Supporting Teachers to Focus on Student Learning in Evidence-Informed Data Conversations

• In Event: Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: Supporting Teacher Leading and Learning

Abstract

Educating teachers to use data effectively is increasingly believed to be a lever for improving teachers’ practice and attaining more equitable outcomes for students. In this case study, completed at a low-income urban elementary school, we examine how teachers learned to engage in and facilitate productive evidence-based conversations focused on students’ learning. Teachers were participants in M. Teacher Scholars (MTS), a professional development program that begins with teachers’ inquiry questions to guide their development of skills in using classroom data effectively. Findings suggest several factors in the MTS model that support productive data conversations: learning communities reflecting safety and trust, teachers use of probing questions, a “thinking space,” and use of routine data sources and indicators that measure learning success.

Authors

• Anna E. Richert, Mills College

• Julie M. Nicholson, Mills College

• Carrie Wilson, Mills College

• Claire G. Bove, Mills College