Plan-Do-Study-Act

The Deming Model, developed in the 1920's, has evolved to the PDSA model (shown below) that we use for continuous improvement. Our district uses this cycle for school improvement. Plan - Do - Study - Act. For initiatives to actually work, a cycle of planning, doing, studying what has been done and acting to make revisions to the process must be completed over and over again. Status quo is not acceptable at any stage.

Each school has begun to embrace data use by teachers to drive instructional practice. This shift was necessary prior to data implementation with our students. Our district has made data easily available for teacher use and provided PD for three years prior to SDF implementation.

The schools Building Leadership Teams (BLT) comprised of the Principal, union representative and elected teachers developed an initial plan. Teachers were surveyed on the types of data which should be included in the SDFs. Communication occurred regularly with stakeholders at weekly meetings regarding the processes, types of data, format of folders, etc.
 * Planning -**

The goal of the SDFs was to empower students. By quantifying their own strengths and weaknesses, establishing academic goals to address weaknesses and then creating action plans and identifying resources, students take control of their own learning.

It was determined that SDFs would be implemented at the beginning of third quarter. SDFs were set up to contain trend OAA/OGT data, SMART goal worksheets, Plus/Delta worksheet and labeled to identify the students' core teachers and advisory period or homebase. One school also included extensive reading data including information regarding the students' comprehension, fluency and decoding.

Planning allowed for expansion of the SDFs to include behavior data et al at a later date. High School students included tutoring logs as well. The tutoring logs identified the date of tutoring, the benchmark or standards being addressed in tutoring and the person conducting the tutoring.

Data lessons are created and saved to each school's network to allow access from any school computer. Some lessons are modeled for teachers at staff meetings to provide support and allow for questions. Videos, presentations and handouts are provided to teachers for student use.

Accountability is built into the program by having the folders kept in centralized locations (by cluster or small school) and random sampling to review lesson completeness. Teachers could also ask for help from peers to complete lessons and extended time was provided to complete complex tasks.

Materials were purchased from school funds and included: labels, folders, metal prongs, and two-hole punch.The schools' ETT created/adapted worksheets for the students; trained teachers and students on the construction of the folders; and organized them by homebase/advisory and cluster. Labels for each student were provided with name, district ID, home address, phone number and parent contact.
 * Do**

Lessons began with the construction of folders by students. Students were allowed to decorate the folders to make them their own. Using the Plus/Delta worksheet, students were encouraged to identify one strength and one weakness from their trend OAA (formerly OAT) data. The following week students were taught about SMART goals using a video and then wrote a SMART goal to address the identified weakness. The following week students created action steps to help them meet their SMART goal.

Lessons followed which allowed students to see data in different ways including pie charts and bar graphs. Additionally, students were asked to revisit the action plan and SMART goal to see if they were on target to meet their goals. Before standardized testing, students were asked to create a second SMART goal addressing preparation for the tests.

During the remainder of the year students will learn about the district and school demographic data and self reflect on the work completed in the SDFs. After self reflections are completed, SDFs will be collected and distributed to next year's teachers. This means that some will move to the the high school and others will simply move up a grade. New data will be added before the beginning of next school year.

Teachers will also complete a reflection on SDF implementation. A survey will be completed and suggestions for revisions to the SDF process will collected. SDFs will be used again next year. Lessons will commence within the first two weeks of school. Organization will occur prior to the start of the school year.
 * Study**

There were challenges. For example, groups of students did not necessarily belong to the same cluster or small school. Unique symbols were created to identify the teacher's group of students.

One of the schools implemented a number of new initiatives at their school this year. Teachers voiced concerns over the number of new procedures implemented during the school year. There were also concerns regarding whether or not the folders would be used by high schools. The receiving school was provided input regarding the data and is aware of SDFs. The BLT in that school is prepared to use SDFs in the fall. Additionally, as we prepare for next year we wanted as much information as possible from incoming students. Elementary schools have been contacted and asked to provide data for next year's student population. A data coach position was written into a grant. Once the grant award is announced, this one person can work with feeder schools and the receiving high school to ensure the use of SDFs at all school levels.

A few teachers didn't follow through with data lessons citing inoperable computers and/or projectors. All data lessons were designed for delivery thorugh the network. To meet this challenge short-term, teachers shared rooms and completed multiple lessons each week to catch up.

The year draws to an end and many of the participants at the MS have reflected on the SDF project this year. SDF lessons were completed weekly in homebase. Teachers found that this allowed too little time to complete the activities. Additionally, teachers suggested that the lessons should be modeled consistently either by a peer coach, videos created and uploaded to the network or other means. A suggestion has been made to have the SDF lessons completed in ELA classes to ensure enough time. These courses are blocked and have more time to complete. Lessons will also start at the beginning of the year to increase familiarity for both teachers and students and ultimately improve student motivation to learn.
 * Act**

Each school began planning (May 2010) for the 2010-11 school year. The planning process occurred through the last few weeks of school and over the summer to ensure that next year we could build on our successes and learn from our failures.
 * Planning**

The process appears more difficult then we first thought. One of the high schools was closed due to budget cuts. A second school didn't implement with fidelity across the board. The third school, a middle school, doesn't use the SDFs in all classes. They do however use the SDFs with greater rigor in the ELA departments. There students are tested on reading level, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. The students chart their own growth, create goals to make improvement and work diligently. Data indicates that these students have demonstrated tremendous growth in just one year especially in the area of vocabulary.
 * Progress Monitoring #1**

Other schools are now beginning to exam what has worked and what has not as they begin to implement their own SDF programs in the district. We will continue to grow and learn, study and act to make sure that students have the best advantages to learn!

The entire district has implemented Teacher Based Teams to begin to really use data to drive instruction. As is typical in districts where reform is implemented, some buildings, or even TBTs within buildings, are speed boats. TBTs use the Five Step Protocol developed with ODE. The protocol is delineated on a new page on this wiki (5 STEP). Of course there are still those who need further help and those who have not embraced the concepts. The district will continue to support TBTs at all levels with the goal of differentiating instruction.
 * Progress Monitoring #2**

Additionally, in the summer of 2012, the Curriculum Department began work with [|Authentic Education]for the [|ToledoLearn] project. This work supports data analysis and will hopefully continue to pushed down to the student level, not directly a part of their intiative. Discussions with teachers who began this process with me will be shared by them. Some continue in their classrooms, others now serve the district as Data Faciliators or other teacher roles on special assignment. I moved to the Curriculum Department as an adminstrator over a year ago. These new roles will help us to build on this project from different perspectives.