Design and Data in Balance
| Author | : Susan Fairchild |
| Publisher | : |
| Total Pages | : 36 |
| Release | : 2014 |
| Genre | : |
| ISBN | : |
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Data-driven approaches to school decision making have come into widespread use in the past decade, nationally and in New York City. New Visions has been at the forefront of those developments: in New Visions schools, teacher teams and school teams regularly examine student performance data to understand patterns and drive classroom- and school-level improvements. Since 2007, the New Visions in-house data team has produced an extensive array of data and analytic frameworks, intended to give educators a clear picture of what's happening in their schools and the detailed information they need to improve their practice. New Visions also recognizes the importance of school design. Since 2001, they have guided dozens of teams of educators through the process of designing small high schools, helping them to create coherent, complex school organizations--each one unique while also adhering to a set of common design principles, such as personalized learning environments, school-based professional development, and integration of technology into teaching and learning. To gain a better understanding of the dynamic between data and design, the New Visions data team took a closer look at schools that have used thoughtful approaches to achieve impressive results. This study describes how teachers and school leaders at New York City's High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology (familiarly known as Telly) used data and design to strengthen programming for students in grades 9 and 10, thereby improving outcomes for all students. The report begins by clarifying the school's vision and its essential mental models--particularly its belief that investing in students' success in grades 9 and 10 pays off powerfully for the entire school. It then looks at how that mental model is expressed in programmatic and organizational structures that help meet students' needs and enable meaningful transactions among educators. Finally, it examines student performance data and describes how, through design-driven analysis of those data, the school has thoughtfully engineered structures that help students make steady progress toward meeting the demands of high school graduation and postsecondary readiness. The report concludes with lessons for supporting student success. Two appendices present: (1) additional information about how the New York City Department of Education identifies peer schools and Telly's performance on various measures; and (2) additional information on New Visions' student performance metrics. [Foreword by Carmen Farią.].
