April-8-2019-BoardWorkSession-Segment-2
[00:00:00] Here appreciate thank you for inviting me back a little bit of housekeeping information first. So I have a yellow sheet of paper here this. Assessment literacy is one of the topics that we give credit for in our Leadership Institute program or that recognizes the learning and growth of individual board members.
And so if you would put your name really be don't necessarily need all of this other information. We need to update our form we used to ask you to give us your email so we can send you an online evaluation survey, but we've discontinued that so really we just if you want the credit for assessment Literacy for the course, please.
Put your name on this as I said we used to use that for a way to get feedback. But now we've changed up our sessions to have these papers said we will hand out at the beginning so that you can look at the questions. You can reflect on the questions as we're going through the training session. And then if you could leave this with me at [00:01:00] the end to provide feedback, I would appreciate that.
So I'll pass those around I did this session recently in Philomath. And their feedback is actually informed what a little bit of what I bring to you tonight. So it is useful we learn from it. And so to the degree that you feel like you have information to share with ospa and then with me, please please do that and.
This all started last August when we were together. This was like the tail end of all of the work that you did together during your retreat last August and the different pages of work that you identified. And one of them was this standard five you were of the board self evaluation. That's the the standard we were talking about in it was the standard was called performance monitoring and you guys had some questions about that is like.
How do we know as a board that our students are [00:02:00] learning that they're making progress? How can we communicate that with the people in our community? And so you had a lot of questions that you generated that day and didn't necessarily have answers for that day and thought that well perhaps a future Workshop would be.
In order to help you guys work through some of the questions that you had in relation to that board self evaluation. And so for tonight, I have come up with some outcomes that were developed in collaboration is Ginger was sharing with you cheer Fitch was sharing when I met last fall with your superintendent, but dr.
Tyson and ginger to talk about this and what do we want to get out of it? And so very quickly just to make sure that everybody is on the same page a I don't know the degree that each of you as individuals have in your knowledge around the different types and forms of assessment that districts may use.
To measure student learning [00:03:00] and so very quickly. We're just going to go through those just to make sure we have a shared understanding certainly welcome any questions that you have any time throughout the process, but this may be repeat for some of you in the room and then I've changed the slide up a little bit from what you have in your PowerPoint the order.
So one of the things that came out of a conversation is that you guys need to determine which evidence which data will be most useful for you as a board. I mean that great big huge fat notebook that you just got is a lot of information and so in your work of trying to answer your question of how do we know if students are learning and how do we share that information?
You need to determine which ones are going to tell you that? And so hopefully tonight we can help you come to some of that conclusion talk a little bit about the difference of analyzing data rather than receiving data as most boards have a tendency to receive data. I know I did my nine and a half years.
We never analyzed it. We just [00:04:00] received it. And then which questions do you want to ask your data? What are the questions that are important to the West Linn Wilsonville board that you want to ask of the data? And then lastly if we have enough time. This is a very ambitious set of outcomes for an hour and a half.
Because your agenda want you to be done by seven and I had two hours in Philomath and still didn't do all of this, but we'll see how far we get is to come up with a shared definition for you of what is Student Success. So I have a handout that you guys can put in the binders that you got. It's not in the slides that you can take a copy of and.
You can get one for I'm just going to hold on to it. Just just for a second and first thing kind of talk about what your role is the have you heard of the key work of school boards by the National School Board Association where they've identified. What are [00:05:00] the key work of boards? Bet he's nodding her head.
Yes. Yes, of course. She has in there are eight elements of board practices that they believe are really important for boards to do and one of those areas is to be data. And so I'm just curious when you hear that. Thank you for moving their I appreciate that. It's easier to see you. So when you hear that term data Savvy, this is your opportunity to engage in talk about what does that even mean to you?
As a board as individual board members, what does it mean to you to be data savvy?  Okay. For me, it would be to not just know the data but know which data is relevant for demonstrating what learning behaviors patterns success which is what I struggle with knowing. I don't know which which data to look at as the best [00:06:00] indicators of performance for certain activities.
Very good. Okay, so it helps you identify which data are value to be data Savvy any other insights. Yeah, go ahead Jesse. I think the first thing that comes to my mind is understanding the different types of data that exist how they're generated and yet what they're linked to so being able to interpret the data whether it be qualitative or quantitative and what does that tell me and be able to draw some conclusions?
Informed decisions. That's Davis happy for me. Perfect. Very good. Cool. All right, then I'll just catch you back in Philly. I think what it means to me is the blue Thule taken a lot of different data from different places and understand and taken in critically because you can take in different data from this district and paint a picture of it being perfect or a picture of it being a disaster.
So being able to understand everything and putting it into a context of a bigger [00:07:00] picture. All right, very good. So it is ba.  Now and it's be a center for public education has a really good tool. It's called its data first leading the change and it's how data is used to modify student. Pavement student performance and they it's really a nice.
