Capacity-Building to Bridge Data Use and Instructional Improvement

• In Event: Sustainable Professional Development for Data-Informed Instructional Improvement

Abstract

Purpose

Many schools and systems promote the use of data to inform instructional decision making. Meanwhile, more than a decade into the data use movement, building teachers’ capacity to use data to inform teaching and learning remains challenging. In this paper, we focus on capacity building efforts to bridge data use and instructional improvement. Specifically, we address the question: How does data use fit into capacity building for instructional improvement?

Theoretical Framework

Building on the work of Marsh and Farrell (2015), we use sociocultural learning theory to understand how capacity building occurs through mentoring and engagement with peers and artifacts (e.g., Vygotsky, 1978; Tharp & Gallimore, 1998). Capacity building for data use has primarily occurred via professional learning communities, content area or data coaches, and sometimes specific training in data use (Author, 2015; Farley-Ripple & Buttram, 2015; Gummer & Mandinach, 2015; Marsh, Bertrand, & Huguet, 2015; Schildkamp & Poortman, 2015). Nevertheless, many teachers find themselves unprepared to engage in data-informed instructional decision making. This may be in part due to the fact that capacity building efforts tend to focus mostly on how to analyze data, rather than expanding teachers’ tool box of instructional strategies to respond to students’ needs.

Method and data sources

We draw on data gathered in a qualitative case study of four underperforming middle schools engaged in a math instructional improvement project. The project was supported by an instructional coach who worked with teachers in teams and individually. Over four years, we conducted 163 interviews with math teachers, administrators, and the instructional coach. We also conducted over 200 hours of observations of teacher team meetings and trainings, taking detailed field notes. Data were coded using a priori codes developed from our reading of the literature and emergent codes arising from the analysis.

Results

Findings show that the coach played a pivotal role in helping teachers focus on evidence of student thinking as a form of data. Whereas the instructional improvement project began with a focus on helping teachers draw inferences from an externally developed assessment, the coach helped to shift the focus towards formative assessment embedded within math lessons that emphasized critical thinking and problem solving. This shift was important in addressing local contextual needs. Coaching helped teachers conceptualize instruction to include greater opportunities for assessing student learning. The coach built teachers’ capacity to gather evidence on student thinking in mathematics on a continual basis to inform instruction, often building this into the fabric of lesson plans. Immediate feedback from formative assessment allowed teachers to identify and address misconceptions in student thinking.


Educational importance

The findings of this paper have implications for teacher learning and data use. Most importantly, it is critical that ongoing data use be embedded in instructional planning, rather than as a precursor or a separate activity. Moreover, coaching that focuses on key instructional shifts can allow for a close connection between data use and instructional change, which departs from typical coaching practice around data use focused on data literacy.

Authors

• Amanda L. Datnow, University of California - San Diego

• Marie Lockton, University of California - San Diego

• Hayley Ryan Weddle, University of Pittsburgh