpose, and there are a few distinct purposes when conducting walk throughs.

• Giving Teacher Feedback: no real form used, often a sticky note to quick email to point out something positive and to leave the teacher with a reflection question. Observer looks for positive take aways. Leaves a non-judgmental question for further reflection.
• Measuring Implementation: a quick snap shot that looks for one piece of data such as, "Are learning targets posted?" This is data collection allows me to follow-up with specific teachers, if needed, and share the team results. Observer looks for implementation of a particular strategy or concept from a recent professional development opportunity.
• System Health: Using a locally developed template, this allows a survey of data to be collected and analyzed over time. "Are we getting better at...?" or "Have we seen a change in....?" This information can also inform professional development next steps. Observer looks for the characteristics necessary to attain the district/building vision and goals.
• Quality Instructional Practices: Using the Instructional Practices Inventory (IPI) or other researched-based protocols, these walk throughs can help teachers analyze their building's data over time and compare it to the research base levels. Collaborative teams or even the entire building can set short term goals for improving instructional practices. Observer looks for local implementation of research-based practices aligned to district vision and goals.

While teachers have various methods for collecting information about how students are progressing in their learning, so too should the leaders of the school. Having people observe instruction should become part of the routine. Students rarely give visitors a second look upon entering their classroom in Van Meter, because they expect people to be in their room looking at what's happening and asking, "What are you learning today?"

Walk throughs are all about the learning.

Differentiated Learning for All

It surprises me from time to time how I am hit square in the face with the long standing idea that learning needs to be differentiated for adults just like students. Here was my latest reminder: I am serving on a state wide task force to study and bring forth recommendations to the legislature regarding Competency Based Education (CBE). As our group was struggling with tasks of subcommittees, we circled around a couple of phrases; "multiple entry points" and "continuum of learning". We were using these phrases to describe where districts throughout our state start from in regards to implementing a competency based system. Our charge to support all of the districts in our state had me leaving the room thinking, "We took too much time to get to the point that teaching this process (the move to CBE) needs to be differentiated."

Differentiating learning is hard work, but it starts with being clear about the end goal. For our teachers I describe this as identifying the learning targets of the unit or lesson and what it looks like when students can show you they learned them. For our work on the Competency Based Education Task Force, it's defining what we want the work to look like when we are done. Our committee was able to clarify a few points about our end goal. And we all know there is still work to be done just to clarify what we want for the state wide system. Grappling with the end is a fun, and yes sometimes frustrating, mountain of work. I'm thrilled no one district has to figure it out alone.

Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe's work on Understanding by Design - begin with the end in mind - still makes my list of great educational resources for teaching and learning. Now, I'm going to have to use it for task force meetings as well. :-)

Supporting the "Positive Outliers"

I was asked to consider how we support teachers in their learning and increase the capacity of the system. One of my twitter friends, @b_wagoner forwarded me this blog from Seth Godin and as I was thinking about teachers, I started thinking about students. Let me share my connections for just a moment.

Positive Behaviors Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a behavior system that focuses on supporting the positives in student behavior rather than focusing on the consequences for negative behavior. Sure there are systems of consequence in PBIS, but it doesn't drive your focus or goal. The positive factors drive your planning, your thinking, your support. Are adults any different? Can professional support mirror this same philosophy? Why shouldn't we focus our planning, attention and support on the positive outliers instead of focusing on the ones that drag us down?

I think I've just made a slight mental shift in my PD plans :-).