The document summarizes the agenda and activities for a district data team retreat on January 21st, 2015. The retreat included icebreakers, discussions around using data at the macro and micro levels to ask the right questions, identifying educational questions and problems of practice, triangulating and making inferences from data, exploring individual school data, and determining root causes. Participants engaged in activities to analyze early warning indicators and school data. They also provided feedback on what they learned and suggestions to improve future sessions. The overall goal was for the data team to collaborate on using data to make a positive difference for student outcomes.

1. District Data Team
Retreat
January 21st, 2015

2. Introduction & Ice Breaker
● Silent Scramble
● Name Cards
o First & Last Name
o School, Role

3. Laying the groundwork
● What brought you here?
● Macro data use
● Micro data use
● Asking the right questions

5. Ask Questions
Get more data to answer the
questions
Ask Questions
Get more data to answer the
questions
Ask Questions
Get more data to answer the
questions

6. Piles and Piles of data
Educational Question
Priority Question
Learner-Centered Problem
Problem of Practice
Action Plan

7. Triangulating Data
CONFIRM
DISPUTE
ILLUMINATE

8. Ladder of Inference
WPS 2014 Report Card - Overview
● Ladder of Inference
o What Do You Notice?
o What Do You Wonder?

13. Break

14. Activity:
Exploration of individual schools
● Need a Coordinator at each group
● Excel worksheet by school
● Explore Early Warning Indicator
o System
o Graphical View
o Risk Level Indicator Analysis
● 45 minutes
● Debrief

15. Lunch Break

16. Root Cause
● You are on your way home from work and your car stops in the middle of the road
Why did your car stop?
Because it ran out of gas
Why did it run out of gas?
Because I didn’t buy any gas on my way to work
Why didn’t you buy any gas this morning?
Because I didn’t have any money
Why didn’t you have any money
Because I lost it all last night in a poker game
Why did you lose your money in last night’s poker game?
Because I am not very good at “bluffing” when I don’t have a good hand. (Learner
Centered Problem)

17. Root Cause
● There is a student in my class whose
behavior is making it difficult for me to
reach the others
● Socrative Student
o http://b.socrative.com/login/student/
o lowell122

18. Root Cause
32% of your students are failing your English class
● how we ask the question is very important
● “I don’t know” is a valid first answer
● answering the question with reliable and valid data is
also important

19. + Δ
What did you learn today?
What contributed to your learning?
What would you like to have
changed about today’s session?
What distracted from your learning?
Plus / Delta Protocol

20. Making a difference
SUCCESS - Ralph Waldo Emerson
To laugh often and much
to win the respect of intelligent people
and affection of children;
to earn the approbation of honest critics and
endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.