Cleveland Municipal School District
Cleveland Municipal School District has turned around the quality of education in the district by focusing on fiscal responsibility and improving education at the elementary and middle schools, using frequent, relevant data for more direct instruction.
About Cleveland Municipal School District
Cleveland Municipal School District is a large urban district with more than 120 schools over 69,000 students, and approximately 8,500 full-time employees. In 1998, under the leadership of district CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett, the district launched the “Educating Cleveland’s Children” initiative to transform the troubled school system. The first step was financial order followed by a transformation of elementary and middle schools into more effective, personalized K-8 neighborhood schools. The district also launched a building campaign to update facilities and build new schools. The final piece, a high school re-design, began in 2003 with a $2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and KnowledgeWorks Foundation.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Starting the Process
In 1999, the district had plenty of test data on mainframes without access for school and district decision makers. They moved data to a compatible data warehouse and made it available to schools in common productivity software applications. In some Cleveland schools a technology professional developer supports the principal and teachers by mining data and delivering information in easy-to-use formats.
However, the district soon realized providing schools with standardized test scores and strand data was of limited use. Teachers needed better classroom assessments available in shorter time frames and in more useful formats. They began developing short-cycle assessments and reporting tools. Expert teachers unpacked the standards into a group of implied assessment items based on the level of thinking the standard measured. They came up with a variety of items that are examples of what students should know and be able to do.
Diagnostic assessments used during the instructional cycle with standards-based reporting tools show teachers which children have achieved the standard and which ones have trouble. Flexible group and instructional activities give teachers opportunities to bring lagging children up to speed.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Implementation
“The data just tells you what happened,” said Snodgrass, “teachers and principals have discussions and hypothesize about why and what to try. They test again. The richest information comes from open-ended questions, listening and making thinking public.”
Teachers have discussions and hypothesize about what happened and what to try. They test again to determine whether or not interventions worked. Teachers and students regard the information as descriptive feedback rather than evaluative feedback. The district also uses benchmarks as evaluative feedback to confirm that children are making progress, even if they do not reach a grade-level standard.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Real Results
Data-driven decision making drives change at all levels of the school district. As systems have been rolled out to the schools, teachers and principals have begun to change behaviors and fix persistent problems. Sometimes simply having the information makes all the difference.
When Patrick Henry Elementary School set reducing unexcused absences as a goal for the year, Mark Quinn created a weekly data report and mailed it as a pdf file to every teacher in the school. It showed every unexcused absence by grade, homeroom, and student. Teachers had the information they needed to contact parents. If the absence was excused it dropped off the list. A breakdown by percent of attendance identified students with significant attendance problems and escalated their cases to the school attendance liaison. By the end of the year, the school had reduced unexcused absences from 9% of attendance to just 2%.