PCG is organizing a series of training session for schools.

Public Consulting Group invites you to take part in our new training program: Internal Evaluation based on Effective Data Use Methods that consists of 6 one-day sessions.

PCG offers:

• In-depth analysis of educational data and an effective diagnosis of the identified problem
• Formulating an improvement strategy and a work plan
• Evaluating the effectiveness of implemented changes
• Support in the internal evaluation process and school management.

During the consecutive sessions, based on the data available at your school, the participating school directors and teachers will analyze and think through a chosen problematic area. In their school, they will diagnose the causes of the issues, and plan an improvement strategy based on the collected data.

Training participants will be guided by experienced experts in going through the process of solving the identified problems. PCG’s specialists will provide individual support and expertise to build competences of the participating school teams.

For more information about our training program, please contact us by phone +48 2908 224 or through email:  amastalerz@pcgeu.com

Data Use Services

Effective use of data can provide school leaders with valuable insights for making strategic decisions about school performance that ultimately result in improved student outcomes. We introduce an outcome-oriented approach based on data-driven decision making principals to leverage a variety of student and school data to help effectively diagnose supportive and restraining factors of student progress: external exam data, educational value-added data, internal and external evaluation data, etc. To establish a sustainable culture of data use and support a systemic aproach to school improvement, PCG offers schools proven data use models, tools, processes, and methodologies:

• Data Use Survey – assessing the level of data use in schools
• Data Use Report – providing analysis of current data use practices
• Data Use Course – training on using data for school improvement
• Data Use Consulting and Coaching – providing guidance and support on incorporating data use practices into school decision making processes

The services listed above have been developed and piloted as part of the project "DATAUSE: Using Data for Improving School and Student Performance" (www.datauseproject.eu). The project aims to improve educational outcomes by helping school leaders develop capacity for using data and establish a vision for connecting datause to improved educational outcomes and connecting datause to supporting student's instructional needs. The project is being developed in cooperation with partners from Germany, UK, Lithuania and the Netherlands and wtih financial support from the European Commission as part of the Comenius/Lifelong Learning Programme. It started in November 2010 and ends in October 2012. The project milestones include:

• Conducting research on data use in 5 EU countries and developing Data Use Theory of Action
  
• Establishing data use governance structures in schools
  
• Diagnosing schools ability to use data effectively
  
• Providing data use professional development
  
• Disseminating best practices across all stakeholder levels

Data Use Survey – assessing the level of data use in schools

The survey is designed to help assess the strengths and weaknesses within a school in terms of readiness and ability to make use of their educational data. It is built on a set of key performance indicators organized within the framework of the Data Use Theory of Action.

The Data Use Theory of Action

The Data Use Theory of Action recognizes policy as the major influence on data use in schools. School policies affect each of the following foundations for effective data use by either enabling or erecting barriers to them:

• the organization (e.g. availability of data use expertise, teacher collaboration time assigned for data use),
  
• the data (e.g. accessibility, quality) and
  
• the users (e.g. knowledge, skills and attitudes)
  

School policies impact how extensively, if at all, school personnel use data to inform their decisions. The Data Use Theory of Action identifies three types of data-driven decision making:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• for school development (e.g.: policy development, teacher professional development, flexible groupings),
  
• for accountability purposes (e.g.: meeting legal demands, communication with stakeholders) and
  
• for instructional development (e.g.: monitoring progress, adjusting instruction).
  If data are used for these different purposes, this may lead to stakeholder learning (e.g. teachers, school leaders, parents). For example, a teacher might decide to make instructional changes based on data (data-driven decisions). This leads to improved instruction by the teacher (outcome: teacher stakeholder learning). Stakeholder learning in turn may lead to student learning (e.g. inquiry of students into their own learning and improved student achievement).

Data Use Report – providing analysis of current data use practices

Data Use Report provides an analysis of current data use practices to facilitate collaborative discussion around the data and also provide a basis for the school to develop concrete and appropriate actions that can be taken to address identified areas of need.The report analysis is an important first step in the process of establishing a schoolwide culture of data use. The Data Use Report captures the schools areas of strength as well as areas for improvement under key data use categories as depicted in the graphic below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Training on using data for school improvement

The Data Use Course provides valuable materials, templates, tools and activities that help build capacity within school-based teams to establish a culture of utilizing data to inform decisions about policy, programs, and instructional practice. It is designed to build the capacity of school Professional Learning Communities to use data and for them to them build the capacity of teachers throughout the school to better use their data. The benefits for each school taking the data use course include:

• practicing the process of data collection and analysis to solve school problems through problem identification, root cause analysis, action planning, initiative implementation and monitoring, and evaluation
  
• developing a professional school-based team proficient in data use
  
• applying data use principles to address priority issues identified by the school

 

Data Use Consulting and Coaching – providing guidance and support to incorporate data use practices into school decision making processes.

PCG works closely with educators to organize, analyze, and use data to make informed decisions that support student success. PCG consults with schools on how data can be used to formulate appropriate and effective education policy and to measure the effectiveness of programs and instructional interventions. PCG provides advice on how data can be used to measure individual student progress, guide the development of curriculum, determine appropriate allocation of resources, and report progress to the community. PCG has developed the theory of action to help guide educators through the process of inquiry and action from formulating essential questions to analyzing data to taking action and measuring impact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each of the steps in the cycle is described below.