Modeling Data Use for Teacher and School Leader Candidates By: Dr. Jessica Zarian Assistant Professor, Metropolitan College of New York.

Modeling Data Use for Teacher and School Leader

CandidatesBy: Dr. Jessica Zarian

Assistant Professor, Metropolitan College of New York

Data

Curriculum& Pedagogy

School Culture

Date: The Little Word with Big Influence

Every semester on the first day of class I review the syllabus with my teacher candidates. I teach the course that coincides with their field experience. I explain that during this semester they will be required to write an ELA unit, and teach that unit to the students in their class.

They are told they will also be responsible for providing evidence of student achievement, all while being able to reflect on their teaching practice and speak to how they would change what and how they taught their lessons to better meet the needs of their students.

Expressions of worry and distress spread across the room and quickly the question of “How do we do that?” is asked …

“How do we do that?” This leads to a conversation similar to the following “Why do we teach, what we teach?” “Because it is part of the curriculum” “Why is part of the curriculum” “Because they need to learn that to go on the next

grade” “How do you know they need to learn that?” “From a test?” “What do tests tell us?”

As you can see I do not make it easy on them, but this gets candidates ready to begin the conversation of data

Questions Most Asked by Candidates

What kind of data do we collect?

How do we collect it?

What do we do with this data once we collect it?

These questions often frustrate and scare candidates, leading them to feel overwhelmed by this work

Start With One QuestionWhy are you going to teach this lesson?

Hint: Your answer should NEVER be “because it’s next page in the textbook”

As candidates start to truly consider why they are teaching a lesson, the validity and need for data work becomes more clear

So where do we start?

At the BeginningStart with creating a spreadsheet shell for the

class

Begin inputted end-of-unit data into the shell for all curriculum areas

Once that is completed one can:Complete data analysis from spreadsheets to

determine sub-groups and outliers within classroomAnalyze assessment data to determine areas of

need in order to make changes to curriculum (This can be on the classroom level or on the grade level)

Sample Spreadsheet ShellInput the demographic data for the class in the shell. This data

does not change

Math: End of Unit (Exam)Enter each question with a

description

Writing: End of Unit (Rubric)Red arrows indicate

learning outcomes for ALL writing pieces (Meaning,

Structure, Voice, (Conventions), (presentation)

Blue arrows indicate unit specific skills

Enter skills or questions for unit in this

section

Spreadsheet Shell: Does not

change

Highlight the cell you want to show the average and enter correct column and row (P3:P21=0.315) meaning only 31%

of the class correctly answered question 6b

Student averages can be color

coordinated for easy grouping

Easy Grouping: Conditional Formatting

Highlight wanted cells, hit “conditional formatting” and

set the range. In this case Red for below target and Green for

at or above target

By selecting your mid point range (in this case “.5”)

anything higher will appear green and lower will appear red

Every spreadsheet tells a story, its learning how to read that

story that is valuable and leads to best practice

Using Conditional Formatting as a tool to help Reflect on Teaching

Practice Conditional Formatting will allow candidates to see

quickly:Which students need additional support, perhaps in a

small group Which topics might need to be retaught to the class

as a whole (encouraging the candidate to re-examine the way that lesson was taught the first time and reflecting on why it was not a success)

Using class data to determine possible holes in the curriculum. Then making necessary changes to the unit for future classes, and making changes to the following unit to make up for gaps students might still have Looking at data across a

grade and school helps tell a more complete story

Pivot tables summarize large amounts of data into categories

Highlight the cells you wish to enter

into your table and hit the “pivot table” button

This will appear

automatically. Leave it as is (it is

the formula for the cells

you highlighted

)

If you would like the table to appear on the

bottom of the spreadsheet hit

“existing worksheet” and select a location or

cell for your table to begin

Using Pivot Tables Help to determine Outliers

This completed Pivot table

Summarizes data for ELLs and Native

English speakers and

boys to girls in the class,

allowing one to compare these groups easily

Click the fields you wish to

summarize and drag

them into the “Row Labels”

section

Finally drag the field name “average” into the values section. Double click and

change “count of average” to Average of Average”

Spreadsheets Made Easy I have watched candidates, who once told me

that they are “aren’t good at math or computers” claim that they “couldn’t do this work” thrive with these few easy steps.