Tyrone Olverson is superintendent of Finneytown Local School District in Ohio. He is a former curriculum director and principal in Licking Heights Local School District, also in Ohio.
Driven by DIVAS (Data, Instruction, Varied Assessments, and Supports)
How do educators focus on improving student achievement when demographics and performance challenges seem insurmountable? The teachers at Licking Heights High School recently addressed this question head on and came up with DIVAS.
Located ten miles east of Columbus, Ohio, Licking Heights High School has experienced 130% student growth over the past 10 years. The 850+ students represent 22 different nationalities, with 40% minority, 10% Somali, and 40% of them on free-reduced lunches. Overall, scores on the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) were trending and declining, especially in mathematics and science. Licking Heights had never met the science indicator, where 75% of the student population must demonstrate mastery on roughly 48% of the 10th grade OGT science questions.
Challenged by the district superintendent to improve student achievement, Licking Heights administrators and educators decided to focus on the four critical questions of professional learning communities (DuFour, DuFour, and Eaker, 2003).
Educators used the questions to prepare their standards-aligned lesson plans and create weekly common formative assessments. These were given to students in the same course (different teachers) on the same day so that teachers would have relevant and timely data to discuss. After-school Friday meetings prepared teachers for planning for the upcoming weekly lesson(s). Students who didn’t score 70% or greater (the minimum for student mastery) were retaught the formative assessments. At the conclusion of each assessment, department teachers met to discuss their student achievement data. The sharing of data and honest feedback/discussion around these questions provided a laser focus on the professional learning needs of the department.
From this process, Licking Heights educators created DIVAS, a model that asked administration and teachers to be driven by data, instruction, variance, assessment, and support, as follows:
- Data from students
- Improvements in classroom instructional practices
- Varied, formative classroom assessments
- Support for students as response and intervention
All department members answered the following DIVAS questions in order to identify department strengths and weaknesses, and next steps for improved student achievement.
- The data suggest… / The data confirms/verifies…
- I observed that… / I am surprised that I witnessed…
- Some patterns/trends noticed were…
- What instructional strategies might we employ so that…
- I wonder if I/we… because...
- How might we…
Having staff members meet on a regular basis as DIVAS has yielded greater trust amongst department members and higher student achievement at Licking Heights High School. Documentation of the staff success is evident when compared to prior OGT data, especially amongst student groups. Data from the Ohio Department of Education that was released August 24, 2011 further supports the staff member practices in raising student achievement (ODE data attached).
Comments
Trina
I enjoyed reading this blog. As I read through the blog I realized that other schools around the nation were also creating common formative assessments. It was encouraging to me to see the data collected and the matching results because it really does prove that the effort teachers are putting into creating these assessments is working. It also proves that reflection and collaboration around these assessments has to take place in order to respond to the students who are struggling.
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JackieB
I need to start building a chart, but I feel it is so much work. For now, I have an observation binder. When students are working in their centers or right after they leave the class, I take just a few notes on each student to keep track of their progress.
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JackieB
You should mixed formative assessments with just a couple of summative. It will give a more rounded assessment of student performance.
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JackieB
Wow! That is awesome how that works. Maybe I can collaberate with colleagues in my department to think of something like that, that may work.
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JackieB
You are very welcome. If you need any ideas, let me know.
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JackieB
My pleasure Arod.
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SWEETYPIE720
This blog was a great read. It shows me that the things my school are starting to immplement is what will really help the students. After any assessments we take at our school we have a data meeting with our team and administration. During this meeting we display our students scores to show how well the class did overall and how well the other classes on your grade level also. We talk about the test benchmark it is convering. And we discuss how we know that they have learned the benchmark. We talk about what we should do if the haven't and if they have what should we do to enrich them. These are all things the blog talks about.For our PLC we are also reading Boys in Poverty by Ruby Payne as a book study for our school. We post discussions on the book and reply to other collegues. We also come together as a group 5 different times throughout the year to talk about the chapters we have read in the stories. It just gives me a great feeling to see that we as a school are taking the steps to become better educators which will make our school better.
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Arod2011
Epieper, great ideas. I'm also going to take them back to my school. Thanks!
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Arod2011
JackieB, that's a great idea "revisiting". I have the same problem of time management. Our schedules are so crammed, we rarely have time to reteach a full lesson. I like the idea of revisiting, it doesn't sound so negative.
