6.2 Reflection
Candidates regularly evaluate and reflect on their professional practice and dispositions to improve and strengthen their ability to effectively model and facilitate technology-enhanced learning experiences. (PSC 6.2/ISTE 6c)
Artifact: Blog Post- ITEC 7305 Data Analysis & School Improvement
The artifact that I chose to represent this summer consists of the blog reflection from the ITEC 7305: Data Analysis & School Improvement course. During this fifteen months of school to receive my specialists degree, this was by far the most challenging class. This class demanded a great deal of comprehension and understanding of how data analysis can truly impact our student’s achievement and our teaching practices.
This course begin by introducing us to the UDP process and the Data Wise Process, understanding the need for collaborative work, determining how to relay this information to your staff, and then how to reflectively make research based changes to reflect the data. For about two years now my school has been actively reflecting and evaluating the student data from our standardized test, common formative assessments, quarterly assessments, and teacher observations. Our teachers have regularly scheduled data PLC meetings to disaggregate through the data to determine what changes need to be made to our teaching practices. This data is also helpful for retention meetings, MTSS data, and for our special area teachers. These weekly meetings also go along with our collaborative planning meetings too. When we first began this data process we struggled in several areas and I really wished that we had gone through the UDP process and the Data Wise process. During year two we began to use several of these strategies, but it would have made more sense to do a book study on these processes instead. These two processes can help any school increase their professional practices as well as the staff dispositions because the expectations are clearly laid out. Yes, there will be some areas that you will struggle through, but as long as your staff understands that you are not pointing fingers or placing blame your staff will be able to reflect on the data and act on it.
As I mentioned earlier this was by far the most challenging course through this program. I have worked on several data teams before, but I had no idea the amount of work that data can consume. Looking back over this course, I feel that my only regret is not having a full semester of this course. I took this course during the summer semester and it was shortened, but not the workload. I would have liked more time to truly understand the processes and use data that was relevant to my staff. Unfortunately, I had to use CRCT data for my final project because our current standardized test, Milestones, has only been given for two years.
Even though I had to use CRCT data I still shared this information with my administration and school improvement specialists. There were a lot of questions concerning why one year we really shined compared to the others. I have also been able to use the UDP and Data Wise processes this year during our weekly data PLCs to impact my student’s learning and my teaching practices.
This course begin by introducing us to the UDP process and the Data Wise Process, understanding the need for collaborative work, determining how to relay this information to your staff, and then how to reflectively make research based changes to reflect the data. For about two years now my school has been actively reflecting and evaluating the student data from our standardized test, common formative assessments, quarterly assessments, and teacher observations. Our teachers have regularly scheduled data PLC meetings to disaggregate through the data to determine what changes need to be made to our teaching practices. This data is also helpful for retention meetings, MTSS data, and for our special area teachers. These weekly meetings also go along with our collaborative planning meetings too. When we first began this data process we struggled in several areas and I really wished that we had gone through the UDP process and the Data Wise process. During year two we began to use several of these strategies, but it would have made more sense to do a book study on these processes instead. These two processes can help any school increase their professional practices as well as the staff dispositions because the expectations are clearly laid out. Yes, there will be some areas that you will struggle through, but as long as your staff understands that you are not pointing fingers or placing blame your staff will be able to reflect on the data and act on it.
As I mentioned earlier this was by far the most challenging course through this program. I have worked on several data teams before, but I had no idea the amount of work that data can consume. Looking back over this course, I feel that my only regret is not having a full semester of this course. I took this course during the summer semester and it was shortened, but not the workload. I would have liked more time to truly understand the processes and use data that was relevant to my staff. Unfortunately, I had to use CRCT data for my final project because our current standardized test, Milestones, has only been given for two years.
Even though I had to use CRCT data I still shared this information with my administration and school improvement specialists. There were a lot of questions concerning why one year we really shined compared to the others. I have also been able to use the UDP and Data Wise processes this year during our weekly data PLCs to impact my student’s learning and my teaching practices.