Achievement Teams

What if you had a collaborative process of looking at student data that could pinpoint student gaps in learning and suggest effective strategies to close those gaps? What if you knew not only what you should start doing to enhance student learning, but also what you should stop doing because it hasn't given you the hoped-for results? Enter Achievement Teams. This is not another program that's here today and gone tomorrow; it's a timeless approach that any school or district can replicate that focuses on the most significant variable in student achievement: teaching. In Achievement Teams, Steve Ventura and Michelle Ventura offer a framework based on John Hattie's Visible Learning research that makes teacher collaboration more efficient, rigorous, satisfying, and effective. Think of it as a systematic treasure hunt for best practices using real data on your students. The authors walk you through the Achievement Teams four-step meeting protocol: * In Step 1, teams focus on the evidence from a pre-assessment to provide specific feedback to students and teachers about concepts and skills that students did and did not learn. * In Step 2, teams use that evidence to establish SMART goals for both teachers and students. * In Step 3, teams summarize the collected data and make inferences around students' mastery levels. * In Step 4, teachers select high-impact strategies directly targeted to student needs. A post-assessment reveals what did and didn't work. The authors provide a plethora of resources along the way, including reflection activities to extend your thinking and a variety of helpful downloadable templates designed to facilitate the work. If you're a teacher or leader who is interested in maximizing student achievement, this book is for you.

This updated edition of Setting Our Sights outlines the five stages for equity reform while clearly explaining research findings and offering practical tools and examples.

Schools are drowning in test data, but many schools do little with test results other than sort students into various categories of proficiency or lack thereof. Some educators feel testing has taken the joy out of teaching. Others believe valuable instructional time has been lost as a result of testing. Yet, NCBL and other federal and state mandates have placed educators under increasing pressure to make certain all students meet standards on high-stakes tests. Now, more than ever, teachers and administrators need to embrace testing as a valuable classroom tool to guide instruction, use efficient technological resources available for test scoring and analysis, and profit from the benefits of test analysis to increase learning and achievement. Using Test Data for Student Achievement shows educators, step by step, how to use test data to facilitate student learning. The book combines research, technology and Sindelar's experience as a teacher and administrator to provide practical and efficient ways to use test data to increase learning, close achievement gaps and even raise test scores.

This document describes the achievements of 23 projects in the King's Fund Enhancing the Healing Environment Programme. It includes case studies of nine of the projects and a summary of an evaluation that was commissioned to assess the improvements to the environment, the benefits to patients and staff, and value for money. This evaluation applied a recognised methodology to the case studies, and substantial environmental improvements have been measured in all of the schemes studied. There is already evidence of high user satisfaction, as well as a reduction in stress, increased use of the project areas, changes in working practices, and the therapeutic benefit that can be derived from environments that are designed by patients and staff to be fit for a purpose.

This book is a PhD thesis that is highly relevant to anyone involved in management. It identifies and analyses in depth the key constructs of leadership, teamwork and enterprise that are vital for a successful 'growth' business. The focus is on leadership, enterprise and the make-up of senior management teams, but the research outcomes can equally be applied to any management team environment, such as committees, working groups, panels, or administrative bodies. Critically, an unsuitable leader will almost guarantee failure, so having the ability to recognise leaders that are capable of delivering success is crucial. This book is invaluable for those people who need to understand how leadership, teamwork and enterprise interact to create dynamic and highly successful management teams.

Use data as an effective tool for school change and improvement! This resource helps data team facilitators move schools away from unproductive data practices and toward examining data for systematic and continuous improvement in instruction and learning. The book, which includes a CD-ROM with slides and reproducibles, illustrates how the authors' model has proven successful in: Narrowing achievement gaps in all content areas and grade levels Achieving strong, continuous gains in local and state assessments in mathematics, science, and reading Initiating powerful conversations about race/ethnicity, class, educational status, gender, and language differences Developing a vision for a high-performing, data-informed school culture