Scott McLeod’s white papers, Data-Driven Teachers and Technology Tools for Data-Driven Teachers, have been indispensable to me as guides in my own professional development around DDDM, and the podcasts now available at CASTLE Conversations very nicely augment these documents.  I listened with great interest to CASTLE Conversations’ inaugural podcast that featured superintendent Dr. Jan Witthuhn of Mounds View Public Schools in Minnesota. I finished the first podcast yesterday on my way in to work and started to reflect on some of the thoughts and ideas Jan had shared regarding data-driven decision making.

Dr. Witthuhn talked about "Building-Level Instructional Leadership Teams" and the importance of having teachers on board from the beginning so that this kind of data-centered approach to instruction is something that comes from teachers and isn’t forced onto teachers. It is critical that we are working hard at building and maintaining trust through the entire school community.  It is counterproductive to discuss data with a teacher who is intently focused on telling me what he or she thinks I want to hear instead of what he or she actually believes.  I’m smart enough to know that I don’t have all of the answers, and I believe that the cumulative effects of two or more of us looking at the same data set and trying to pick out patterns and trends is far more powerful than any number of us doing the same thing in isolation.  But as Dr. Witthuhn pointed out, trust has to be present in order for these kinds of conversations to take place.  Without it we will not make progress toward the ultimate goal of increasing student achievement. 

In my admittedly limited experience, in situations where trust is lacking I find that the teachers have invariably had some kind of negative experience that has caused them to feel disenfranchised from the organization.  It is incumbent, then, upon us (school-based instructional leaders) to reach out to these teachers and establish some common ground and begin to build, rebuild, and maintain strong, supportive, professional relationships that will lend themselves to working together for kids.

So where do I go from here?  I will keep doing what I’ve been doing.  Even though some may argue that working one teacher at a time is not working quickly enough, it’s certainly enough to keep me motivated and excited to come to work in the morning.