STRATEGIC DATA USE WORKSHOP

Strategic Data Use Workshop

Designing Balanced Assessment & Data Systems for School Improvement

 

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BPE is pleased to offer a focused summer learning experience for school and instructional leaders who support data inquiry and continuous improvement. This 3-day workshop supports leaders to think more intentionally about assessment and data use in their schools—moving beyond compliance and accountability toward systems that meaningfully support professional learning communities, inform practice/instruction, and guide schoolwide decision-making.  This workshop will be co-facilitated by leaders with successful school turnaround experience and a track record for sustained improvement across academic and student support priorities.

 

WHY Strategic Data Use?

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We understand the challenges school and instructional leaders face in making strategic decisions that enable data to be used effectively to understand student learning/growth, inform instructional and student support decisions, and drive improvement.  Schools may be managing competing initiatives, large amounts of data, high-stakes summative assessments, challenges with formative assessments, and duplication or gaps in assessment systems that create confusion, inefficiency, and missed opportunities for learning.  Leaders often share that they lack simple yet effective systems that answer important questions about teaching and learning and help them support teachers and staff in their improvement efforts.

 

This workshop supports leaders to:

• Inventory and think strategically about all assessments currently administered in the school, including what purposes they serve and how they are used

• Identify duplication, gaps, and misalignment across summative, benchmark, formative, and classroom-level data

• Create or refine user friendly data tools to collect and analyze student and instructional data

• Reframe assessment as a tool for improvement and practice, not solely measurement and accountability

• Design systems that help teachers and teams use data meaningfully to inform instruction, professional learning, and schoolwide priorities

• Plan for launching data inquiry and improvement cycles at their schools

 

WHO this workshop is for:

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This experience is designed for school leadership teams (3-6 people) comprising:

• School administrators (principals, assistant principals)

• Instructional leaders and coaches (including department heads)

 

Participants will benefit most if they have responsibility for supporting teacher teams (grade/content PLCs), instructional leadership teams (ILTs), and/or schoolwide improvement efforts (e.g., academic, attendance, school culture/climate).

 

WHAT you will learn:

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In this hands-on workshop, you will examine your current data and assessment landscape, clarify the purposes different data serve, and design more coherent, balanced approaches to assessment and data use that support improvement at every level.  Your team will leave the 3-day summer workshop with a concrete plan for launching data inquiry and improvement at your school, supporting teachers to make instructional and student support decisions grounded in a shared vision for success and strong evidence of student learning and growth.  

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By the end of this workshop, your team will:

• Build assessment literacy, distinguishing between assessment as measurement and assessment as instructional practice

• Understand the components of a balanced assessment system and how summative and formative assessments should function together

• Clarify how different types of data (summative, benchmark, formative, classroom-level) should be used at different levels of the school

• Learn strategies for supporting teachers and teams to use data meaningfully to inform instruction/practice

• Practice examining data sets for decision-making (e.g., using benchmark data to guide professional learning, ILT priorities, and PLC work)

• Have a concrete plan for launching inquiry and improvement cycles at your school (e.g., identify the team, map out the inquiry process/schedule, and develop an action plan aligned to one or more school improvement priorities)

 

HOW the experience is designed:

 

Format & Learning Experience

The Strategic Data Use Workshop is designed as an interactive, applied learning experience for school and instructional leadership teams that emphasizes both learning and doing. The experience may include:

• Light pre-work (e.g., preparation of existing assessment or data artifacts to bring to the workshop)

• Collaborative analysis of your real assessment systems and data practices

• Structured opportunities to apply frameworks to your own school contexts

• Dedicated time to design or refine assessment and data-use strategies you can bring back to your school

• Opportunities for cross-school collaboration and peer learning both within and between school teams

 

Workshop Structure

The 3-day summer workshop is aligned to the three core learning objectives:

• Data and assessment literacy

• Designing a balanced assessment system

• Using data strategically at different levels of the organization

 

Schedule:

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Pre-work: Ahead of the workshop, participants will complete a brief survey and create a list of all data/assessment sources currently in use at their schools.

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