Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have popularized over the years due to their emphasis on collaboration, their focus on using data to drive conversation and action, and their ability to discover insights that improve both instruction and student learning outcomes. While PLCs have a lot of value to offer, districts often encounter a number of logistical … Continue reading Improving PLC Meetings with Process & Data
We are kicking off our new Customer Spotlight blog series to highlight some of our amazing customers. In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we are starting with a teacher, Hannah Goeglein, from Southern California. It’s teachers like Hannah that inspire us to bring teachable moments to light! Hannah Goeglein Role Teacher School Leonardo da Vinci … Continue reading Illuminator Spotlight: Hannah Goeglein
Whether we are using a quick informal assessment or developing a district-wide summative test, the design of an assessment directly impacts how valuable or usable its results are. Think of building a house. The design and build of the house directly impacts how usable it is when we’re done. The order in which we proceed … Continue reading 6 Steps to Quality Assessment Design
This article was co-written with Anne Kel-Artinian From formative exit tickets to end-of-year exams, there are a lot of challenges in writing assessments. The assessment content, or the “items,” must meet a lot of criteria. When using commercial assessments and vetted item banks, the validity and reliability of the items is assured by the vendor. … Continue reading Are Our Common Assessments Fair?
First of all, I want to send a big thank you to everyone who attended IO Education EXPO EAST 2019 in New York City last week! I’ve personally attended IO Education EXPO for years–both as a lead customer success manager and senior instructional developer. It’s an invaluable opportunity to connect with our customers, and I … Continue reading Thoughts from IO Education EXPO EAST 2019: “Past, Present & Future”
This article was co-written with David Stevens, Berkeley Unified School District Imagine you went to see your doctor about a cold and she recommended a particular treatment. You, in turn, ask the doctor why she thinks it is the right option. In one scenario she replies: “I’ve heard it works, and it is also what … Continue reading Lessons from John Hattie: Unlocking the Power of Classroom Discussion
Located in northern Oakland County, about 40 miles northwest of Detroit, Oxford Community Schools (OCS) serves a suburban community that extends across five townships and two villages. The district is consistently recognized for its excellence. Many of its schools have been designated as Michigan Blue Ribbon Exemplary Schools, and the district has received numerous MASB … Continue reading How Oxford Community Schools Uses Data to Support 3rd Grade Reading Proficiency
This month, we offer another example of how the BI Tool can transform the data culture in your school district from a top-down, “use what we have” approach to a collaborative, “what do we need” approach. Our previous post focused on the work of Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, the largest charter school network in Los … Continue reading BI Tool: What Can You Automate?
Now that the previous blog helped us gain a stronger understanding of the three dimensions of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), let’s shift our attention to the key innovation for NGSS: sense-making. What is Sense-Making in NGSS? Science is fundamentally about making sense of the natural world. Sense-making is the conceptual process in which a … Continue reading Sense-Making is the Core of NGSS
Almost every district, charter, or educational organization has a strategic plan. Sometimes, we refer to these as improvement plans or action plans. Strategic plans are partially an accountability piece, but they are also more than that: they help us articulate our goals for supporting students—and the specific, measurable actions we’ll take to achieve those goals. … Continue reading Data Visualization & Action Plans: Filling Gaps in Seeing the “Big Picture”