If there were three letter words in schools, DDI might be considered one of them. Data Driven Instruction is a complex process. In NY, DDI was one of the deliverables (according to EngageNY) from last year. I attended some training on it and certainly did some reading on it (Leverage Leadership, Driven by Data to be exact -- both by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo). DDI can be seen as a "hot topic" or bad word at times because it is difficult to implement immediately and without a plan. I was a brand new principal last year (not new to administration but new to the building level) and was focusing more energy on APPR and CCLS than I could on DDI. I probably should not admit that in print but would be foolish to pretend otherwise.
This year has been different. I have had the privilege of working with some nearby colleagues on a shared project around DDI. It has been helpful to hear and read their stories of implementing DDI. Last week, we met via Google Drive/GHO to sketch out our upcoming presentation. We have to present the DDI projects from each of our schools. Their ideas help me refine the ideas I have about the process in my own school. Each of our projects looks very different -- as they should.
In my school, we are trying to meet regularly. We have an assessment calendar we are using for STAR testing in ELA and Math. We have an amazing TA that has accepted responsibility for running and creating the STAR reports we need for the meetings. She is our in house expert! Those results are reviewed by teams and our AIS department. We use some of that information to monitor how students are doing in classes. Teachers provide the additional, critical information (attendance, behavior, academic) they have on these students. (We are clear no one piece of data can give the whole picture on any student ---or anyone for that matter.) We are also charting our data trying to keep track of it on a whole group level. We have used that data to set building and grade level goals. Our next step will be to consistently select common instructional strategies to be used across the grade level. We have done this sporadically this year but could take the next step to tie an actual result indicator to it. We still have some work to do with DDI implementation in my school. Like most other initiatives, we are dealing with it in bite sized, meaningful pieces.
If you have successfully implemented DDI in your school, I'd love to hear from you. The best ideas come from each other.
This year has been different. I have had the privilege of working with some nearby colleagues on a shared project around DDI. It has been helpful to hear and read their stories of implementing DDI. Last week, we met via Google Drive/GHO to sketch out our upcoming presentation. We have to present the DDI projects from each of our schools. Their ideas help me refine the ideas I have about the process in my own school. Each of our projects looks very different -- as they should.
In my school, we are trying to meet regularly. We have an assessment calendar we are using for STAR testing in ELA and Math. We have an amazing TA that has accepted responsibility for running and creating the STAR reports we need for the meetings. She is our in house expert! Those results are reviewed by teams and our AIS department. We use some of that information to monitor how students are doing in classes. Teachers provide the additional, critical information (attendance, behavior, academic) they have on these students. (We are clear no one piece of data can give the whole picture on any student ---or anyone for that matter.) We are also charting our data trying to keep track of it on a whole group level. We have used that data to set building and grade level goals. Our next step will be to consistently select common instructional strategies to be used across the grade level. We have done this sporadically this year but could take the next step to tie an actual result indicator to it. We still have some work to do with DDI implementation in my school. Like most other initiatives, we are dealing with it in bite sized, meaningful pieces.
If you have successfully implemented DDI in your school, I'd love to hear from you. The best ideas come from each other.
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