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Arod2011
My school has also been doing PLC's for a few years now, but we've been running out of steam with them lately. It would be a wonderful practice to focus on, but I am at a loss in my grade level group because many of us don't get along. Several teachers feel that data chats are a competition and since I have the low performing students this year, I end up feeling down in the dumps often. I love the DIVAS acronym as well.
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sjmanzo
Our school meets for horizontal grade level PLC's every week for an hour and fifteen minutes. We take an individual look at each students progress, from the data we have collected and then make decisions based from that data. Basically we are using DIVA's but we have never called it that. I think I will bring this acronym back to my PLC committee as a way of reminding ourselves what we are there to accomplish and how to stay on task.
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mandiemeyer
Our school has been doing PLC's for several years now. It has varied over the years which made it very challenging for teachers to really buy into that it could be successful. As we have gotten more into the PLC's and had more of a focus for the entire year, it has been more successful. I have found our PLC committees to be a very strong support system because we have analyzed data, reviewed lesson plans, looked over assessments, and much more. We have seen tremendous growth in both the student's work and our teaching. That reflection time with one another has made us stronger teachers.
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Purcell_jennifer
I love this idea. The school I teach at uses the common assessments. We also meet as a grade level team. I am in the process of talking to our administration about creating small group time in order to reteach the missed learnings. For now I will be doing the small group reteaching during my planning time. I do not mind doing this because I can see the progress. After all isn't that why we teach? I would be interested in getting some ideas on ways to compile the data more efficiently. Right now I am spending a tremendous amount of time charting all the data.
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Special Teach
My principal just today mentioned wanting to start PLC's at our school. I think they sound exciting but I just don't know when there will be time..!!
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Okemia
I agree, the DIVA approach is straight to the point and easy to remember. Are you going to share it eith your staff?
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Okemia
We just started PLC's this year and I will be sharing this blog with my team-mates. Hopefully, the DIVA approach will get them excited.
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HMarcink
I like the ideas of centers. Maybe at the end of each week, I can have centers incorporating the main concepts we learned that week. I can work closely with the struggling students' group and allow students that understand the content to apply it in some way. Thanks for the suggestions!
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lmosborn
We had many PLC gatherings as a school and district where I taught. While much of the material was very beneficial I often found that as soon as the introduced one plan it was just as quickly being swept under the rug to make way for a new plan. It amounted to a lot of wasted time. It is unfortunate because so many of the new ideas they were bringing in could have done wonders in the school if they had just been given a chance. DIVAS is an excellent guide that I think would be very beneficial when implementing a plan of action!
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lmosborn
I agree that getting teachers to stay late on a Friday can be challenging. I personally, like having my lessons completed by the weekend so that I can reflect and prepare what I will teach the following week over that weekend. Maybe it would be a good idea to meet on a Wednesday or Thursday. Thursdays are a great day of review and perhaps you could observe student work through a study guide that is the same throughout classes to see what is working and what is not! Hope this is helpful. Any other ideas?
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lmosborn
The idea of pre-teaching at the end of the day is excellent! I feel like the students will not feel threatened because it is at the end of the day and it is new material. Like you said, their confidence will increase when they are familiar with the material being taught in class that day. They will feel more comfortable participation and will be more likely to stay engaged and focused on the lesson because they have background knowledge!
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LLaunius
Eieper:
This is a great approach! I think this idea would really work at the school I am at now. I will be mentioning this to my fellow teachers too. Thanks for your imput.
I also like the idea of pre-teaching. I can see where this would be very beneficial!
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Wrangler1
Our school is only in the second year of doing school wide Professional Learning Communities. There is another school in our district that has been doing it for six years and they have been very helpful in helping us to understand the process, but each school needs to develop their own "Community", which allows you to focus on your student population. I think the best thing about PLCs is that they are continually growing and changing to meet teacher and student needs. I do like the DIVAS acronym. It is to the point and easy to remember as your main goal.
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epieper
I know a school in my district handles re-teaching in a way I would like to get my team to try. I am one of four kindergarten teachers at my school. All of our elementary schools are set up in four-grade units such as this. One of the schools administers the common assessment and reviews the results that day after school. The students are then "grouped" the very next day for a lesson based on those that need the re-teach, those that are on track, and an enrichment group. The teacher who had the highest success rate for the assessment is the one who takes the re-teach group. It is effective for the school that does it this way. As I said, I am trying to get my other three team members on board to try this approach. Another technique my school does is pre-teaching, mainly for reading. During the last five minutes of the school day, I pull my struggling students to do a quick pre-teach of the material to be covered the next day during our reading core. This is only the third week of implementation, so I do not have accurate data, but I have seen an increase in their confidence and their attention during the next day's lesson. I hope this helps. The idea for bringing in the retired teacher is powerful. I hope it works!