It's a great tool and it's essentially built around creating a strategic plan establishing goals that are specific and measurable and then basically monitoring those goal achievement and making adjustments as needed. So that's the can compare encompasses being data Savvy for you and for your board.
Cool. Thank you. Thank you for sharing it anytime if I realize you have to press these microphones. So, you know either just move [00:08:00] towards it and I'll try and catch it or if you want to say something, please I like these to be informal opportunities for learning and not presentation. So our state of Oregon has a way of defining assessment.
So as a foundation and this is what the state of Oregon State's it's a systematic Gathering of data with the purpose of appraising and evaluating children's social physical emotional and intellectual development. And these activities may include testing to obtain an organized information on students performance in specific subject areas.
So when it comes to assessment, it doesn't necessarily mean it is a test. That's kind of the first place. We always tend to go like smarter balanced, but you don't necessarily measure a student's emotional. Development in a smarter balanced assessment for example, and so this gives you an opportunity to be as [00:09:00] expansive in your District as you would like under the umbrella of assessment.
So for a shared understanding I think it's good to have an idea of what it is that the state thinks of it. And then you as the West Linn Wilson billboard can certainly come up with your own sense of what assessment is a means for your. But I thought that that might be some good information to share with you just as a little.
Side journey, I found working with another District. I found that so we're going to talk about five types really quickly that are listed here on this slide of different types of Assessments. There's the performance assessment children are asked to do something and show and prove that they know how to do it.
It can be something physical like in a PE class this music here. Can they perform this sheet of music? It could also be writing a sentence. In primary grades or it could be [00:10:00] can they write a research paper in their senior year of high school? It's so it's a performance showing that yep as a kid. Oh, I can do this.
I've got the skills. I've got this ability. And I can show you that I can do I can do that a formative assessment is something that teachers use all the time and it can be as formal as a written piece of paper or it can just be the way the teachers monitoring what's going on in the classroom.
What's the level of Engagement of students? Are they catching on to what's being said or are they not and is their understanding happening and teachers? Sometimes we'll use this as. Way to monitor a change in instruction. So they're going to certain direction and they assess the kids. They do a formative assessment and then they shift they use it to inform their instruction.
Hence the term formative [00:11:00] it could it can Encompass all kinds of tests but its primary purpose is to inform how the teacher is going to adjust what happens in the classroom to ensure that students are learning. That's what another I just another one common then is when teachers agree in collaboration with one another that they're all going to give the same assessment at the same time to a group of students who have been learning something along a similar trajectory.
So this often happens when teachers group in professional learning communities or the like and so there are say their fourth grade and they're all teaching social studies in the history of or. And and so they're going through this period of time together where they're teaching about this and they decide okay on Monday April the 8th.
We're going to all give the same assessment and measure where our students are in relation to what we just studied in social studies around the history of Oregon and then [00:12:00] they get together and they have a conversation about the level of student learning so that they can then adjust their instruction.
So if we were that group of fourth grade teachers that got together, and we wanted to look at this assessment and Chelsea your students just. Shot it out of the park. You know, they just Excel and my students didn't do very well. And we're looking at this assessment. We can have a conversation I can see what did you do?
What were your instructional strategies? How did you ensure that your students learn that so well that. Demonstrated it on this assessment and then we can learn from one another through this Common Assessment as some districts like to have district-wide common assessments. And so it really depends on what it is that you're trying to accomplish in.
Are you all still tending like working towards the same thing? But generally these common assessments are also like the formative [00:13:00] ones intended to inform instruction and how. Teachers going to adjust their level of instruction. So that students are ensuring that they learn. That's another term just so that we have shared understanding of terms.
And again anytime your questions just interject them. But I know this is probably Elementary to some of you but it's a foundation trying to lay the foundation the interim assessment. I got some kids here at recess is kind of like half time in a sporting event. And anybody that may be watching March Madness or likes to watch, you know football or whatever there can be two completely different halfs to a game because at that interim break, there's coaching there's information that's given and things change and so an interim assessment can be one that a teacher uses mid-semester or do you have semesters trimesters?
You have semesters so [00:14:00] that a teacher could use it halfway through a semester like a midterm like we used to hear about when we were in school. They could give a midterm assessment and then that will help the teacher know where the students are in their learning or the S back when it was created was designed to have interim assessments built into it.
If a school district chose to purchase those and use them besides just using the ones at the end of the school year. So it just basically. Is generally a formalized assessment written or some other computerized or some type of an assessment that a teacher would use part way through and then your superintendent uses next term in her conversation with she was setting this up a summative assessment.
It's at the end it's done. It's not going to inform instruction It's the final exam that you take for your college of glass or whatever but in our system, it's. This [00:15:00] aspect of the smarter balanced assessment and yes, we still have some time at the end of the year because we take these usually in April or students take them in April, but we don't get the results back in time to inform anybody's instruction and.
