Practice What You Preach
As a first year principal this year, I set out with a lofty
list of goals to move the school vision forward. Now, as I am nearing the close
of the school year, I am beginning to reflect on how close I have come to the
targets I set for myself and for the school. We have come very far in a short
amount of time. I am beaming with pride about many areas where I have grown
personally and where I have seen my faculty grow as well. While it is true,
that some goals were not met, I feel confident that growth was made and that we
will pick up where we leave off this year and continue to pursue advancement
with the ultimate goal of student achievement in mind!
One area where we have ALL grown exponentially is in the
area of data analysis. Technology has advanced to the level that I can track
and analyze data on just about anything. Through various initiatives this year,
my faculty has begun to analyze data regularly to the point of asking for more
data on their students and designing student assessments based on student need.
Further, many of our teachers are now triangulating data as a best practice. It
has been so exciting to watch this growth. I even have one team of teachers who
have requested planning days this summer to begin creating common assessments
in order to better assess student progress with the newly implemented Common
Core State Standards. The great part about this request is that the team asked
me for leadership support instead of me asking them to “get on board” with a
specific initiative. This is what makes leadership enjoyable…seeing your
teacher leaders driving change.
I think the most unexpected growth I have seen this year is in the “thirst” for data analysis occurring all over campus. I have been modeling data analysis at every
opportunity. For example, I place bar graphs of diagnostic data and mid-year data
in our Cheetah Chronicle (our
internal Monday memo) and in grade chair and School Advisory Council Meetings.
Next, I embed behavioral data analysis graphs in most every faculty meeting. I also
demonstrate to the faculty any time that I make a decision based on data. We
had a bus/dismissal situation in the afternoons that I was able to use specific
behavioral data collected from bus discipline referrals to convene a meeting
with the transportation staff. We plead an effective case because our data was
so strong. And…I monitor data on everything: enrollment data, student session
results from the computer lab programs, behavioral data, achievement data of
every kind, attendance data, lesson planning data, and even energy conservation
data (quantitative data). I conduct data chats with the teachers and have them
reflect on their own student data. Lastly, I survey the students and the
teachers constantly (qualitative data). We just completed a bullying survey and
are currently collecting data with a cross-section of teachers in a lesson planning survey. Analyzing the results and making sound decisions based on their interpretation is critical to
our success.
The teachers see me “practice what I preach”. Perhaps this makes them
feel empowered that they can also analyze data to make sound decisions.
Whatever the case, there appears to be a layer of data analysis on our campus
that was not there when I first came to campus. As a matter of fact, I knew we
were making progress when one of my teacher leaders asked to train the faculty
on the use of reports in the SuccessMaker program. She was conducting her
training about analyzing the data, and she said, “You know we are all about
data here.” I know I was grinning from ear to ear when she said that.
Where will this take us for next school year? I firmly
believe that next year we will begin to closely examine the results of data and
make interpretations based exclusively on what works BEST for our students. For
instance, the questions should become very narrow: “Is the intervention I am
using increasing student achievement?” OR “Is there a better intervention for increasing
achievement?” Data is a part of the educator’s life. Data provides powerful tools to
help us fine tune our craft, and it is absolutely critical that the leader is
examining the data for the school’s progress continually. My advice….PRACTICE
WHAT YOU PREACH.
