Data Dig: Using Data to Help Students Succeed
Every summer, each QCUSD school assembles a leadership team to review, discuss and plan better practices to help their students succeed. This event is called Data Dig.
The purpose of the data dig is to facilitate the productive use of data and to identify priority areas and goals, which will be tracked throughout the following school year.
During the Data Dig, team members from each school, comprising teachers, administration, and site specialists, determine the steps needed to achieve the goals they have set for their schools.
Team members review data collected from state evaluation testing (both district & school level), College and Career Readiness Data, Advanced Placement Exams, and CTE Assessments.
Coordinator of Research & Evaluation, Robin Bayles, explains the importance of data-informed goal setting.
“If we are just setting goals and the best practices to achieve them, you only have the ‘how’ without the context,” explains Bayles. “And we need that context; we need to know what the reality is, how our students are performing, and that our improvement efforts are being driven by what the data is telling us.”
Bryan Palmaioli, a fifth-grade teacher from Frances-Brandon Pickett Elementary, is participating in a district-wide data dig for the first time and has found the process extremely rewarding.
“Seeing the students grow across the years, and knowing how we can keep enriching those students and knowing how to help those who need help is always great to see,” says Palmaioli. “Having these Data Dig sessions is important because if we don’t look at the data, we can never improve.”
The Data Dig teams will then meet again in November to discuss the progress of their goal achievements, re-evaluate their action steps and review data from the district benchmark assessments.