Washington Data Coaching Development
INTRODUCTION
What is the District and School Data Team Toolkit?
The District and School Data Team Toolkit is designed to help district staff lead all members of the
district community in the development and realization of a shared vision for data use and the inquiry
process.
Ensuring the effective use of inquiry and data district-wide involves many tasks and types of expertise.
The first, and most critical task, is to collaboratively develop a widely accepted vision for data use in the
district and its schools.
Once the vision has been established, this toolkit can help district staff establish a district data team—a
cadre of staff that is collectively responsible for the technical, organizational, and substantive aspects of
realizing that vision in the district and its individual schools. Members of the district data team work
with district and school-level staff to:
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Create and articulate the vision for data use, set and model expectations, and implement and
uphold policies for data use in the district.
Identify data to be collected, manage data infrastructure and access, and design meaningful data
displays.
Select or develop models for inquiry and data use that will be used district-wide and model the
inquiry process publicly.
Provide professional development to support district departments, principals, school data teams,
and teachers in their use of data to identify professional development needs.
Monitor the progress of the district toward achieving its vision for data use and establish the lines of
communication necessary for the sharing of results and best practices.
Over time, with the assistance of the tools and resources in the District and School Data Team Toolkit,
the team can engage all members of the district community in using multiple data sources to
continuously improve teaching and learning throughout the district.
District and School Data Team Toolkit
Introduction
Who Should Use This Toolkit?
The District and School Data Team Toolkit can be used by district leaders and school leaders interested
in supporting data use and the inquiry process in their organizations. The majority of tools and resources
contained in this toolkit have utility among any group of educators seeking to improve the use of data
and inquiry in their particular context. The toolkit encourages the development of data teams at all
levels within the district. The tools are presented in the context of use by the district data team but can
readily be adapted for use by school-level, grade-level, or discipline centered data teams.
What is the Conceptual Base?
Data Use Theory of Action
The research base for the toolkit stems from the Data Use Theory of Action developed by Public
Consulting Group.1 The theory of action depicted in Figure 1 describes three foundational conditions
that support the data informed actions that will ultimately impact student outcomes: the usefulness of
data, the capacity of stakeholders to use the data, and an organization-wide culture that supports and
expects the use of data to inform decisions.
Focused
Results
Data-Driven
Actions
Conditions for
Data Use
Figure 1. PCG’s Data Use Theory of Action
Usefulness
Increased Student
Achievement
Policy
Programs
Practice
Placement
Capacity
Culture
© 2012 Public Consulting Group, Inc.
According to the theory of action, if the necessary conditions for data use (data usefulness, data
capacity, and data culture) are in place, and data are being used to formulate policy, evaluate and design
programs, guide practice, and place students in appropriate instructional settings, then increased
student achievement will result. Research also suggests that for data use to have a profound impact on
student achievement, it must be sustained over time, take place systemically throughout all levels of the
organization, and be student centered.
Getting Ready, the first component of the District and School Data Team Toolkit, is devoted to
supporting the establishment of a district data team and providing guidance for creating school data
teams. Getting Ready provides tools that enable district data teams to understand their functions;
determine current data usefulness, capacity, and culture; and establish a vision for data use. The
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District and School Data Team Toolkit
Introduction
premise for this part of the toolkit is built on the idea that, in order for data use to become systemic in
any organization, it must be an initiative that is supported by leadership.
Although leadership hierarchies are very similar throughout all school districts, the way leadership is
concentrated or shared varies from district to district. Leadership can vary from structured to diffuse
and from concentrated at the top of the hierarchy to being shared among all stakeholders. These
leadership structures, both formal and informal, must be taken into account as the district moves
forward on the journey to build a culture of inquiry and systemic data use. Leadership may be from the
bottom up or the top down or something in between. Regardless of where the leadership comes from,
the ultimate goal is to establish a culture of inquiry and systemic data use.
What’s in the Toolkit?
In addition to Getting Ready, the District and School Data Team Toolkit has five components that are
aligned with the Cycle of Inquiry and Action. This structure makes the toolkit useful as a resource for any
team working with data at any point in the inquiry process, while also serving as a model for conducting
inquiry from beginning to end.
Figure 2. PCG’s Cycle of Inquiry and Action
©2012 Public Consulting Group, Inc.
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District and School Data Team Toolkit
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Introduction
Identify Issues helps teams formulate the questions that will drive data collection and analysis that
leads to the identification of learner-centered problems. The component includes resources and
protocols to help teams clearly articulate questions and identify the data needed to answer them.
Understand Issues moves to the next step in the inquiry process by helping both school and district
teams begin to analyze data, generate clarifying questions to focus the inquiry, and identify data
needed to dig deeper into the issue and learner-centered problems.
Diagnose Causes guides the process of root cause analysis using data from multiple sources to
determine a hypothesized problem of practice that underlies the learner-centered problem. Teams
are also encouraged to test their hypothesis about the causes of the issues under investigation by
consulting research and best practice literature. By closely examining their hypothesis, teams are
able to accurately define the problem being addressed and identify possible solutions. The
component also includes guidance for creating effective data displays and data overviews to
conduct initial analyses.
Plan and Take Action provides a framework for putting new knowledge to work by developing a
logic model and articulating clear measures that will guide and focus action. Once desired outcomes
have been clearly delineated, and strategies selected to achieve those outcomes, Plan and Take
Action helps teams create a plan of action that will move the district/school toward the measurable
results. Additionally, Plan and Take Action provides guidance to help teams keep the plan alive
through the use of implementation indicators and interim benchmarks to provide the basis for
formative evaluation and to use data to guide mid-course corrections if necessary.
