Quality in Education

What are teachers saying about implementing quality and continuous improvement in their classrooms?  In a previous blog entry, I invited teachers to share their thoughts, insights and paradigm shifts that occurred from learning more about implementing a continuous improvement classroom.   Dianna Geers (middle school teacher in the Cedar Rapids Community School District) shares her experiences with the Pareto Diagram... Read on!
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The Pareto Diagram:  It’s more than just a pretty graph!  Run charts.  Bar graphs.  Tallies.  Scatter plots.  We already use those, so why would anyone need another chart?  What could a Pareto chart possibly do that others don’t?

As I traveled on the road of continuous improvement I, too, was unsure of why or how to add another chart to my box of tools.  However, the Pareto has proven to be a great tool to help visualize strengths and weaknesses, but it is especially beneficial when I want to “dig a little deeper” with my data.

At the beginning of this school year, my students took a baseline writing assessment.  I spent hours scoring each paper to find the skills my students had.  The data was recorded, sent downtown, and I shared bar graphs with my students.  They knew their strengths.  They knew where they weren’t as strong.  We all felt good.

Then I took the data and plugged deficient scores into the “Pareto Creator”. By focusing on points missed rather than scores earned, students were clearly able to see a breakdown of their writing skills and which ones needed the most work.  When students saw that their two weakest areas were conventions and organization, they wanted to work on improving those.   I was pleasantly surprised, however, when all four of my language arts classes voted to work on their bottom three areas rather than the two I had suggested.  So we added sentence fluency to our writing goals, I added all three to my instructional focus, and we have been working towards improvement in those areas.  We were empowered.

As we monitored growth and added to our data points, I felt the need to go further.  We were growing, but why had we not mastered the skills?  That is where I used the Pareto again.  I took the skills--organization for example--and broke them into the different elements that the rubrics covered.   A well-organized piece of writing, for instance, consists of an engaging lead, conclusion, logical sequence, effective transitions, and appropriate pacing.   By breaking down the sub skills and inputting student data, my students and I were able to see clearly where we needed to focus our attention in each of our goal areas.

With data on the Pareto, students clearly see where they are weaker.  I never have anyone ask me “Why are we doing this?”  Students know what our goal is and how each writing lesson helps lead us to accomplishing goals that they set based on clear data. 

Our Pareto hangs alongside our bar graphs in our classroom data center.  It adds to the beauty of our data-driven classroom.

- Dianna Geers

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Care to comment about Dianna's thoughts? We want to hear from you.  Share your experiences today!

Posted by Jay Marino at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dr. Dave Markward, Superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District, follows-up on his last blog entry titled "The Strategic Plan: Not too thick; not too thin; just right" with a simplistic, yet powerful strategy for connecting stakeholders to the strategic plan.  Read on to learn how a "Plan on a Page" is a good idea- even in your personal life!  Thanks for sharing Dave!

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A document in our district that has had a great impact in aligning our efforts has been the Strategic Plan on a Page. This was the first tangible document that we created or our continuous improvement journey, and it is now displayed in poster size in every one of our 33 school buildings and in each of our support facilities. Further, each of our employees has a letter sized copy of the Plan, and we’ve developed smaller cards that we distribute to anyone and everyone in and outside of our District. The Plan was partially a result of garnering information from over 1200 citizens and staff members via a survey. Using a Pareto chart, we organized and prioritized the most frequently mentioned needs, expectations, and requirements to inform our strategic work. Then we engaged our senior leaders to select and organize the elements of the document.

Since the ‘roll out’ of the Plan nearly two years ago, the work of alignment continues across the organization. Plans on a Page aligned to the Cedar Rapids Community School District Plan on a Page can be found in our schools, departments, and even some task forces and committees. Here are some various examples:
-Cedar Rapids Schools
-Ensuring Minority Student Success Task Force
-Special Education Services Department
-Technology Department

I may have carried this a bit too far when one of my daughters was married. As the guy who gets to pay for the bride’s day, I had the pleasure of being able to speak at the reception. My wife cautioned me not to get up there and talk about school business. So I didn’t. But I did talk about the importance of having a plan in life that includes a vision, mission, core values, goals, and guiding philosophy. For the occasion, I produced a Plan on a Page for the bride and groom. Since they attended rival high schools, I had to make sure I incorporated the appropriate school colors. I think everyone needs a little direction now and then. Geez, I wish I’d thought of this about 37 years ago!!

-Dr. Dave Markward

Posted by Jay Marino at 02:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Building better schools; Leadership, teamwork and learning is the theme of next year's NQEC in St. Louis, MO.  Don't miss your opportunity to share your experiences with the rest of the Nation!