Teachers can use other kinds of summative assessments that are at the end of a unit at the end of a chapter or whatever, but basically the name is in it and this is just a picture of four years of your data of English of math and of science that I pulled out of a program called forecast five. And it's a way at just a snapshot at the end of the year of where your students were performing.
This is all of your students all group together. And that's just a way one way of showing data. It's not the end all be all but it was just a way of showing you how summative data can be [00:16:00] captured and how you can look at it over time. And as you can see the yellow green. Are the meets and exceeds anything below the yellow green our students that we need to and want to bring up into the yellow and green but there's a lot of information that is missing on this but it's just a way of showing some summative data for you.
If summative data is what this board wants to look at and if smarter balanced is what this board wants to look at. So those are generally the types of Assessments that Educators use to inform instruction a variety of them. And then at the end there's a couple of way that tests like s back are referred to and that's called Criterion or criteria referenced and norm-referenced.
Are you familiar with those terms? Okay. So a criterion-referenced test is one that's measuring a student [00:17:00] against a certain set of knowledge or a skill like this athlete against how far she can jump it's her by yourself against the criteria that were measuring so our s back test in Oregon is criterion-referenced.
We have this information how well do students know it now the test does adjust for kids. They're taking it in real-time, but it's still about that kid by them themselves against the test. So that's it's a criteria. I liken it to when a kid fifteen-year-old generally speaking goes to the Department of Motor Vehicles and they're going to take a test on whether they know the laws to drive in the state of Oregon.
And so they're going to take that that test to see if they can get a permit. That's a criterion-referenced test. That kid is sitting down. Or anybody else but generally it's those 15 year olds that are really anxious [00:18:00] and they're going to say whether or not they know the laws of the state of Oregon a norm-referenced test is one that measure students.
Against a set of criteria. Yes, but against how other students are doing with that same criteria. So liken it to a group of athletes that are all skiing down this mountain and we're measuring who's the fastest against the next fastest against the next fastest. So they're still data that we want these are not data.
There's still a knowledge set that we want these students to have can fun. Can they even ski to can they ski fast? Then how do they do compared to others when we were all in school? We all pretty much took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills that might ring some Bells you might not remember but I'm pretty sure all of us probably took that test.
It's a criterion-referenced test. It measured us against other kids in the grade level. We [00:19:00] were in when we took it for the subject that we were. Taking it in and then it put us on a spectrum and that's where we get things. We call percentiles week. How many kids out of a hundred, you know, if we were to divide them up what percentile would each of us fall in on that Spectrum?
We don't tend to rely on norm-referenced tests in Oregon a lot. Although I think the nape has some Norm referencing in in the National assessment of educational progress test that some districts students participate in and we measure certain grades. What would the stock?
Okay.
Yes, [00:20:00] as back is criterion-referenced and sat a CT and now they commonly use those to look at them together to see the criteria and how they stand up against each other. Question, thank you. Here's to me though the graph that you showed a couple of slides ago is showing if I can I'm getting this right is showing the data and in a criteria reference and in a norm-referenced fashion.
No, it's not that so their students meet a certain score on the test. And so the number of students that have place to the score for meat. So if they've met that score they're in that yellow category. So that's a number of students that I've have met and then anybody that gets a score higher than the the score for Meats is in that exceeds category.
If they haven't reached the meat score, then they're down below in the. Orange or [00:21:00] the red depending on the score they got so it's just taking all of your students and putting them all together. So it looks like they're compared but they're not that's just that's just all of the all of your kids in your District that took the test.
This many of them got you know meets this many of them exceeded and yeah. Yeah, there's a good question though, but it was all Criterion reference there just lumped together to show a big picture of all of your students are English language arts math and then science and science. You notice has another color and that's because it was still The Oaks test and when Oak's reported data, they had another category called nearly meets and that's a gray and it was closer to meeting and not quite as low as the.
Orange one of the scores so there was another sandwich of scores inside of Oaks which is that Grace the grey column or a chunk [00:22:00] of data there good question. I like these kind of questions.  So basically you need to understand and. How do you know that kids are learning if you look at this boy, there's all kinds of Assessments that's going on right there in that picture that I took from your website.
So maybe your little kiddos that are showing their performing that they've learned through this this fair, but I'm going to turn this over this portion of it over to your District to talk to you about how your District measures data in addition to that great big huge fat bander you got.
So the next slide that you have. All this is and it you also have a copy of this in your orange binder right in the end. There's a tab at the back that says just District assessment. So and these are the different assessments. You've probably heard us reference or your children have taken along [00:23:00] the left-hand column and then the middle who takes that assessment and when and then on the right hand side of the column and this speaks to the idea being data Savvy, how would we use this kind of information?
Um, I always remember a former superintendent saying you kind of have to have the hunter safety course with data, you know be really careful how you use it because the misuse of it to what you were saying director hides can do harm whereas the. The Helpful use of data can also do tremendously good things for a student in for a group of students.
