Victoria Bernhardt Research Overview Prepared by Douglas R. Hazlett, Ph.D. Bernhardt, Victoria L....

Victoria Bernhardt Victoria Bernhardt Research OverviewResearch Overview

Prepared by Prepared by

Douglas R. Hazlett, Ph.D.Douglas R. Hazlett, Ph.D.

Bernhardt, Victoria L. (1998). Data Analysis for Comprehensive Schoolwide Improvement

Victoria Bernhardt Research Overview


The Importance of DataInstead of adopting one innovation after another in education, data can help us:

•Replace hunches and hypotheses with factsconcerning what changes are needed

•Identify the root causes of problems, so we can solve the problem and not the symptom•Assess needs to target our services on important issues•Determine if we are “walking our talk”•Understand the impact of efforts, processes, and progress•Answer the question for our community: “What are we

getting for our investment in our children?”•Continuously improve all aspects of the learning organization



ACTIVITY

Take a few moments, and create a list of the various types of data that you collect in your

school district.



TYPES OF DATA THAT ASSIST SCHOOLS IN PLANNING FOR AND SUSTAINING SYSTEMIC REFORM INCLUDE:

•Demographics•Attendance/enrollment•Drop-out/graduation rates•Assessments of current teaching practices•Teachers’, students’, graduates’, administrators’, and parents’ perceptions of the learning environment

•In-house testing•Student achievement•Business and community needs•Problem analyses•Cost-benefit analyses•Ongoing assessments of progress



DATA BARRIERS

Schools do not ignore data deliberately. We often are just not aware of the wealth of

information that could make our jobs easier (through knowing what works and what doesn’t) and more satisfying (by learning how to get the

results we want).



THOUGHTS TO PONDER

If you don’t know where you are going, anything you do will get you there.

Anonymous

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes.

Marcel Proust

People without information cannot act. People with information cannot help but act.

Ken Blanchard



MULTIPLE MEASURES

With student achievement, more than one method of assessment allows students to demonstrate their full range of abilities. Collecting data on

multiple occasions allows students several opportunities to demonstrate their abilities. So it is with schools. If staff want to know if the school is

achieving its purpose and how to continually improve all aspects of the school, multiple

measures – gathered from varying points of view – must be used.



FIGURE 1 – MULTIPLE MEASURESFOUR MAJOR CATEGORIES

I.Demographics

II.Perceptions

III.Student Learning

IV.School Processes



The four major categories of measures are shown as overlapping circles. This figure illustrates the type of information that one can gain from individual measures and the enhanced levels of analyses that can be gained from the intersections of the measures.

One measure, by itself, gives useful information. Comprehensive measures used together and over time provide much richer information. Ultimately, schools need to be able to predict what they must to do meet the needs of all the students they have, or will have, in the future. The intersection of these four measures gives us that information.



DATA ANALYSES

Each of the four measures – demographics, perceptions, student learning, and school processes –

can be looked at in terms of a snapshot in time or analyzed over a period of time. The four

measures of data can also be looked at as they interact with each other.

See Table 5 – Interaction Analyses



THOUGHTS TO PONDER

Interaction analysis helps us to understand what is going on in all parts of a program, and to assess the impact of our actions on the people we are

trying to serve.Victoria L. Bernhardt

Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

John F. Kennedy

Evaluating a program is like shooting at a moving target – it’s hard as hell to hit and requires precise anticipation. The rare bull’s eye brings

uncommon satisfaction. Improving your aim means lots of practice and careful study of the non-random movements of the target.

Michael Quinn Patten



PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHERA PROBLEM SOLVING CYCLE

Identify the problem

Describe Hunches and Hypotheses

Identify Questions and Data

Analyze Multiple Measures

Analyze Political Realities

Develop Action Plan Resolution

Implement Action Plan

Evaluate Implementation

Improve the Process



THOUGHTS TO PONDER

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

Benjamin Franklin

It’s easy to make judgments – that’s evaluation.It’s easy to ask questions about impact – that’s evaluation.

It’s easy to disseminate reports – that’s evaluation.What’s hard is to put all those pieces together in a meaningful

whole which tells people something they want to know and can use about a matter of importance.

That’s evaluation.Halcolm

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