District Data Team

1. District Data Team Bringing Coherence and Focus to the Work of the Central Office

2. Seminar Overview • Holistic Accountability • Change • Change Through Holistic Accountability • Is Your System (School) Ready for Change? • Review of Current Plan • Team Concept at District Level • Creating the District Plan • Implementation/Monitoring • Communication

3. Holistic Accountability Recommended Structure Task Force District Data Team + Instructional Data Teams

4. Why A District Data Team? We are very comfortable in our individual silos: -Curriculum Department -Technology Department -Assessment Department -Human Resources Department -Special Services Department -Business Department

5. We Give Plenty of Direction to the Schools School

6. There Is A Better Way But

7. What You are Really Asking People To Do Is … Change !

8. Change? “You can’t make me!”

9. Change? “Why should I?”

10. “It will never work!”

11. Change? “Why Should This Time Be Any Different?”

12. Remember: A Good Idea Is Not Good Enough

13. It’s About Change “The fundamental flaw in most innovators’ strategies is that they focus on their innovations, on what they are trying to do–rather than on understanding how the larger culture, structures, and norms will react to their efforts.” Senge, 1999, p.

14. Most Change Initiatives Fail “We can produce many examples of how educational practice could look different, but we can produce few, if any, examples of large numbers of teachers engaging in the practices in large scale institutions designed to deliver education to most children.” Elmore, 1995, p. 5

15. What Will Make Your Change Initiative Different?

16. Reflection Take a few moments to think about a change initiative you are familiar with that was not as successful as it should have been. As you think about this, what seemed to go wrong? What could have been done to improve the outcome?

17. Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change • Establishing a sense of urgency • Creating a powerful guiding coalition • Developing a vision and strategy • Communicating the change vision • Empowering broad-based action • Generating short-term wins • Consolidating gains and producing more change • Anchoring new approaches in the culture Kotter, 1996, p.

18. Combining Change Theory and Holistic Accountability KotterReeves Sense of Urgency Description of Current Status (“Honest Bad News”) Creating a Vision of the Future Goals/Outcomes (Task Force) Guiding Coalition District Team

19. KotterReeves Develop a Strategy Adult Actions Empower Action Adult Actions (Subcommittees) Communicate the Vision & Strategy Communication Strategy

20. KotterReeves Generate Short-term Wins Results Indicators Consolidate Gains, Produce More Change Implementation Monitoring Anchor New Approaches in Culture Implementation Monitoring (Policy, Contracts)

21. Combining “The Changes To Be Made” with “The Process of Change” Change Theory (How To Get People To Do It) Holistic Accountability (What We Want To Do) Current Status District Team Goals/Outcomes Adult Actions Communication Adult Actions Results Indicators Implementation Monitoring Sense of Urgency Guiding Coalition Vision and Strategy Communication Action Short-term Wins Consolidation New Culture Kotter, J.P. (1996)

22. Is Your District Ready For a Change?

23. Organizational Response to Change

24. If This Change Is a Success, Then … Before you begin your change initiative write down the answer to this question. See page ___ in the manual

25. Defining Success FailureIntermediateSuccess • Full implementation • Ideas are now just, “the way we do things” • Sustainability is assured • Student outcomes significantly improved • No change occurred • Ideas not implemented • No change in student • outcomes • Partial implementation • Significant change to original idea • Some aspects of initiative have sustainability • Some degree of improvement in student outcomes

26. There is Hope(But It’s Much More Difficult than We Thought) • Let’s start at the beginning. Is your system (school) ready to change? • As you contemplate a change initiative, ask yourself the following questions (there are more, but these will do for a start) before you begin.

27. Questions • What stakeholder groups are going to be affected by this change? • Are these groups likely to be supportive of the change or opposed? • What skills will the people charged with implementing the change need? Do they have these skills? If not, how will they acquire them?

28. Questions • How much training will be needed? Where will we get the training? How much will it cost? Where will we get the funding? • If we start to receive some push-back, what is the board of education likely to do? • How can we develop the political support we will need to see this change through?

29. Questions • How are we going to develop a plan that will allow us to deal with the issues we can’t possibly anticipate beforehand? • Are there skills that I, as the change catalyst, need to acquire before I attempt this change? • Am I, as the change catalyst, prepared to stay here for the several years it is likely to take to imbed this change in the culture?

30. Questions What additional questions might you add to this list? On page ___ in the manual, the previous questions are duplicated. There is room for you to add your questions.

31. Change Readiness Assessment Conducting an assessment of your system (school) to determine the answers to these questions and more before you embark on the change initiative can save a great deal of time and effort later on in the process. It can also be the first step in a systemic change process that will inform the initiative and perhaps improve it.

32. OK, We’ve Decided We Have to Make Some Changes, But Before We Begin

33. Let’s Take a Test(See Page ___ in Manual)

34. How Does Our Current Process Measure Up?

35. Current Practices (continued)

36. Common Problems of District Plans • Ignored • Vague • Weak • Little buy-in • Pretty, but … • Law of diminishing impact • Poor implementation • Communicate, Communicate Communicate

37. Moving From Isolation to Collaboration

38. Teams “One of the most consistent findings in the literature on decision-making and performance is that the best groups perform better than the best individuals because groups are able to take advantage of the collective wisdom and insight of multiple individuals, while individual judgments reflect the narrower insights and skills of just one person.” Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006, p.

39. Complex Business

40. Complex Business Creating & Sustaining Change in Complex Organizations • Understand and monitor the change process • Team concept at the district level • Focus and align the work of the district • Create a plan to improve student outcomes • Implement and monitor the plan

41. The District Data Team

42. District Data Team A District Data Team is designed to do several things at once. As such, it must • Be structured • Be focused • Be collaborative • Focus on the changes to be made • Focus on the process of change

43. Purpose of a District Data Team • To write a strategic District Improvement Plan • To implement the District Improvement Plan • To monitor the implementation of the District Improvement Plan • To guide the district through a strategic change initiative

44. Guiding Principles • The actions of the adults in the system will determine the outcomes for students (Reeves) • The most significant adult actions are those that effect the “Instructional Core” (Elmore) • District actions must have high leverage • District actions must be aligned and coordinated • District actions must be focused • District actions must be monitored

45. Creating a Team District Data Team • Membership • Superintendent • Senior leadership • District departments • Building representatives • Bargaining unit representatives Guiding Coalition

46. Creating a Team (continued) District Data Team • Team-Building Activities • Creating team norms • Common vision • Common purpose • Common mission • Trust Guiding Coalition

47. Reflection In thinking about the membership of your district or central office team, are there things that you could do to make it more effective? See page ___ in the manual

48. Process District Data Team • Data Team Process • Regular, scheduled meetings • Agendas • Minutes • Subcommittees • Roles Guiding Coalition

49. Reflection In thinking about how your current group operates, are there things you could do to improve the effectiveness? See page ___ in manual

50. Writing a Strategic Improvement Plan for the District District Data Team Five Step Process • Describe the current status • Identify strengths and weaknesses • Decide upon student outcome indicators • Decide upon adult actions indicators • Write an action plan for each adult action indicator • Create results indicators Communicate