So I will read through them all but you can see examples of a simple reading assessment at the top. And that just involves a teacher and a student sitting side by side using a formalized reading assessment tool hearing the student read and checking off the strategies of the teacher observes the students reading they get some training in how to do [00:24:00] that and it's a formative assessment now is the teacher I know the strategies the students using and it's going to inform my.
Instruction in the kind of text I could give a student map. The second one is a interim assessment. We can give it multiple times during the year. It's also aligned to our standards and to smarter balanced so that we have a tool where we can see some alignment their students who would do well on a map would have a lot of indicators that they be learning.
Towards also doing well on the smarter balanced assessment which is designed for the Common Core State Standards. So map has that kind of alignment to the Common Core.  All the way to an on-demand writing and that's like the common assessment that Renee was talking about we all agree. We're going to give the same prompt.
To the same group of students with the same parameters around it and having them use these same resources and they're going to do it [00:25:00] on task writing and then everybody sits around tables like this and they score the writing with a rubric and then they talk about how did students perform on this writing sample and what do we need to do differently to help students become more independent and more confident writers.
There's the SAT mentioned. There's smarter balanced the kindergarten assessment. That's that newer one that came about where right away as soon as kindergartners walk in. We're giving an assessment to see what kind of early learning early literacy and early numeracy students are coming to us with a lot of that data helps support support Early Learning funding and preschool experiences.
As well as giving teachers some places of Readiness. The dyslexia screener is newer you've heard about that from our staff around helping to see if there are students who need some support with taking a look at their reading needs and then of course by law, we [00:26:00] also have to have both a screener as well as an assessment to look at students who are learning.
Above grade level and at a different rate or depth of learning and I'm going to let dr. Soy sin supplement what I just said, I just saw that there's a bullet point that's left off on the kindergarten assessment. There's also an a category called approaches to learning and that's an assessment of children's self-regulation and interpersonal skills.
And so those will be assessed observation Ali and it's something that I'm only mentioning because. Of Interest now in looking at how social emotional learning engagement in school fits with academic progress and something that I know our district and many others are looking how do we continue to know how children are progressing in those areas that they call approaches to learning?
So we'll get you a corrected copy [00:27:00] because in addition to reading and Mathematics, it should say approaches to learning self-regulation and interpersonal skills. So what I would just say about this is these are formalized Assessments. In other words. They're designed to have the same questions.
Probably some level of standardized testing criteria. Meaning the teacher can't help the student. I mean, they're really designed in a structured way formalized way to get at the independent knowledge of the student around a set of parameters and similar questions teachers are using their own assessments that they design curriculum-based measures or curriculum designed all the time in addition to this when they give a pop quiz.
Or they do it check out on a task that three by five card or they write a test at the end of the unit some teachers decide there. They are going to use the pre and post [00:28:00] tests that come with the curriculum and when they do that, it is more of a common assessment because then they could compare with each other and see how their students did and do some collective learning but sometimes teachers.
Adapt and adjust their pre or post assessments to a unit. So these are more of the formalized assessments that we give so that their common and we can talk about the results but teachers are giving their own curriculum based measure or informal assessments all the time on top of this.
My brain was stuck on what you said. Dr. Tyson. Can you tell me again the name of the test? That's for self-regulation. It's a component of the kindergarten assessment and they call the overall category approaches to learning and there's a part that self-regulation and a part that's interpersonal skills.
And again, it's looked at just a beginning [00:29:00] Readiness assessment. That is dr. Ludwig said is actually meant to inform. How are we working? In the state of Oregon to see and prepare children to be ready for kindergarten. So it's only it's only for kindergarteners and this observation based. How long have we been doing that for years or years?
David says three it's three or four years, but it's relatively the state has put it in place and it's to look just at dr. Reynolds mentioned earlier on the interest in early childhood education. And that's one interest of the state is looking at the preparation level and what needs to be put into place.
Thank you. Is it state required or state developed? Both.
so
typical school board [00:30:00] meetings. Somebody comes addresses the board talks to you about data you listen, they ask you do you have any questions about the data and you may or may not but oftentimes the experiences? Board members look at the presenters kind of like the deer in the headlight look because they just don't have any idea what kind of questions they should even be asking of the data and of the people that are bringing it forward.
So that was my experience my nine and a half years on a board and when we would get the state that the annual state test back and they would bring us a bunch of charts and had all kinds of numbers and columns and in rows and. Give us an overview and then ask us. Okay, what are your questions and we didn't really know what to ask.
What's your experience here? What do you guys do? How do you guys typically get data?  Anyone? Yeah, go ahead. We often get data and during board [00:31:00] meetings. I mean my particular process is. When I haven't we get it in advance, so when I have questions, I see it in advance. I will then use that to send a message to my superintendent just saying hey during the meeting I could use a little more information around this or how do you feel you know, and I'll post my my wonderings about it in advance, but usually by the time the meeting comes if it's not already incorporated into the superintendents report.
