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GENESIS SCHOOL
Client Project:
Teacher Coaching & Professional Development +
Data Analysis & Intervention
Genesis School was seeking a content expert to lead the 3rd through 8th grade math department. The ultimate goal was to increase student understanding and performance on assessments, but along the way, the school leaders wanted to invest in and develop their math teachers in becoming stronger educators. The school requested an approach that would deepen teachers' content knowledge, support them in modifying curriculum to meet the needs of their students, and assist them in analyzing and responding to student data following each major interim assessment.
Solution:
Dana Coleman created a strategic plan that incorporated guided, hands-on professional development sessions and individual teacher coaching. The team kicked off their work with a 3-day math intensive professional development series in the summer the led teachers through the process of analyzing their interim assessments and modifying their curriculum to better scaffold for learning. Teachers engaged in the process of modifying one unit together before being released to guided work time to modify their own grade level curriculum. One of the highlights of the PD series was when teachers participated in a model of a lived lesson, allowing them to envision the exemplar for lesson planning and execution.
Following the summer intensive, Dana Coleman met with teachers every other month throughout the year to analyze student data on interim assessments. Teachers took part in sessions that demonstrated how to break down the low performing skills and plan a strategic reteach to increase student mastery on the next assessment. Additionally, one-on-one follow-ups were scheduled for any teachers needing additional support in the planning of their reteaches or who wanted feedback on their execution of the reteaches in the classroom.
OUTCOME
The results continue to be truly remarkable. Following each Data Analysis & Intervention PD session, we've seen incredible growth in the mastery of skills prioritized. After the first round of data interventions, we saw five of the six grade levels increase student performance on the reteaches, four grade levels of which showed double digit growth! The following round, we saw 100% of grade levels increase student performance on the prioritized reteaches, showing that as teachers become more familiar with the process of analyzing data and planning targeted reteaches, their instruction has a greater impact on students' understanding of skills that were previously low performing.
In addition to increased performance on prioritized reteaches, we've seen teachers' performance increase over time, not just month to month, but in comparison to their results teaching the same content in previous years. After just four months of support from Dana Coleman, four out of six grade levels demonstrated student mastery at higher levels than they were at the same point in the previous year. Furthermore, five of the six grade levels are showing gains over time at a higher rate than previous years, meaning if they maintain this pace, they will outperform the previous year's results!
All of these results are exceptional, but considering these skills were taught virtually throughout the pandemic makes them even more unprecedented. This illustrates a core belief at Dana Coleman Consulting, that growth and progress can happen under even the most challenging of circumstances when teachers and students have the appropriate supports in place.
