Data Team Summary

Trae Jones
6/24/18

A. School Vision and Mission:

1. What is your school’s vision and mission?

a. Vision: Hart County Schools will be recognized for educational excellence.
b. Mission: The mission of the Hart County Charter System is to prepare all individuals
to meet tomorrow’s challenges by providing quality educational opportunities today.

2. Are there specific foci for your school in your school improvement plan? (i.e. Math, Reading, behavior)
a. The school improvement plan has 4 main goals of focus; however, the only one pertaining to a
specific content area is to improve writing for all students in all content areas.
3. Describe how your school’s data team can use data to measure meaningful progress toward realization
of your school’s vision.
a. The data team will be able to utilize data collected by teachers in the area of writing across
curriculums within the school to monitor whether or not students are reaching their potential to
meet the challenges of tomorrow and to be recognized for their educational excellence.

B. Purpose & Roles of the Data Team:

Member 1: Data Coach- it is essential to have the data coach as a member of the team in order to organize,
recruit, and encourage the team throughout the induction year.

Member 2: Assistant Principal over Curriculum- I would select this person over the Principal due to the day
to day familiarities with curriculum and data within the school. At the school I work at the Principal is not
as involved in the day to day curriculum uses in the school. This person will be responsible for bringing any
goals or plans the school (or system) has to the team so that we will be able to focus our attention on what
the leadership of our school would like to accomplish.

Members 3-6: One member from each academic subject- These members will be essential to the success of
the data team as they will be working to both bring data to us that may not be available otherwise. It will
also be vital for these members to take ideas and initiatives back to their departments to implement. These
members could also be academic coaches for the subjects that have academic coaches.

Members 7-8: Two members from the CTAE faculty- Just as the academic teachers are essential to the
success of the data team. These members will be responsible for contributing to the group by bringing data
to the team and then taking initiatives back to their CTAE department.

Member 9: Special Education Director for School- The special education department of teachers is often left
off of teams like this and must be included in the formation of the data team. This person will be responsible
to bring their expertise of working with special education students and teachers to ensure that inclusion is
commonplace in the school in relation to collection of and application of data within the school.

C. Data Team Formation, Rationale & School Structures:

 Formation: The data team will be formed during pre-planning with an initial invitation to the prospective
members. As far as the members from each department are concerned, these will be decided upon through
conversations with both the Assistant Principal over curriculum (who is a member), the data coach (also a
member), and each of the academic coaches within the school system. Each of these individuals will have a
pre-existing relationship with members of the faculty both within and outside of their specific content areas.
In the case that we cannot come to a consensus on a member from a specific content area, the academic
coach for that content area will then be selected to be on the data team.

Rationale: As mentioned in the Purpose and Roles section, each member will both bring value to the table
and take away valuable aspects to the other members of the school in which they have influence with. I
believe the meeting with the Assistant Principal over curriculum and academic coaches will yield many
great prospective members who will contribute to the success of the data team.

School Structures: The current school structure allows for professional development and collaborative group
meetings each Thursday of the school year from 3:15-4:15. On specific Thursdays (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc…) of
each month we are able to meet to work on individual goals for teachers, collaborative groups, or data and
development. On the days devoted to data and development, we will meet as a data team from 3:15-4:15
initially to analyze the data that has been collected and continue to devote time to make progress towards the
goals identified on the school improvement plan.

D. Decision-Making Authority:

The data team will have limited decision-making authority. In the school I work in, the Principal is very
hands-on in almost all of the initiatives that are taking place; however, he does allow individuals under him
to make suggestions and is very quick to either approve or deny the request. Having the Assistant Principal
as part of the data team will give us more authority than simply a group of teachers; although, in my own
experience with my Principal I have not had him reject an idea or even being willing to listen to it simply
because of me being a teacher and not in a leadership role.

Outreach Plan – Refer to Table 2.1, p. 31, Data Coach’s Guide

Audience How will you engage Their role in sustaining

them? collaborative inquiry

 Maintain support for the

District Administrators
data team through
 Meet with district
continuing the professional
administrators before the
learning/development
initial invitations are sent
calendar
out to go over the goals and
 Continue to update the
purpose of the data team
district improvement plan
 Ask the district
and give members of the
administrators for their
high school data team a seat
support and also for their
at the table to give input on
suggestions as to how the
future plans for
data team can be even more
improvement
effective than the plan laid
 Continue to provide the
out in this proposal
schools with current
academic coaches and to

 Meet with all 4 of the
school administrators to get
them on board with the
mission of the data team
 Ask for their support and
guidance as the team gets
established in the first year
School Administrators
of operation
 Ask for school
administrators input on
potential members who
would be beneficial to the
effectiveness of the data
team
 Provide a professional
development on why data is
important and how it can be
used accurately and
effectively in the school
and in the classroom
individually
School Faculty
 Give updates through the
members representing each
department and make sure
each person knows who to
go to in order to make their
voice heard by the data
team
 Ask the department chairs
to request updates from the
members representing their
department
Department Chairs  Ask the department chairs
to be supportive to other
members of their
department regarding the
data team
 Ask the instructional
coaches for their support in
recruiting members who
will be beneficial to the
Instructional data team.
Leaders/Specialists  This may include the
instructional coaches if a
classroom teacher cannot
be identified within a
certain content area
expand the number of
academic coaches to cover
all academic areas
 Support the data team by
giving a presence on the
school calendar, so as to
make it a priority for
meeting
 Provide data team with
necessary data to
effectively analyze and
apply changes to instruction
 Provide the data team with
news of changes to the
vision or mission of the
school and/or district that
are announced
 Be willing to work with the
data team representative
and give the necessary data
or try the recommended
initiatives related to data
 Commit to seeking to
understand how data is
used in an effective and
collaborative way within
their department
 Give data team
representative time at
department meetings for
updates on the data team
 Consider setting up mini
data teams within a
department that is centered
on a particular content (i.e.
in math: Geometry mini
data team, Algebra mini
data team, etc…)
 Help the department chairs
of the specific content area
in establishing mini data
teams
 Help in the identification of
potential members and/or
replacement/additional
members in the future

 Hold an informational
meeting during pre-
planning to let them know
they have been chosen to be
Potential Data Team Members
a member of this team
 Request their full
 Maintain the integrity of the
commitment to the data
team
 Present to the board at a
board meeting on the
School Board Members
purpose, progress, and
mission of the data team
 Have members of the data
team attend meeting for the
School Improvement Team school improvement team
to update on the progress of
the data team
 Inform parents of the data
team process at a parent
Parents night that is typically held
within the first month of
school
 Same as school  Same as school
administration as the
Data or Assessment
data/assessment
Coordinators
coordinators are also school
administrators
 Be an active participant in
both bringing necessary
data to the team and taking
recommended ideas or
initiatives back to the
educators within their
sphere of influence
data team and look for
ways to improve from one
meeting to the next
 Maintain support for the
data team and provide any
necessary data the team
may request
 Allow the data team time to
present to the school
improvement team
 Gather ideas on how to
improve the data team’s
efforts towards
effectiveness
 Ask parents to stay
informed of the data team
process by giving the email
addresses of the members
of the data team along with
the team’s mission and
purpose
administration as the
data/assessment
coordinators are also school
administrators