They're prepared to answer it when I asked at the meeting. So it's a good practice that says the no surprises thing comes into play to I always recommend any questions about board packets ask ahead of time ask again at your meeting so that everybody can benefit from the answer. So, you know, we've tried Renee and different formats, but we've tried to give it context so it isn't just a lot of charts.
And so we've always folded it into our principles [00:32:00] presentations with their work plans so that there's large data sets by the district, but then as school board members are hearing from each principle, they're hearing about the application of we noticed in our data. Our third grade math or our ninth grade and with that data.
This is what we're doing. So there's a context to then looking at the data that then board members can interact with that principle and ask more questions about. What else are you do you notice something else about your data or what are you doing? So we've typically done that format in our district this year.
We did something different where instead of having all 16 principles come and present their work plans school board members went to three schools and interacted with the work plan the data that was nested within that to hear from the principal. What are you doing with the outcomes of that data, but we're always open to seeing.
Does just looking at lot of charts and graphs [00:33:00] get you what you need, you know, when we think about that leadership framework that what is it? That's really helpful at the board level. So we're open to you know feedback about how to make that more meaningful. Terrific what I think I perceive is.
I'm being told this data is significant to whomever if it's dr. Tyson or it's a particular building principal or structor Ludwig. They've already looked at the data drawn some conclusions and want to tell me what they're focused on and what they're doing as a result.
I would just add what I did find help because I agree with that analysis, but I did find helpful and thank you for reminding me of our process that we engaged in at the beginning of the year, but was helpful was [00:34:00] then when we did go to into those schools and you learned about what it was there trying to do an advanced then we got to go see the classrooms and then afterwards you get kind of.
Having discussion about how you saw what they had their plans of action actually materializing in the classroom. So it it did a lot to connect that data to real-world actions that before we would just have to kind of imagine what it looked like.  So then is this a process that you feel like will answer the questions that you had last August?
Are you still wanting to maybe flush it out a little bit more at a board level because there's this idea of having work sessions around analyzing the data so that. Yes, you can definitely talk about it in your business meetings and you should be talking about the level of student learning in your [00:35:00] business meetings.
And because that's your primary purpose. Why you exist in your the board of directors is you know, it's about student learning and so obviously that should be included in your business meetings, but when you want to get down into the data, Having work sessions where you actually dig down into it is an approach.
Some boards are using and here is a possible tool that was developed by the lighthouse researchers. And that tries to look at data from a board level and the kind of questions that boards might want to ask as you look at this tool. You'll see that there's some blank spaces on it the content standards.
So this tool could be used if you're looking at English language arts, mathematics science writing social studies, whatever content area might be of interest you would then identify what grade [00:36:00] levels are you're looking at when you are doing this. And then you would identify which assessments that you would be looking at and then in the column that's down the side.
They're on the left where it says proficiency data growth data subgroup data. Those are the questions that you as a board would need to identify. That hopefully we're going to talk about tonight that you would be able to identify. What are the questions that you want to ask of the data and by having that pre-identified for your stuff and then they can then pull what are those data pieces that are going to get that information for you?
Would it be the smarter balanced test or would it be some other District assessment how many of them would even be applicable to the content area that the board is looking at? I have used these chart this this form with other boards and have had sessions [00:37:00] where they did have a sheet of paper like that.
They had we mixed up at tables where we had staff and board members mixed together and we just met the information out piece by piece to try and answer each of one of these questions part of the feedback that I got from. Moments that I told you that I did this the other night when I showed this form, they said we would love to practice this and I didn't have any data for them to practice it on and so I did bring some data if we wanted if you guys wanted to spend a little bit of time doing that just to kind of practice what actually going to keep one of those.
Thanks what it would look like and so this is data. I just pulled very fast today out of smarter balanced from forecast five because I can access that I don't have any District data for you to look at and I only pulled in [00:38:00] English language arts look like you have a question. Going back going back to this question that I think I heard around.
What would be useful for us write this happening? What value do we hope to get out of this conversation? And you know, how are we currently using data? I will admit this is an area that I have grown. Tremendously in the past year or two and I realized I have a lot of growth still in front of me.
And so, you know, one of the things I'm really curious about is what data sources are most useful to our administrators. I agree that the learning walk through the school was really useful to see you know, what are they looking for? And how are they looking for it? But I you know, I am curious to what degree I mean is smarter balanced.
Is it worth it to us to dive into this? I mean is this what data sources is the most useful to our staff at [00:39:00] and then are we all ready and in what ways are we linking moves that were making? To that data, you know do we know that when we add positions or if we add counseling staff or you know, if we add iaas what data source are we looking at to measure the results of those for example hiring move?
So I'm curious to know are we doing that? Do we want to do that? How would we do that? And mostly I take this approach just out of curiosity for my own learning and. Measuring you know moves long term. So that's something I'm curious about. I'm not sure if I'm hitting the Mark I would say I think you're hitting the mark exactly right on and asking those questions in a session like this.