Presentations are due February 9, 2007 and may be submitted around the following topics (see website for submission forms and details):

Regular and Systematic Assessment and Evaluation to Facilitate Continuous Improvement - Schools need to provide evidence of effectiveness. Not just to adhere to state and federal mandates but to motivate leaders and staff and provide students and parents clear proof that what is being taught IS making a difference.

Partnerships and Support Networks - Whether it's utilizing technology, benchmarking, collaborative decision making, or embracing and working through resistance for systematic change educators at all levels need support networks and to create partnerships to share learning and resources in order to achieve goals.

Developing and Aligning to the School Improvement Plan - Aligning school and classroom mission statements to district goals and state standards, understanding targets and aligning improvement efforts around these targets, getting to the root cause and using innovation that will lead to results.

Leadership’s Role in Sustaining Improvement – Improvement initiatives are best received and implemented when they come from the senior leadership and when other stakeholders can see and touch how leadership “walks the talk”.

Differentiated Learning - How do you go about closing the achievement gap? Are you using student data folders, value-added approaches, individualized student plans?

Success Strategies for Improvement - Building capacity is key to support everyone in the system but especially those schools identified as in need of improvement.

Have you ever presented at a National conference?  What are you implementing in your district, school or classroom that could be shared?  Take the next step in leading continuous improvement by submitting a presentation proposal today!

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 06:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Are support services departments and personnel included in your continuous improvement efforts? Applying systems thinking includes the involvement of all support services departments and non-classroom personnel as significant resources in process of increasing student achievement. Support services such as: Food Service; Technology; Human Resources; Custodial/Maintenance; Transportation; Payroll and others play an important role in school systems and have their "niche" which impacts the learner and the learning environment.

Often, the support service departments of educational institutions are forgotten in continuous quality improvement initiatives as most of the focus is on the labors of schools and classrooms.  Effective organizations ensure that all employees, regardless of their position or rank, understand how their work directly contributes to the vision, mission, core values and goals of the district.

Systems thinkers ensure that all employees within support services departments…

• Know “what is most important” in the department- often captured in the form of the Department: Vision, Mission, Goals, Core Values & Measures. 
• Recognize how their work directly contributes to the Department Mission- In essence, every employee identifies how their work is aligned to the department goals and the strategic plan.
• Understand how progress will be measured toward the Department goals and know how their performance contributes to departmental and systems effectiveness.

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One ailment that keeps educators from embracing change is the "too much on my plate" syndrome.  This condition affects many educators and school systems around the country.  Symptoms of this disorder include: feeling overwhelmed, unwillingness to take on "one more thing", resistance to change, operating in isolation and in silos, inability to prioritize and a state known as "paradigm paralysis". 

The exact origin of this condition is unknown, but likely causes include: unclear direction in the work place, lack of prioritized goals, inefficient use of time and taking on too many tasks that aren't aligned to the mission.

Fortunately, there is hope.  Treatment of this condition consists of the following prescription:  set SMART goals that are truly the critical few (instead of attempting to work on the "trivial many"), weed the garden or create a "stop doing list" by ridding yourself of less-effective practices that aren't delivering results, and utilize quality tools and the Plan Do Study Act cycle to improve key processes.

Don't fall victim to the "too much on my plate syndrome".  Protect yourself by embracing change and seeking out new, more effective way of reaching key goals.  Keep your immune system up by staying focused on your mission, core values and strategic goals.  If all else fails, take 2 quality tools and email me in the morning!

How do you prioritize your work?  What do you do when you don't think you can take on one more thing? Are you embracing change?  Are you suffering from the "too much on my plate syndrome?"

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Did the title of this blog entry capture your attention?  It did mine! (and not just because the boss put the article on my desk with a sticky note to read it!)  When I first came across this article published by RAND Research, I was drawn to the words "making sense".  How many times in education to we hear and use the term "data driven decisions, yet aren't sure exactly what that means?"  In a past blog entry; Data Driven Decisions, Sounds Nice, But..., I shared my frustration with the lack of understanding of what data driven decision making is all about.

Marsh, Pane, & Hamilton share evidence from recent RAND research and address four fundamental questions in the article:

• What types of data are administrators and teachers using?
• How are administrators and teachers using these data?
• What kinds of support are available to help with data use?
• What factors influence the use of data for decision making?

In the article, 3 implications are shared:

1. Data driven decision making does not guarantee effective decision making. Having data does not necessarily mean that they will be used to drive decisions or lead to improvements.
2. Practitioners and policymakers should consider promoting the use of various types of data collected at multiple points in time.  
3. Equal attention needs to be paid to analyzing data and taking action based on data. These are two different steps: taking action is often more challenging and might require more creativity than analysis.

Educators seeking a better understanding of data driven decision making will enjoy this article and will want to share it with colleagues.  What is your definition of data driven? How have you used data to design instruction?  How can you improve the process of utilizing data in your classroom? 

Are you data driven?

Jay

Posted by Jay Marino at 06:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)