This presentation focuses on preparing school leaders to use data-driven decision making to improve student achievement. It discusses Miami-Dade County Public Schools' journey toward excellence using criteria like Baldrige/Sterling, which has led to strengths in leadership, planning, and student focus, but opportunities remain in using data for analysis, management, and performance results. The presentation also covers tools and strategies for data-driven decision making, including choosing appropriate analysis methods matched to learning targets and subjects.

1. Presented by
Dr. Eduardo R. Rivas, Administrative Director
Mr. Carlos A. Viera, Director
Ms. Felicia Mendez, Consultant
2003 Conference Session #1353, Room 256, Moscone Center
Association for Curriculum and Supervision Development
San Francisco, California
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Miami, Florida
March 8, 2003
3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
DEVELOPING ENHANCED LEADERSHIP
FOR DATA-DRIVEN SCHOOLS

2. To paraphrase from Henrik IBSEN,
Enemy of the People, 1882,
A (school) community is like a ship:
everyone ought to be prepared to take the
helm.

3. Developing Enhanced Leadership
for Data-Driven Schools
This presentation focuses on preparing individual educational leaders to
develop systematic approaches to data-driven decision making and to employ
interpersonal competencies that will support their efforts to lead schools toward
improved performance in student achievement.
What is the history of performance excellence?
What have we found?
What is research based experiential training?
What are the implications for preparing education leaders for the 21st century?
How can one use the process – Plan Do Study Act?
What is data-driven decision making?
How can one choose an appropriate tool?
What are the lessons learned?

4. History of Performance
Excellence

6. M-DCPS – A Journey Toward Excellence
WHAT HAS TAKEN PLACE IN
MIAMI-DADE AS AN EXAMPLE...

7. Baldrige/Sterling Criteria

8. Use of an integrated approach to organizational performance that
results in…
1. Delivery of ever-improving value to customers, contributing
to marketplace success;
2. Improvement of overall organizational effectiveness and
capabilities; and
3. Organizational and Personal Learning,
4. Performance Excellence
Reference: The 2003 Sterling Criteria for Organizational Performance
Excellence, The 2002 Florida Sterling Council, Page 29.

9. What have we found…

10. Sterling Results for Organizational Performance
During the Navigator Site Visit
There are seven categories which are examined during the Navigator
Process. These categories are:
Leadership
Strategies & Planning for School Improvement
Student & Stakeholder Focus
Performance Measurement and Analysis
Faculty and Staff Focus
School Process Management
School Performance Results

11. After the site visit, the visiting team prepares a report which delineates
Strengths and Opportunities For Improvement for each of the seven
categories.
Based on this report, the district prepares an analysis that cites
common areas of Strengths and Opportunities For Improvement for
each of the seven categories. This data is then used as one factor in
the process of determining staff development opportunities that
address school needs.

12. At this time, the district has determined from the data analysis that the
categories of Leadership, Strategies & Planning for School
Improvement, Student & Stakeholder Focus, and Faculty and Staff
Focus have more areas of Strengths.
The categories of Performance Measurement and Analysis, School
Process Management, and School Performance Results have more
areas of Opportunities For Improvement.
The need to use a systematic approach to problem-solving (PDSA)
was also identified.

13. Research Based Experiential
Training

14. For a work unit to be able to work
through change and consider
opportunities for improvement,
certain conditions need to exist.