I saw your superintendent was writing this down because they want to know what's of importance to you and then they can tell you hey, we use this we use that we use the other thing. Yes, mr. Fitch because it links [00:40:00] back to other decisions we make. So if we know what is important in terms of data to dr.
Ludwig and what she's trying to do to move the data if it's a higher of an IA or whatever then we know. When it comes to budget to say we can see why you're adding that staff or how your decided not to add stuff there because the data didn't support that move or you didn't see it making a difference.
So for me I'm with you that those are the questions I'd like to ask because they inform our bigger decisions. In our support of doctor Ludwig's.  Dr. Anna's so at some point. I'm more interested in process than the specific, you know drilling [00:41:00] down to specific types of data and the process is to set a baseline then through the budget process.
This is board level work. We find out what the Baseline is. We align our resources to our goals established goals align our resources to goals and that also includes identifying programs and policies that we might impact and that would feed into the budget process and then we monitor progress as we go along.
So, dr. Mudd would could let us know how we're doing and then we make adjustments so. I just see the specific types of data as kind of a subset of kind of one small piece of it and I was very pleased to hear you talk about modifying the sequence so [00:42:00] that the that early that there's schools would be developing work plans as early as June.
But it to me, they're just so many moving parts that fit in to setting goals establishing Baseline setting goals in very early in the year monitoring and then making adjustments to the budget process and evaluating results at the end. So that's the sequence one of the reasons we can move it earlier is because we have map data.
Smarter balanced doesn't come till later. And so everybody pushes it out. And then sometimes it ends up being a compliance piece. And when you asked I think both of you what feels most meaningful to teachers and forms of data that's going to inform and change instruction. You know, that's where our common Assessments in our.
And our map data and [00:43:00] those kind of internal tools that we have access to all the time and we can manipulate the timeline to some degree but get very reliable data and map has a very strong reliability a lot of Integrity with its of liability. It's been around for years and it's it's calibrated often as a tool and so it's got a real strong.
Reliability factor to it. And so it is one of those that because it's an internal tool teachers feel even more comfortable using it and increasingly becoming better at reading and analyzing the data to inform their instruction. I think too in terms of what data is most important. I'm going to go back to something that director hides said at the did at the beginning about wanting to know to be able to look at the big picture.
Here's the data that we look at and what context smarter balanced is a big picture. [00:44:00] It's a state big picture and it's a national big picture and certainly as a school system with College and Career Readiness and post K12 learning. We want to look at that, but it's designed to look. Add overall programs and practices and when you see cohorts of children the whole go through you're not going to make day-to-day instructional decisions based on that so that led to how we look at an interim.
Assessment just as dr. Ludwig described and you want one that predicts its predictive of those results and NWA map happens to be the it has the largest database in the United States in terms of the validity and the checking to see does this item actually measure. The standard and they have a process for doing that but yet the day-to-day those dra reading assessments.
[00:45:00] That's what a teacher is going to use in the classroom because you don't even want to wait till you take a map assessment to find out children's progress and what they're doing the other thing that's become increasingly important as assessment is having measures that have a way to show you growth.
And achievement at the same time that the state gives us the results for smarter balanced to see that but nwea map every child has a growth Target based on that. So that's a way for us to see pace of learning and progress of learning because learnings complex. So I think we'd be more comfortable saying that it's not just one assessment that that we would prefer but it's the combination and how we use them together in the whole assessment system.
I think that's that's important for us and to make sure that we show you how we got there. You know when we get to smarter balanced so the [00:46:00] maps would I've heard that and. Get that with it as much measuring growth and achievement. We can measure individual students and cohorts and I mean, it sounds like just an amazing data source.
And what is the best data source for measuring the the overarching moves programming or hiring moves or think that bigger picture outside of individual student for the cohort? Do we have a data source that. For this information District level.  You know, I think we'd suggest that you asked us to show you something more robust than just a single data source for that to say and to show it over time.
To say what we invest in especially when we make our decisions about professional learning. We don't look just at the smarter balanced scores at the end of the year. You usually have to work backwards. Usually the larger the assessment. Roll, it has like a summative assessment then you [00:47:00] say so what are your next questions?
How do you work backwards? How did we get here? And that's when you look at particular groups of students. That's when you look at each one of those assessments has domains within it and parts within it and we look at that as well. So for example in English language arts, what about vocabulary acquisition and.
Use of language as opposed to reading informational text, you know, you might see that within that one score one part of the program. So we would use that if we were looking at a part of our program. So for example for our English language Learners absolutely looking at that vocabulary acquisition, that's a programmatic piece.
We've made some shifts in what we are emphasizing because of that. Data, but I don't think I could say that we just look at one, you know, we usually back it up.  And [00:48:00] I never intended to be one. I brought one if we if we were going to practice but I never want to give the impression that I think this is the end all be all and it's the only piece of data for you to look at.
It was just an opportunity to practice if we are going to practice. Dr. Reynolds. I know we're talking about assessment data. But I think there are the department of Ed collects in the report cards and all districts throughout the state submit other key indicators of performance including ninth grade on track.
