Data
Value the use of data as the starting point for professional work.
Artifact: EDTEC 540 ISD Assignment
Related Artifacts:
Context
During the summer of 2004, I was one of sixteen teachers in Montgomery County, Virginia teaching middle school students in summer school. Before the students arrived, the principal gave us a handout explaining that she wanted all teachers to use what she had termed “power lessons.” After the first week of class, the principal was experiencing difficulty getting any of the teachers to comply with her request. The principal assumed the teachers were just being insubordinate. She had planned a set of incentives and punishments in order to motivate the staff, but I suggested she allow me to conduct a needs assessment first to see if there may be another cause to the problem. The needs assessment revealed it was a knowledge problem, not a motivation problem, and this artifact, a staff development course with lesson plan and job aid, was created to help the summer school staff apply the “power lesson” procedures for the remainder of the summer school session.
Demonstrating the Standard
This was my first EDTEC class, and as a teacher, I made most of my decisions based on my instincts and personal experiences. They had served me well up to this point so I saw little use for data of any kind. But because it was required for EDTEC 540, I went through the process of creating and conducting surveys and interviews with the summer school staff. To my surprise, the results of my needs assessment revealed that the teachers didn’t need more motivation at all. The interviews I conducted revealed that none of the 16 teachers could define a power lesson and as a result, they were not teaching power lessons. The surveys and interviews also revealed that some sort of job aid would be helpful not only in creating power lessons, but also implementing them on a daily basis.
With this information, I created two job aids and tested their use for a week with three teachers. All three of them said it was helpful and made suggestions to make it even more effective. Changes were made and by the fourth week of the summer school session, the job aids were being used effectively by all 16 teachers. As a result, the principal’s goals of improved behavior and academic achievement were both met.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to collect appropriate data and analyze that data to make effective decisions in developing solutions to performance problems. My data collection and analysis ultimately saved the principal time and money, and it revealed to me the importance of data collection and analysis in my decision making. The job aid and related training course I created have gone through many revisions over the last five years, but they are still being used with great success every summer.
Challenges / Opportunities
“Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” – Jesus
This was my first experience teaching teachers, and it brought to mind this famous saying. Simply because I was one of their own, some teachers were reluctant to work with me. The summer school staff included teachers from many different schools and many of us did not know each other when the summer session started. When gathering information, I surprisingly found it easier to get information from teachers I did not know. Some of the more reluctant teachers later revealed to me that they had been teaching summer school for many years and did not initially like the idea of changing their teaching methods, especially since it seemed like it was coming from me.
Time constraints made collecting data a challenge. Trying to come up with the right questions in a short period of time was very difficult. I only had a weekend to prepare my survey and interview questions because the principal needed change to occur quickly and there was an already scheduled staff meeting the following week.
Personal Growth
This experience showed me that I cannot always rely on my instincts alone when making decisions. I learned that I had a lot to learn and became hungry for more information. I was never much of a reader before this experience but began reading books, online resources, and research articles that were not course required texts. This was my first real experience with data-driven actions, and it helped to lay the foundation for the rest of my work in the EDTEC program and in my career. As a teacher, I started looking at all the decisions I was making in my classroom and began finding ways to collect and analyze data in order to be more effective.
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