15. SUCCESSFUL
CHANGE AGENTS
• Make small, often unnoticed, changes
• Work with the inherent wisdom and energy of
a system, rather than at odds with it
• Act from deeply felt values and system
sensitivity, rather than for economic gain or
personal validation
• Respond to a felt need for a change
• Provide clear benefits for the work and risk of
changing

16. TEN THINGS TO DO ABOUT
RESISTANCE
 Acknowledge change as a process
 Empower stakeholders
 Encourage participation by all stakeholders
 Set concrete goals
 Show sensitivity to differences among
individuals

17.  Communicate openly and use
reflective questioning that helps
stakeholders explore their thinking
 Develop strategies for dealing with
emotions
 Manage conflict through negotiation
 Model process skills and actions
 Monitor process dynamics and make
adjustments to ease tensions
TEN THINGS TO DO ABOUT
RESISTANCE

18. REMEMBER…
You can get change,
or you can get credit for it,
But you can’t get both!

19. CHARACTERISTICS OF
PRODUCTIVE WORKING
ENVIRONMENTS
Supportive administrative leadership,
Opportunities to work collaboratively with others,
Opportunities to use one’s knowledge and skill,
Availability of necessary resources to perform one’s job,
Professional development opportunities, and
Effective communication processes.
Seyfarth (1996)

20. THE RULES
The Basic Rules for Institutional Change,
which is the last page of the separate
packet which was provided to you.
Consider which rule you think would be the
most difficult to implement.

21. Learning how to listen to others,
Getting and giving appropriate feedback,
Recognizing non-verbal communication,
Recognizing that people perceive messages
differently,
Using an approach to resolving conflict through
problem solving, and
Encourages employees to take responsibility for their
own actions.
Effective Communication

22. Provide educators with focused, sustained, and
expanded knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy.
Address the alignment of state standards with
instruction and assessment.
Facilitate creative and critical thinking, problem
solving, effective communication, and information
management.
Develop the ability to give meaningful feedback, learn
how to function as a team member, gather resource,
and be able to act as a change agent.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MUST –

23. Implications for Preparing
Education Leaders for the
21st Century

24. Organizations must refocus
their training to include the
emotional system.

25. “Organizations must refocus their training to include
the limbic (emotional) system. They must help
people break old behavioral habits and establish
new ones. That not only takes much more time than
conventional training programs, it also requires an
individualized approach.”
Daniel Goleman, 1998

26. FINDING FLOW
OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE LEVEL
You are in a state of flow when goals are clear, feedback relevant, and
challenges and skills are in balance, and
Attention can then become ordered, focused, and fully invested.
This total involvement, the FLOW, releases energy which, like sparks, ignite you
and others within your influence and enable you to address the
problem/situation/issue at hand.
If a task or assignment resembles a flow activity, the individual is more involved,
the energy produced is greater, and individuals are at an optimum performance
level.

27. Implications of Flow:
Energy is a direct result of higher interest level.
Creativity is at its highest when FLOW is present.
The quality of life is much improved if we learn to love what we
have to do.

28. Conditions of Flow:
Immediate feedback, commensurate challenges and skills…
How can FLOW affect your educational setting?
Based on your current assignment, how could you create an environment where
there is FLOW?

29. Barriers to FLOW
Lack of attention
Challenge too great
Ambiguous goals
Many distractions
Inconsistent feedback
Inadequate and/or inappropriate skills
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Finding Flow. New York: Basic Books, 1997.

30. So What?
How would you like your school to:
• Improve student achievement and overall school
performance?
• Accelerate your school improvement efforts and operate
more effectively?
• Improve accountability by identifying common goals and
key measures?
• Exceed state, community, and other stakeholder
expectations?
• Focus on today’s ever-changing competitive educational
environment?

31. SYSTEMATIC APPROACHES
One Method- Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA)

32. Process - PDSA
Plan – How are you going to attack the problem?
How are you going to collect the data?
Do – Implement, collect data.
Study – Analyze the data.
Act – Make decisions based on the data.
Make changes that result in improvement.