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epieper
JackieB, My school is currently operating in PLC's in our horizontal grade levels, and vertically based on the areas of academic improvement, school safety, and parent involvement. We meet once a week for each PLC, and I am finding in each 40 minute meeting, we do not have enough time to cover the data we need to. How often do your PLC's meet? How long is your common planning period?
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JackieB
Maybe some of your schools do not have PLC, but do they have some other type of meeting or communities (does not have to be formal) that is similar to what PLCs involve?
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JackieB
Also, through these center activities, you can challenge those who need enrichment in their education.
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JackieB
How about look at it as revisiting, instead of re-teaching? Is there a way you can provide a mixed review or perhaps a "mini-lesson" later in the week where you can try your new strategy? I like to use centers after I teach a variety of lessons to the students. Centers give me another chance to not only assess my students understanding, but to also help my students reflect on their learning. More relevant to what you are asking, you can meet with a small group while others are workin in their centers to assistant in a deeper understanding of which ever concepts they are struggling with. What do you think?
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stacyb
I work with PLCs at my school, and I will be sharing the DIVAS idea at our next meeting. I really like the V and A portions. Often I get stuck in the habit of using the same type of assessments, and this would be a great reminder for me to use. I am trying to do a variety of quick formative assessments, but longer summative assessments tend to all be paper pencil. This will surely help at PLC meetings. Thanks for sharing the great ideas!
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LLaunius
I love this idea! DIVAS is a very cute and catching title. However, getting teachers to stay on Fridays...How did you do it? I can not imagine any of our teachers being willing to stay on a Friday afternoon.
The DIVA approach would be so good for us. We are known in our district as basically the "other school". Our kids are normally very high achieving and seldom need any extra help. However, in the past few years those lower students are trickling in. Because of what are test scores "have" been, we can not get any extra tutoring or interventionists. A PLC at this point is almost a must have. I am going to be using this approach when I address my administration again.
We do not have a PLC in my school. I would love to be a part of one and I truly think it would be so beneficial. From my research on PLC I have found nothing but good coming from them. I hope to be able to get one started in my school. :)
To HMarcink:
Something that I have seen our 4th grade teachers do is gett those students that are high achievers and have them do some tutoring. You benefit by working with the really low ones and the students feel a sense of accountability and leadership. :)
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HMarcink
I also like this idea. I have been creating and implementing assessments with another teacher who also teaches 4th grade math. We have just recently started doing this and it seems to be working well so far. We are able to compare data on scores and offer strategies of how we are teaching certain topics. This allows us to play on each others strengths and get help with our weaknesses. I like how this school's program was required by all teachers and how they were given planning time to do so. Due to lack of staff and planning time, I do not have time to reteach the students who do not get desired grade on the assessment in a small group setting. We are working on trying to get a retired teacher to come in a few days a week during recess to reteach some of these concepts. Do you have any other suggestions on how this re-teaching could occur?
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JackieB
I must have forgotten to mention. Within the PLCs, we discuss patterns in students' work to improve our instructional strategies or help the students in some other way. Keeping samples of students' work is a great way to compare work throughout different classes and subject areas. It is easy to create individual, student portfolios in this way, as well.
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JackieB
Hey TKirk. My school is involved in PLC (Professional Learning Communities). We, as teachers, meet durng out common planning period or during out lunch to discuss concerns within our classrooms as well as individual students who may need more enrichment or who may need extra assistance in their learning. I am a Basic Skills Mathematics teacher; therefore I have a more extensive duty compared to that of a "regular" teacher. When everyone else just meets with their academic team, I must meet with my student's individual math teacher, ESL teacher (at times), Special Education teacher (sometimes), and Child Study Team (other times). In addition, I must meet with the other Basic Skills teachers to discuss our own teaching methods and progress within the program. We keep in touch through e-mails as well to make it a bit easier at times. Although this seems like an emmense amount of work, it is all worth it in the end. Afterall, we became teachers for a reason, right? We will do anything and everything to better prepare our students for their future. This is an effective way to do so.
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TKirk
I like this idea. My school is in academic recovery. We are as a staff currently reading a book on school turn around. In our group discussions with our principal, one of the things mentioned is more collaboration between grades on specific subject matter. I like how Licking Heights addresses this issue.
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