Giving Compass' Take:

• Michelle Berkeley shares six learnings about building impactful data culture from Sarasota County Schools.

• How can funders work to support schools that want to use data more effectively? 

• Learn more about improving data culture in schools. 

To be data-driven takes intention and commitment. Curriculum Associates (CA), the fastest growing edtech company in the country, has partnered with Sarasota County Schools and is a key asset to the strong data culture and success of the district overall. CA programs, such as i-Ready®, provide educators and administrators with data-rich assessments and instructional resources. Sarasota is a successful demonstration of a data-informed district that measures progress in real-time and responds by tailoring instruction to the needs of its students.

Recently, leaders from Sarasota Schools and representatives from Curriculum Associates shared the following hallmarks:

1. Be transparent. A key to acting transparently is to develop a cultural belief that data belongs to everyone in the community.

2. Involve all stakeholders in striving for growth. To track growth, Sue Meckler, Director of Middle School Education, shares that Laurel Nokomis, the only K-8 school in the county, uses CA’s i-Ready diagnostic tests three times per year and gets teachers, students, families, and the community invested in the process through encouragement, communication, and celebration of school-wide and grade-level goals that focus on growth.

3. Schedule time for regular data use. When teachers are intentional in making time for regular data use, they make better use of their instructional minutes with students.

4. Take an intentional, structured approach to differentiation and remediation. Differentiation and remediation are structured by determining which students need additional support or practice, and which students are ready for enrichment.

5. Infuse a data-driven mindset into school practices. Regarding the development of data-driven mindsets, Meckler and Wasserman note the importance of making sure teachers understand why they are collecting data and use it for purposeful and intentional lesson planning.

6. Provide support and professional development. With the use of data, support, and PD, resources can be targeted to address areas of real need.

Read the full article about building data culture in schools by Michelle Berkeley at Getting Smart.