The Data Coachâ s Guide to Improving Learning for All Students: Unleashing the Power of Collaborative Inquiry

"This book offers a compelling message of hope and resolve. The authors′ three-year journey in a multiplicity of diverse, underperforming, high-poverty schools across the nation has resulted in a treasure chest of knowledge and experiences about how to professionally develop data coaches in ways that benefit some of our most underserved students. This book provides powerful resources to those who have the belief, passion, and desire for implementing collaborative data inquiries in schools and districts."
―From the Foreword by Ruth S. Johnson

Use data as an effective tool for school change and improvement!

How can data coaches create a collaborative culture in which data is used continuously and effectively to improve teaching and learning?

The Data Coach′s Guide to Improving Learning for All Students provides detailed guidance for helping schools move away from unproductive data practices and toward examining data as a catalyst for systematic and continuous improvement in instruction and student learning. To help both current and aspiring data coaches facilitate school-based data teams and lead teachers in collaborative inquiry, the authors demonstrate a data model that has been field-tested and proven to be effective in:

• Narrowing achievement gaps between students in all content areas and grade levels
• Achieving strong, steady gains in local and state assessments in mathematics, science, and reading
• Using data as a springboard for powerful conversations about race/ethnicity, class, educational status, gender, and language differences
• Developing shared values and a vision for creating a high-performing, data-informed school culture

This culturally responsive resource benefits staff developers, teachers, and administrators interested in creating change through effective data practices, and includes a CD-ROM keyed to the book, with templates, handouts, PowerPoint slides, resources, and sample goals and agendas.

Nancy Love is Director of Program Development at Research for Better Teaching in Acton, Massachusetts, where she leads this education-consulting group’s research and development. She is the former Director of the Using Data Project, a collaboration between TERC and WestEd, where she led the development of a comprehensive professional development program to improve teaching and learning through effective and collaborative use of school data. This program has produced significant gains in student achievement as well as increased collaboration and data use in schools across the country. Love has authored several books and articles on data use, including A Data Coach’s Guide to Improving Learning for All Students: Unleashing the Power of Collaborative Inquiry (2008, Corwin Press) and Using Data to Improve the Learning for All: A Collaborative Inquiry Approach (2009, Corwin). She is also well known for her work in professional development both as a presenter and author of articles and books, including Designing Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics (Second Edition) with Susan Loucks-Horsley, Kathy Stiles, Susan Mundry, and Peter Hewson (2003, Corwin Press). In 2006, she was awarded the prestigious Susan Loucks-Horsley Award from the National Staff Development Council in recognition of her significant national contribution to the field of staff development and to the efficacy of others.

Katherine E. Stiles is a Senior Program Associate in the STEM Program at WestEd. Katherine is Co-Director of WestEd’s National Academy for Science and Mathematics Education Leadership, providing professional development and support for education leaders nationwide. The foci of the Leadership Academy–effective leadership, educational change, professional development and communities of learners, facilitation, and using data and evidence to achieve results–are reflected in the book, (2013). She designs and leads science and mathematics education program evaluation projects at the school, district, state, and national level, focusing on assessing the quality of professional development, and the relationship between teachers’ conceptual learning, changes in practice, and student learning. Katherine works with schools and districts to enhance student learning through the development of collaborative inquiry into data among staff as part of her work on the Using Data Project and as co-author of (2008). She was co-director of an NSF-funded project, Building Systems for Quality Teaching and Learning in Science, that resulted in the publication of professional development materials and a simulation board game on science education. The project extended the work of the seminal book on professional development that she co-authored, (2010). Prior to joining WestEd in 1995, Katherine worked at the National Science Resources Center in Washington, D.C., as a science curriculum developer and authored four curriculum units for the program.

Susan Mundry is currently deputy director of Learning Innovations at WestEd and the associate director of WestEd’s Mathematics, Science, and Technology Program. She directs several national or regional projects focused on improving educational practice and oversees the research and evaluation projects of Learning Innovations. She is codirector of a research study examining the distribution of highly qualified teachers in New York and Maine for the Northeast & Islands Regional Education Laboratory and is the project codirector for the evaluation of the Intel Mathematics Initiative, a professional development program for elementary and middle grades teachers aimed at increasing student outcomes in mathematics. She is also a Principal Investigator for two National Science Foundation projects that are developing products to promote the use of research-based practice in science and mathematics. Since 2000, Mundry has codirected the National Academy for Science and Mathematics Education Leadership, which provides educational leaders with training and technical assistance on professional development design, leading educational change, group facilitation, data analysis and use, and general educational leadership, as well as access to research-based information to improve teaching and learning. Building on this work, she provides technical assistance to several large urban schools districts engaged in enhancing leadership and improving math and science programs.

As a senior research associate for the National Institute for Science Education (1997-2000), Mundry conducted research on attributes of effective professional development. She served on the national evaluation team for the study of the Eisenhower Professional Development program led by the American Institutes for Research, where she worked on the development of national survey instruments and the protocols for case studies. From 1982 to 1997, Mundry served in many roles from staff developer to associate director at The NETWORK, Inc., a research and development organization focused on organizational change and dissemination of promising education practice. There, she managed the work of the National Center for Improving Science Education and the Center for Effective Communication, provided technical assistance to schools on issues of equity and desegregation, oversaw national dissemination programs, and co-developed the “Change Game,” (Making Change for School Improvement) a simulation game that enhances leaders’ ability to lead change efforts in schools and districts.

Mundry has written several books, chapters, and articles based on her work. She is coauthor of the best selling book, Designing Effective Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics (2nd edition), as well as Leading Every Day: 125 Actions for Effective Leadership, which was named a National Staff Development Council Book of the Year in 2003. Her latest book is The Data Coach’s Guide to Improving Learning for All Students (2008).