There are not enough words for me to explain how much I love data. I love organizing, analyzing and responding to it with specific action plans. Data is such an important part of teaching, since it is the tool that guides us to become efficient teachers and deliver effective instruction to the students' needs, because "Effective instruction is not about whether we taught it. It's about whether the students learned it." - Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, Data Driven Instruction.
Last year I had the privilege to be part of our Leadership Team at my Campus, and participate in the Executive Ed. Program with Teaching Trust. I learned so much about how to become a better leader, both thanks to the program and to my Principal. I learned how to better utilize data as leverage to be more proficient. Even though I had already been using data to drive my instruction in my classroom, the experience was really eye-opening and allowed me to go deeper. This year again I am under the Teaching Trust wing in the Ed-Fellows program, and it has been an amazing experience. I feel stronger in my capacities of leading data meetings, and leading teachers overall. I know for sure that their support and guidance has helped me to open myself more as a person, and as a professional.
This school year my Principal took the leap of faith with me and I took the challenge of becoming the Campus Instructional Coach for Math in my campus. I knew I had to be super prepared with Data, and continue responding to it by working with the teachers to increase student academic achievement. We have a Data Room for all the school's data including all subjects. But I wanted to create something more Math and student-specific.
Creating my Data Wall was time consuming, and something completely new that I would try out. I had used data walls before in my classroom, but not student-specific. I did more general data walls by objective and sections that I worked with. But I wanted to move forward and go deep in analysis for our students' sake. So, I researched all summer how to make it effectively, and it took me around 2 weeks to have it all set up how I wanted to (there is the perfectionist in me).
Today the Mr. Mike Miles, our Superindendent for DISD came by my campus and asked to see the Data Wall on my office. I was super nervous! First of all for meeting him, as I admire him & the vision he has for our students, and second of all for explaining how I set it up and use it!
But it went EXTREMELY well. He was listening very attentive, and asking questions on how I use the data with teachers. Then, I hear him say "this is how data should be used" as he turned back to the Central Staff that was with him. I was so HAPPY to hear that! It really made me feel like a Data Queen :D
So, I thought I would share my Data Wall with you, and hopefully inspire you to use it or tweak it!
First of all I chose a color for each section:
A: turquoise
B: blue
C: pink
D: green
E: purple
F: turquoise (like A's but with a dot on the bottom left corner)
I used one Post-it Super Sticky.
I focused on 3-5 grades, since these are the grades that I am going to be working more closely. So, I got each section's roster and started working on my cards. I split one post-it in two. Wrote the students name on the top. Below it I have 3 columns for information.
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| 3rd Grade Student |
Anyway, on the left column of the card you can see:
B.O.Y. (Beginning of Year):
Fall ACP:
Mock STAAR:
In the middle and on the right I will write the student's score for every 6 weeks.
1: 4:
2: 5:
3:
On the bottom you can see MC: (Math Computation) and MT: (Math Total). These scores I got them our Data Portal, as a reference on how the students performed on second grade on ITBS (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills).
You can observe that I have the B.O.Y. and 1st 6 weeks grades color-coded, this is the break down:
Red: Equal to or below 69% of mastery
Orange: Between 70% and 79% of mastery
Black on Yellow: Between 80% and 80% of mastery
Green: Equal to or greater than 90% of mastery
So, every 6 weeks I take the cards down and look for their tests scores. That is what I write on the cards. Following the same color-coding, I will add the scores for the Fall ACP (Assessment of Course Performance) and the Mock STAAR that we have in February.
I did the same thing for 4th and 5th grade students, adding their score on the STAAR from 3rd and 4th grade, as you can see here:
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| 4th Grade Student |
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| 5th Grade Student |
Green star: passed STAAR with Advanced level
Yellow star: passed STAAR proficiently
Red star: did not pass STAAR
Also, I made sure to identify the students that are TAG (Talented and Gifted) with a blue star on the upper right corner. Special Ed. students have a silver star on the upper left corner. This helps me to if they are performing to their personal level or need assistance.
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| TAG 5th grade student |
To quickly identify students that are continuous "strugglers", I decided to place a round yellow circle on the upper right corner to identify if they have been retained before. Ideally students that have been retained should be up to grade level, but most of the time this does not happen. Sometimes because they need individualized instruction to close the gap, or further assistance like being referred to the Student Support Team (SST). So, this system made it easy for me to identify which students have been retained previously and are still struggling.
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| Special Education, 4th grade student |
Yes, I handwritten all of the cards... yes, that may be why it took me forever... yes, my husband kept saying that there had to be an easier way... but as crazy as it may sound, all of it made me commit more to the academic growth of these students, even when I am not their teacher. It made it personal for me to see it every day when I walk into my office, it reminds me that it is in their teachers' hands and in my hands that they keep on learning every day. It inspires me to see their name and treat them as individuals and not numbers.
Here's what I look at everytime I walk into my office:
As you can see, I am a big Data freak... Since our campus goal is that 100% of the students perform at least at 80% of mastery, I put on the data wall percentages of every tier of performance (yellow post-its). This will drive the conversation with teachers on how to move those students from tier to tier.
Hopefully this was a good example for you on how to display Data. I know in a heartbeat that if I was still in the classroom, I would do this with my students.
Some great books about Data that have helped me tremendously are from Paul Bambrick-Santoyo. Make sure to click on the link under the picture to go to Amazon:
I will keep posting on how to use data within the classroom and different data trackers (public and personal) that I used in previous years and that teachers are using currently.
I would love for you to comment below and let me know what kind of data trackers you use!