Well, you know, of course Ela and math scores but attendance ninth grade on track graduation rates, so, you know, I hope that with that as a group. Dylan has said, you know the bigger picture data sources that are readily available. So I have a question for you. Dr. Reynolds. When you say a baseline.
[00:49:00] I have a few things bouncing in my head is that like we want all of our students to graduate with the eighth grade reading proficiency is that we want to have X number of students. Or a percentage graduating when you say Baseline help me understand what you're thinking. I'm actually thinking I think what you're describing our goals, but the Baseline is just once we determine goals, you know, where are you?
Actually, it's where are we? How are we doing right now? What's our Baseline data so that we can know whether or not we've grown. Does that make sense and it to know where you need to set goals? So if I were to what's-her-name morning and say to you what percent of your students are currently on track to graduate or what percent of your students are currently succeeding at their grade level.
Could you as a board say that with some kind of [00:50:00] specificity? Oh, yeah, we have. You know 80% of our ninth graders are on track or whatever the case may be to know then what your this is where we are and based on this is where we are by the measures that are important to us that here in West Linn Wilsonville.
We value and give credit to based on those measures. This is where we are. And then now this is where we want to go. I think is that a way to describe this line. So in terms of that process we do exactly what doctor. It was describing in our district work plan, which you can see in that tab, you'll see the yellow is last year's with the results in it.
It always has the Baseline where students are it has a. Percentage goal and then reporting on that result. And then again this year's so that process of Baseline make sure you align resources to the goals. Make sure your programs and practices are in place to meet those [00:51:00] goals and monitor. The progress does happen with the school work plans.
It happens with the district work plan if the board is wanting to develop something on their own. Whether that's an isolation or with us, you know, I think I'm trying to figure out what the ask is there. But I think I'm hearing ultimately we want to support. What's happening for student learning?
So how it connects to the district plan and the school work plan teachers go. You know again, that's that framework that I showed right at the beginning. Where's the alignment so that they're all connected and everybody can speak to the goals and speak to the resources and the priorities right?
Well and just possibly up small refresher might be helpful because. Yeah, I just Betty nobody's disagreeing with your process that you are describing. But I think our purpose here this evening was more directed by.  Well in part you have been an advocate of [00:52:00] data, you know, and for two years discussing your forecast five and how we need to utilize this tool and I think the question that asked raise for your fellow pool.
Board members was we're not opposed to using that tool, but we want to make sure we're using it right and so we're taking a step back tonight from the process so that we can understand the role that data plays in informing parts of the process. So I think your ask is already being met and agreed to by our board.
It's just we needed more information about the role of data that we have a better understanding. Of all parts of the process we have this might be a tool to help you and it might not be a tool to help you. It's just a suggestion of a way for you to organize the data when you do see it so that you know, About what percentage of your students are proficient may or may not be a question that the West Linn Wilsonville board [00:53:00] wants to ask a variety of data points, you know in any content area and so you could be looking at.
Form like this to kind of guide your conversation. And so they keep you from getting off down rabbit trails and keep you getting too deep into the Weeds about what's teacher X doing and you know in her Elementary School to make to you know, learning happen that's certainly not the role of the board.
But to have a good sense of what's happening district-wide and then perhaps at the various schools that you might represent to be able then, you know in your role as a board member if you're representing. Tools to be able to speak with some measure of specificity perhaps, you know depends on how far you want to take it and so these questions that you have in front of you on that form came from the people that created the lighthouse research when they were very first working with boards and trying to figure out.
Do boards have a role to play [00:54:00] in a leadership role to play in student learning and if they do, what is it? And one of the things that they came up with role of the board is this analyzing board data rather or student learning data rather than simply receiving a report around student learning data.
So they these were some of the questions that they came up with and the idea was that if a board. Through a series of work sessions have whatever is of meaning to you to review the various content that students are expected to learn and to kind of have a good sense of where you are how your students are performing through these analysis you would have a variety of.
A set of these and then the you could put them all together you want it? I have a copy to summarize them all together with the same questions, but this would be your you would look at your math paper you look at your English language [00:55:00] arts and so on and so forth and then you would come to some kind of a conclusion to then as a board.
You would be able to say with some measure of specificity. Yeah. This is where we are. This is this is the level of. By our students and we know that because we have spent, you know time really going through the data that's of meaning to the district and meaningful to us, but these might not be the questions that you want to ask of your data.
And so it's important for you to ask questions that you want to ask and so we also have prepared for you. A list of questions of boards typically want to ask of data and this is not the end all be all. But this is just a bang questions. Oops hitting the microphone. I apologize Kelly a bank of questions that are board level kinds of questions.
That [00:56:00] might spark your guys's thinking to inform you what's meaningful for us here in West Linn, Wilsonville. What do we want to ask the data? And then once you've identified what you want to know about the data, then the team can go to work. And pull that for you and then you can have a work session where you can use this form or not.
