C. Central office administrators told the review team that until the 2016-2017 school year certain instructional leadership team members from the elementary-, middle-, and high-school levels representing the content areas of literacy, mathematics, and social-emotional learning had been meeting biweekly in vertical groups known as networks. Each group was facilitated by a central office representative with expertise in the content area. 1. Administrators said that the district wanted to build a great schools culture by moving responsibility to the schools, but this depended on the viability of the network meetings which were intended to coordinate the curriculum and organize and standardize assessment practices. 2. Central office administrators, department heads, and teachers told the review team that although the social-emotional learning network continues to meet regularly, the literacy and mathematics networks are meeting less frequently because there are fewer facilitators. They added that this has slowed the pace of progress. a. Teachers and department heads described many ad hoc vertical planning meetings in literacy and mathematics held outside of school hours; however, these meetings are voluntary, irregular, and unreliable as a consistent means of coordination. D. Central office administrators and principals said that the schools were mostly on their own in interpreting data, leaving the least data proficient schools at a disadvantage. The principals said that they always received support from the central office whenever they requested it, noting that the district no longer is able to provide continuous guidance and monitoring. 1. Central office administrators and teachers cited schools they considered proficient in using data. Typically, these schools were led by principals who were trained in data analysis. 2. The district has six new principals. Central office administrators told the review team that the new principals would likely have to learn about assessment practices from their own instructional leadership teams. 3. Teachers and principals told the review team that some of the most data proficient teachers were among the 46 teachers who left the district at the end of the 2015-2016 school year. They added that without department heads and content area specialists in the schools, data analysis “would not be done.” E. The district share data on progress and outcome measures efficiently. 1. The 2016-2017 School Committee/Superintendent Goals include the development of a performance management dashboard to track and monitor strategic-plan progress and outcomes. a. A data dashboard is an information management tool that visually tracks, analyzes, and displays key performance metrics and key data points to monitor the health of an
C. Central office administrators told the review team that until the 2016-2017 school year certain instructional leadership team members from the elementary-, middle-, and high-school levels representing the content areas of literacy, mathematics, and social-emotional learning had been meeting biweekly in vertical groups known as networks. Each group was facilitated by a central office representative with expertise in the content area. 1. Administrators said that the district wanted to build a great schools culture by moving responsibility to the schools, but this depended on the viability of the network meetings which were intended to coordinate the curriculum and organize and standardize assessment practices. 2. Central office administrators, department heads, and teachers told the review team that although the social-emotional learning network continues to meet regularly, the literacy and mathematics networks are meeting less frequently because there are fewer facilitators. They added that this has slowed the pace of progress. a. Teachers and department heads described many ad hoc vertical planning meetings in literacy and mathematics held outside of school hours; however, these meetings are voluntary, irregular, and unreliable as a consistent means of coordination. D. Central office administrators and principals said that the schools were mostly on their own in interpreting data, leaving the least data proficient schools at a disadvantage. The principals said that they always received support from the central office whenever they requested it, noting that the district no longer is able to provide continuous guidance and monitoring. 1. Central office administrators and teachers cited schools they considered proficient in using data. Typically, these schools were led by principals who were trained in data analysis. 2. The district has six new principals. Central office administrators told the review team that the new principals would likely have to learn about assessment practices from their own instructional leadership teams. 3. Teachers and principals told the review team that some of the most data proficient teachers were among the 46 teachers who left the district at the end of the 2015-2016 school year. They added that without department heads and content area specialists in the schools, data analysis “would not be done.” E. The district share data on progress and outcome measures efficiently. 1. The 2016-2017 School Committee/Superintendent Goals include the development of a performance management dashboard to track and monitor strategic-plan progress and outcomes. a. A data dashboard is an information management tool that visually tracks, analyzes, and displays key performance metrics and key data points to monitor the health of an
fall-river-comprehensive-district-review-report-2016.docx