Data Use Training & Coaching

When the dialogue about school effectiveness is driven by important questions about student performance, school staff will ask for more extensive data on factors that affect student success. Clearly focused questions (we call these “Essential Questions”) become a key stimulus for involving school teams in a structured collaborative inquiry process that engages everyone who has a stake in student success to look deeply at student progress and the effects of school policies, beliefs, programs, and practices on student performance.

    1. If educators begin by asking the right questions; and
    2. Collect the right data to help answer those questions; and
    3. Convert that information to knowledge using current research and shared experience; and
    4. Use what was learned from the data to take action to improve systems, programs, and classroom
         instruction; then
    5. We will see increased student learning and improved student achievement.

To facilitate the work of leadership/data teams, PCG Education provides examples of Essential Questions that are tied to an examination of equity, program effectiveness, and continuous improvement. We find that most Essential Questions can be broken down into 4 large categories:

    1. Questions about educational context
    2. Questions about student engagement
    3. Questions about student achievement
    4. Questions about student, parent, and faculty perceptions

 Questions that combine data to cut across these categories are the most powerful in getting to the root cause, that is, the problem that must be addressed in order to see improvements in systems, programs, classroom instruction, and ultimately in student outcomes.

• The critical role of leadership in building data quality, capacity, and culture
• Overcoming barriers and resistance to data use
• Creating structures that support collaboration and communication
• Formulating researchable Essential Questions
• Developing assessment and data literacy
• Utilizing protocols for structuring data use conversations
• Building a data overview
• Conducting inquiry-focused, data-driven faculty meetings
• Looking at student work
• Examining instruction
• Developing data-driven action plans

• A yearlong professional development workshop series
• On-site data coaching and co-facilitation for leadership teams and data teams
• Weeklong data institutes
• Daylong targeted data leadership workshops

PCG Education's professional development is designed for school and district instructional teams, data teams, instructional coaches, data coaches, administrators, and teacher leaders. Our ultimate goal is to build the capacity of district and school personnel to lead and facilitate the use of data for continuous improvement.