But with your questions down the side and they can pull the various pieces of data that are going to help answer those questions for you. And then you can have some robust discussion and conversation with your educational professionals and kind of really dig down in that and if each one of you as an individual board member is filling out your form.
About what you're seeing in the data what the data is telling you for the questions that you're looking at in you're getting expert help from your professionals then you can come together. And have a conversation around [00:57:00] the conclusions that you draw collectively as a board and then those conclusions then we'll inform you to your next set of decision making and where you want to go.
You've seen this form before I believe this is how we see the role of the board. And so any area that you are discussing whether it's going to be hiring of additional staff as one of the. The questions that you brought up Chelsea that you would want the data to help inform you of decisions or whether you're doing some goal setting is as you talked about and you would want the data to help inform you that area being discussed could be.
Listed in that line that's their blank and as a tool then as a board, you can say well if we're going to set a goal of student achievement growth through the use of high level instructional strategies that raise rigor and generate Equitable outcomes for all students while [00:58:00] eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps.
So perhaps that's the area being. As a board, you could then say well if we do that, what are our greatest hopes of by doing this? What is it that we want for students? What do we think is going to happen if we do that and then it might raise questions that you have and things that you would want to learn.
What does it mean you might say? What does it mean to generate Equitable outcomes? I don't know. I just saw those words. So the ones that my eyes caught on but you might have questions like that at from a board level and then you would identify. What are those board-level supports in like authorizing hiring of new people or not, you know some new curriculum or I mean identify those things and then you would put together a plan.
Okay, how are we going to measure that so let me. So I have some questions that I would put along side. You might have it helped what process do we want to use at this point to figure them out [00:59:00] as a board. Do we want to use a flip chart?  We want each to make our own oats. Can I just just clarification out for me?
My questions depend on what is what I'm trying to find out. Well, if I want to know how our certain subgroup is performing in Reading that's going to inform the questions I asked right so I have the high level like for instance. I put where do we see systemic drops and proficiency proficiency, meaning meaning grade-level expectations?
Like that's one of my questions. So are you just across all categories all levels of learning everywhere like math science reading like or would to me it seems more effective to focus on an area. Engage in questions on that once we learn there then we would move on to what about mathematics [01:00:00] and then you also have primary versus middle versus high school.
I just write it. So I'm just asking a process question yet and I am too I think I'm just how do we want to proceed from here in identifying our question? I
think it depends on what our goal is for this evening. I mean if we want our outcome to be that we have a set of questions that were likely to ask when we're presented with data, then I think we could take that turn and B and set forward a list of questions. I think if our goal is to engage in.
Learning and data analysis together in practice and we would probably engage in this and do a look learning cycle of learning kind of thing. I'm comfortable with either of those but it's a different order. We should go back to what we were hoping our outcome would be thank our ultimate up old outcome when we met and plan.
This [01:01:00] session was to be able to come up with a definition of Student Success for you as a board to be able to I mean that was the ultimate for the night and I was just kind of going through some processes that you might use other than at tonight, you know that the data analysis process. That you might use but I'm certainly which is the first question on this.
Well the. Yeah, that's the first question on this Learning Bank. Yeah, absolutely. And this blue wall over here behind you where I have some notes on it was to it's right there others and looks like dr. Ludwig is wants to say something and I think part of my my desire. I know that you all are entrenched in data all the time.
And so my I'm looking all so I'm curious about that interface and how this the board serve. You and using this. I mean I will just say and then I'll stop talking. I am [01:02:00] particularly interested in this growth data and what's happening with our highest performing students and our lowest performing students.
And are we moving that whole Chunk Up that's a section that I'm interested in as far as going back to what you're talking about. What questions are we interested in that one speaks to me.
Write my thoughts. Oh sure. Um.  I think we've been given some tools. I wouldn't mind engaging if we have the ability in a small exercise just roughly using these tools. And then what I see as do is going forward the next time, you know, we're receiving data information. I'm from or with our Super Nintendo game changing in some learning.
Then I would love for us to then be able to use these tools to help us our level of understanding the next time.  [01:03:00] You're presented with data.  I'm not certain. It's as useful in this moment to just pick out. So here's a question. If I may interject a process possible process that you might want to use so I think you need time.
To read and digest these and would suggest that you take it home and you read through it. And any of these that really have meaning to you Circle them in some fashion. And then I think that you could send your responses to however whatever process you typically use here. Whether it's directly to dr.
Ludwig or to Kelly, you know, I'm not sure what your typical process is, but say. You know, I'm interested in question 3 question 10 question 24 or come up with your own question and then she can compile them and then as a board you can say well there was a lot of interest around question 3 or [01:04:00] whatever the case may be just as a process tonight to kind of get you moving because I don't think that you're going to really have time tonight.
Yeah exhortation really from my point of view was. There are a lot of questions that can be asked about data and as a board, you're going to need to collectively decide what you want to ask of them. Dr. Logan wants to talk and then.