Evaluate Results extends the formative evaluation conducted during implementation to the
summative evaluation of an action plan’s outcomes. Teams will use tools and guidance to conduct
an evaluation that sums up the gains made through their actions and sets the stage to repeat the
inquiry cycle. Evaluate Results also emphasizes the need to communicate with stakeholders about
the project’s outcomes and provides resources to support that communication.
How Should the Toolkit Be Used?
The District and School Data Team Toolkit is designed to promote the skills and knowledge necessary to
form an effective cadre of district and school-level data teams and build their capacity to effectively use
the inquiry process and data to inform decisions. This can be accomplished in many ways. The current
state of data use and the unique context of each district will determine how this toolkit will be used
most effectively. Remember that the structure of the Cycle of Inquiry and Action makes the toolkit
useful as a resource for any team working with data at any point in the inquiry process, while also
serving as a model for conducting inquiry from beginning to end. Each component of the toolkit begins
with an overview of the step in the cycle of inquiry it details, illustrates where you are in the cycle, and
provides a set of outcomes that will be achieved upon completion of the component.
Getting
Ready
Identify
Issues
Understand
Issues
Diagnose
Causes
Plan and
Take Action
Evaluate
Results
Figure 3. Where are we now?
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District and School Data Team Toolkit
Introduction
The District and School Data Team Toolkit presents concepts and tools in the context of use by a district
data team. All of these concepts and tools are completely transferable to school-level data teams and,
for that matter, any team that will be using data to support the inquiry process. Getting Ready illustrates
how the functions of the district data team are transferable to school-level teams. While tools
throughout the toolkit are presented in the context of use by the district data team, school-level, gradelevel, or discipline-centered data teams can adapt tools for their use.
As detailed previously, leadership structures, both formal and informal, vary greatly across districts. In
large districts, the superintendent may depend heavily on a widely representative leadership team or
council composed of district-level staff to help with the district’s decision-making process. In smaller
districts, a central office management team of only a few individuals, each of whom wears many hats,
may participate in the decision-making process. In some districts, decisions are made by a small number
of central office administrators and in others the leadership may be shared among central office and
building-level staff. The size of the district and the leadership structure are two of the context issues
that will have a significant influence on how the movement toward inquiry and systemic data use will be
realized. The unique characteristics of each district must be considered when deciding how best to use
the District and School Data Team Toolkit. Getting Ready provides additional guidance about addressing
district size and leadership structures.
In many districts there are also varying levels of existing data use. The District and School Data Team
Toolkit is designed to be adaptable to the needs of any district interested in improving the way data are
used to drive improved results. Below are three ways in which a district or school might find the toolkit
useful to capitalize on current data use or structures that support data use.
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A district leadership team may create the vision for data use and form a district-level data team to
take the actions necessary to realize that vision. The district data team would apply the inquiry
process to address issues involving the use of data or global teaching and learning issues at the
district-level. As the district data team gains confidence in their knowledge and ability to use data, it
can then use the District and School Data Team Toolkit as a resource to help build school-level
teams that would address school-level teaching and learning issues. In a similar fashion, school-level
data teams could then build the capacity of all school staff to use data to inform grade-level and
classroom decisions.
A district may have a vision for data use and have data teams in place. In that case, the District and
School Data Team Toolkit could be used selectively to supplement or reinforce the processes and
supports for improving a growing culture of data use. If school-level teams are not in place, the
district data team may use this toolkit to facilitate their development.
A district may not have a formalized district or school-level vision or structures in place to support
widespread data use; however, there may be pockets of effective data use at various levels in the
organization. These data use pioneers may well have a vision for how they want to use data and
may be using data very effectively to inform their decisions. The data coach may use the resources
of the District and School Data Team Toolkit to extend the capacity of these pioneers and use their
efforts as examples of how data can be used throughout the district. Building from the bottom up
and capitalizing on this grassroots support for data use can lead to a district vision for data use and
the district and school structures – such as a district data team – to help realize the vision.
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District and School Data Team Toolkit
Introduction
As any team gains comfort with the tools, resources, and processes in this toolkit, the team can plan
ways to share them with other district and school-level teams that need to use the inquiry process and
data to inform their decisions.
While each of the components of the District and School Data Team Toolkit provides specific tools to
implement the steps of the inquiry process, it is important to understand that superimposing a process
does not necessarily yield a positive result. A district must be mindful of doing what it can to embed a
culture of inquiry and data use that goes beyond technical compliance with processes suggested in the
toolkit. Therefore, we encourage you to shape activities and protocols to suit the needs of your
particular district, while keeping the goal of the Data Use Theory of Action as your target.
Where Should Our District Begin?
As noted, a district should begin by developing a vision for data use that is widely accepted at all levels
of the district. Getting Ready provides guidance for creating this vision and will immediately help any
organization identify where to focus attention. Whether a district data team has already been formed or
not, a good place to begin is with the District Data Team Self-Assessment in Getting Ready. It will help
you and your leadership team to identify where to begin engaging with the District and School Data
Team Toolkit.
References
Ronka, D., Geier, R., & Marciniak, M. (2010). A practical framework for building a data-driven district or
school: How a focus on data quality, capacity, and culture supports data-driven action to improve student
outcomes. A PCG Education White Paper. Boston: Public Consulting Group. Available online:
http://www.publicconsultinggroup.com/education/library/index.html
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