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What's New District Leaders Must Model & Support a Successful Data Literacy Culture Related Content: • How one principal achieved distributed data-leadership in her school • How one district built a culture of meaningful data use • Professional development offerings customized to meet YOUR data-literacy needs What does it take to successfully develop and lead a data-informed culture in schools and districts that will result in increased student achievement? Recently, TERC’s Using Data facilitators were invited by two Regional Education Laboratories, REL Appalachia and REL Southwest, to lead hands-on sessions in Virginia and Oklahoma to illustrate what education leaders need to know and do.

Session participants to Virginia—superintendents, central office leaders, principals, and school specialists—connected research, best practices, hands-on experiences, and examples from other education leaders, and teachers to pinpoint the state of data literacy in their own organizations. Then they identified next steps for using data far beyond standardized tests to classroom data in the hands of teachers. Through vignettes and video, they were able to see what the three keys to leadership that drive “using data for meaningful change” look like in practice: expectation, support, and involvement.	"Using Data is providing us with longer-term solutions based on research. There is no short-term fix to make up for the inequities and to transform learning. When the process is right, the payoff will come." Mary Wermers, Curriculum Director

These fore-thinking leaders acknowledged that, first, they must model exemplary data use. In tandem, they must provide the professional development needed to ensure that their teachers are data literate. Their vision: Teachers collaborating with peers as data-informed decision makers who are able to understand individual student needs, select proven solutions, and monitor progress toward successfully closing achievement gaps. While the administrators felt that they, themselves, were data literate, they articulated a commitment to providing more support and training for their teachers. Many expressed interest in having teacher teams work with TERC’s Using Data Project team to make their vision into a reality. TERC has been helping schools use data to close achievement gaps for over 15+ years and has been identified as a leading professional development provider in this arena by the national Data For Decisions Initiative (DDI) housed at WestEd. The TERC Using Data website, http://usingdata.terc.edu, offers additional free resources and a rich selection of professional development offerings.

Related Content:

• How one principal achieved distributed data-leadership in her school
• How one district built a culture of meaningful data use
• Professional development offerings customized to meet YOUR data-literacy needs

HP NETA Project Invites TERC's Using Data as a Pilot Partner

One-to-one computing is not a brand new idea as a strategy to personalize student learning and support the development of 21st century skills that prepare students to become workplace and college ready. Now, Hewlett Packard Corporation (HP) is funding the HP NETA Project to expand the one-to-one computing concept to include a suite of 21st century tools to help teachers assess that student learning. TERC's Using Data has been invited to play an integral role.

HP has gathered a team of thought-leading educators to participate in the education technology pilot project that showcases how HP technology and support can help transform learning. The pilot project also aims to showcase innovative ways of collecting and understanding the learning outcome data that emerges from effective technology implementations.

Technology has the ability to enrich a teacher’s ready access to student data that can inform classroom instruction and monitor student challenges, progress, and proficiency. However, technology aside, building teacher data literacy regarding how to use that data for meaningful change is essential.

TERC’s Using Data is a nationally recognized leader in professional development that supports using data to improve teaching and learning. At HP’s invitation, the Using Data staff will lead teachers through discussions, introduce field-tested strategies for data analysis, and scaffold the integration of best practices that ensure that data is an important component of the teaching process.

The pilot takes place in multiple countries, all part of the broad initiative called the HP National Education Technology Analytics Project (HP NETA) — an ambitious data analytics effort that will assist nation and state-level education leaders by providing insights about the impact of education technology on learning, society, and the economy.

The HP NETA Project pilot will work with selected schools in New Delhi, India, Johannesburg, South Africa, and San Carlos, California. TERC’s Using Data facilitators will deliver services remotely to all three sites using HP Meeting Room.

Using Data Goes International with New Pilot from Kuwait's Ministry of Education and MESPA

As part of Kuwait's Ministry of Education's Improvement of Educational Management and Professional Development (IEMPD) project, Using Data has been selected as one of four Professional Development providers by the Massachusetts Elementary School Principals' Association (MESPA), ushering in this new school management and leadership pilot in Kuwaiti public schools. Read the interview with Project Director Diana Nunnaley.

Kuwaiti Group

Assumptions, Predictions, and other Ingredients For Closing the Achievement Gap: One Recipe For ELL Student Success

Can the Common Core Standards serve as effective achievement benchmarks for ALL students, especially those who struggle most? In this article from Language Magazine, Using Data Senior Facilitator Mary Anne Mather offers practical strategies to help educators of struggling students act on a core belief of the Using Data process, "Significant improvement in student learning and in closing achievement gaps is a moral responsibility and a real possibility in a relatively short amount of time." Download the article.

TERC's Using Data is a Partner in New National Data Center Initiative

WestEd announced the launch of the Data for Decisions Initiative (DDI), a suite of resources and services designed to promote awareness, proficiency, and professional development about data literacy that results in using school data for meaningful change and increased achievement. WestEd has identified TERC’s Using Data Project as its premier partner for providing technical assistance and data literacy training for education leaders and the teachers they serve.

Data use in education must extend beyond compliance and accountability to support continuous improvement. In addition to student performance and classroom data, an intersection of behavior, attendance, school climate, and even transportation data can help teachers and school leaders improve teaching and learning.

TERC has been helping schools use data to close achievement gaps for over 15+ years. TERC’s professional development offerings can be customized to meet the specific needs of schools and districts. They result in developing a culture where teachers collaborate with peers as data-informed decision makers who are able to understand individual student needs, select proven solutions, and monitor progress toward successfully closing achievement gaps.

The DDI website, DataForDecisions.WestEd.org, contains:

• Research-based guidance on how to build data infrastructure in a school
• Solutions to common roadblocks in data use
• Free tools, resources, and foundational research reports
• A glossary and frequently asked questions about data use
• Related news and upcoming events

The TERC Using Data website offers additional free resources and a rich selection of professional development offerings

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