The
Schools Network
Description of Feedback Reports
Using Data
as Part of the School Improvement Process
How to Examine the Charts
The
Schools Network
As part
of Project HiPlaces, we are bringing schools' archival and survey data online, so that
schools with proper login authorization can retrieve school reports of demographic
information and survey feedback of student outcomes with a simple web browser, such as
Netscape or Internet Explorer. In addition to the charts we provide to each school in the
network, we also provide online documentation to assist users in interpreting and using
the data properly.
The types of information available through the Internet are
summarized in Description of Feedback
Reports. The assessment process and the information it provides were developed to be
used as one part of the larger process of continuous school improvement planning. The data
provided here are in no way meant to be prescriptive or to otherwise imply that there is
some "absolute standard" or set of dimensions that a school should focus on or
attempt to reach. Each school is quite different, and what may be important or possible in
one school may be less so in another. See Using Data as
Part of School Improvement Process and How to Examine the Charts
for more help.
Staff
Responses
-
Descriptive Characteristics of Teacher Responses
-
Attitudes and Norms About Educational Practices
-
Team/Grade Level Practices and Teacher Interactions
-
Classroom Practices
-
Parent Contact
-
Advisory Practices
-
Staff Development
-
Decision Making
-
Work/School Climate, Stress, and Satisfaction of Staff
Student
Responses
-
Descriptive Characteristics of Student Responses
-
Student Perceptions of School Environment, Instructional
Practices, and Supports
-
Student Expectations, Adjustment, and Health Practices
-
Student Reports of After School Extracurricular activities,
Supervision, and Academic Activities
Teacher
Student Rating Scale (TSRS) Reports
(Note: Not all initiatives complete the TSRS Survey)
Responses
from Parents of . . .
(Note: Not all initiatives complete the Parent Survey)
Return
to Top
We
recommend employing a process whereby your school actively considers the sets of data that
are most important for your school. The charts are intended to assist you in having a
structured, more fully informed discussion about the goals that you are attempting to
focus on in your school's ongoing improvement effort. Once you have identified those areas
that your school's staff, parents, and others feel they would like to emphasize, future
administrations of the HiPlaces Assessment will help you to continuously monitor your
progress toward the goals you have set.
Return to
Top
How to Examine the Charts
Which Charts Matter to You?
As you review any chart, ask yourself:
If the answer is "no,"
simply skip that chart. If you respond "yes," note the areas of your planning,
improvement and/or accreditation process to which it applies. Any one chart might relate
to more than one area of your school improvement plan.
If your school is already where
you’d like it to be in this area, congratulations! You will want
to monitor this area to be sure its levels remain optimal, but
clearly you need not focus on that particular chart.
Setting Goals
Having identified charts that
inform areas of concern to your school community, ask yourself the next set of questions:
-
Under ideal circumstances, where would we like our school or
students to be on this condition or practice?
-
Given current resources, what is a realistic level for us to
try to obtain at the end of a three or five year plan?
-
Given that long-range goal, what is a reasonable goal for next
year?
Be sure to set and track short-term goals.
Doing so assures you know that the school is "on course" and allows the
hard-working staff to celebrate important victories along the way.
Meeting Goals
Once goals have been set, consider the
following questions about how best to reach them:
For example, if a school improvement team has
set the goal of increasing the levels of math skills instruction in each classroom (Chart
SF D.1.2), the team might want to consider the extent to which teachers generally work
together on integrated instruction (Chart SF C.1.1), or the degree to which staff
members believe in the importance of such instruction (Chart SF B.1). Note:
Chart numbering varies for School Year 1997-98 and earlier.
-
If our school is ever to close the gap between our ideal
practices and current practices for this area, what resources, structures, or conditions
may need attention?
We have found that in order to increase the
levels of practices that many see as desirable (e.g., small group and active "hands
on" lessons), teachers must have sufficient levels of common planning time, small
enough teacher teams, "houses" or classes, professional development and lower
core staff/student ratios. Identifying these needs with your survey results will provide
you with valuable evidence for discussions with state entities and school boards about
getting the resources necessary to close gaps.
Branching Out
Just as test scores were an inadequate single
source of assessment information, even this data, however comprehensive, cannot provide
all the information that you will need to answer your questions about your school and its
improvement efforts. These data are best used in conjunction with as much additional
relevant data as you can acquire. This leads to another set of questions:
-
Are there aspects of the conditions reported in this chart
that we care about but that are not represented here or in any other chart? If so, what
are they?
-
Are there other charts in our databook or possible follow-up
charts that may be useful when considering this chart here?
-
Are there other sources of information, such as school site
visit reports, self-study activities, student portfolios, other student work, state or
district reports, et cetera, which address these areas? How do we obtain them and use them
as part of our planning and continuous improvement process?
-
If no other sources of information exist for issues about
which we are concerned, what assessment processes might we want to develop to address
them?
We recommend this goal-setting/feedback
process throughout the examination of your data. We and others have observed that schools
making the greatest gains in student achievement and performance repeatedly ask themselves
the question above.
Integrating Related Charts
Perhaps the most exciting and eye-opening use
of the data is when different, related charts are juxtaposed to "flesh out"
information. The following is an illustration of how this might occur:
Parts B through G of the Staff Responses in
Section III look at specific practices related to classroom instruction, parent contact
and cross-teacher planning. Included are staff reports of the frequencies with which they
use key practices in these areas. If you were concerned that a particular classroom
practice (Part D) is occurring less often than teachers indicate they feel it should be
occurring, you might look at the following:
-
Charts concerning teacher attitudes toward educational
practices (Part B). These charts indicate whether staff norms show that they feel the
practice is important. If levels are lower than might be desired, additional strategies
for increasing teacher "buy-in" might be necessary before making further efforts
to implement practice changes.
-
Individual item/practice frequencies (Staff chart
disaggregations). Sometimes staff may feel that the average scale score on a practices
chart does not at all reflect their levels of practice. Wide variations between individual
responses will be masked by the overall scale score. For example, although the scale score
for small group classroom instruction may show that these practices occur, on average,
weekly, a particular practice might actually be used every day by most teachers. Any time
staff practices scales are a major school improvement concern, the item-level frequencies
will provide the most meaningful, detailed information.
Return to
Top
Return
to the Schools Network Home Page |