35. DATA-DRIVEN
DECISION MAKING

36. DATA-DRIVEN
DECISION MAKING
Miami-Dade County Public Schools has produced reports on school characteristics,
FCAT Sunshine State Standards and Norm Referenced Test Content Area Results,
an information clearinghouse, and an individual student detail report.
These materials are found in the packet distributed to you. They have been
numbered so that you can follow along with the description.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools: Summary District wide 2000-2001 Florida
Comprehensive assessment test (FCAT)
School Characteristics
School Climate Survey (Pg 4)
Staff Characteristics (Pg 4)
Student and Educational Program Information (Pg 4)
Student Achievement (Pg 5)

37. FCAT Sunshine State Standards Content Area
Results, Grades 3-5, (Pgs 6-11)
Standard curriculum students and all
curriculum groups
FCAT Norm-Referenced Test Content Area Results,
Grades 3-5, (Pgs 12-17)
Standard curriculum students and all
curriculum groups
FCAT Summary Scores, by class/section (Pgs 18-19)

38. School Performance Accountability Results and School
Performance Grade Trends (Pgs 20-21)
FCAT Sunshine State Standards (Reading and
Mathematics Trends), Grades 3-5 (Pgs 22-26)
FCAT Writing Trends for all students, Grade 4 (Pgs 27-33)
Student Membership Trends (Pgs 34-39)
INFORMATION
CLEARINGHOUSE

39. INDIVIDUAL
STUDENT DETAIL
Student Detailed Information (Pg 40)
Student FCAT Scores (Pg 41)

40. Normalizing The Data
• Make sure that you are comparing apples
with apples.
– If comparing apples to oranges, make
sure that you can explain why.
• Common playing field
– Make sure that you have transformed the
data into a common level.
• Percents for Numbers

41. CHOOSING AN
ANALYSIS METHOD
• Choose a method that:

Matches the target (of instruction) and

Aligns with the method of instruction.
• Choose tools from a variety of methods based
on a match with the learning target, subject
matter, and utility.

42. CHOOSING AN
APPROPRIATE TOOL

43. Tools That Drive
Decision Making

44. A way to provide feedback on a
specific topic being addressed. One
side is the Plus side on which
participants list what they felt worked
well. The other side is the Delta side
on which they write the things that
need to improve.
Used to determine what worked well
and what needs improvement.
+ Plus/Delta Chart

45. Specific Example:
For monitoring student and
stakeholder satisfaction
General Examples:
When determining what worked well
and what needs improvement.
When evaluating a process (lesson,
business unit, activity).
TOOL Plus/Delta Chart – SOME EXAMPLES OF
WHEN IT CAN BE USED
+ 

46. Flow Chart
A way of graphically
organizing and analyzing
your current processes
Sequence
Components
Cohesiveness
Used to identify potential
areas for improvements

47. Flow Chart

48. Specific Example:
For monitoring safety and security
issues in order to make
improvements to the school’s
safety procedure.
General Examples:
When planning a project.
When better communication is
needed within the group members.
TOOL Flow Chart – SOME EXAMPLES OF
WHEN IT CAN BE USED

49. SCATTER DIAGRAM
• Used to determine
if two (2) variables
have an effect on
each other
– Positive
correlation
– No correlation
– Negative
correlation
0
20
40
60
80
100
0 20 40 60 80 100
% Homework Completed Spelling
TestScoresSpelling
1st period 2nd period 3rd period

50. Specific Example:
For comparing the relationship
of a student attendance to the
student’s test scores.
General Examples:
When looking for trends or
change in the average.
When identifying trends during
the data collection phase.
TOOL Scatter Diagram – SOME EXAMPLES OF
WHEN IT CAN BE USED
0
20
40
60
80
100
0 20 40 60 80 100

51. Activity
A school in your district received test results
which indicated that students did well in
reading, but the mathematics scores were
considerably lower. Using the PDSA method,
develop a plan of action and select tools for
each stage-PLAN, DO, STUDY, and ACT.

52. Lessons Learned

53. LESSONS LEARNED
• Select a process that can work – PDSA
• Use appropriate data in making decisions
• Incorporate Baldrige/Sterling feedback
• Provide training to enable administrators to work
through change
• Involve staff to prepare them to be an integral
part of the process