What Gets Measured Gets Done: Data Driven Instruction

Background

Port Gibson Middle School in Claiborne County, MS, has an enrollment of 374 students in grades 6-8. 100% of the students receive free and reduced lunches, and almost 100% of the students are African American. The year prior to Generation Ready partnering with Port Gibson, the school received a state accountability rating of “F.” The teachers at Port Gibson felt no sense of urgency to improve the school’s “F” rating, motivation was low, and teacher absenteeism was problematic. Expectations for increasing student achievement and improving poor behavior were also low.

Generation Ready partnered with Port Gibson Middle School for Teacher Coaching in Language Arts (20 days), Math (19 days) and Science (7 days), and Principal Mentoring (21 days). During the partnership, Generation Ready’s education consultants focused on:

• Expectations – Teachers were provided guidance in increasing their expectations for their students, generating an environment among the teachers and the school to promote high expectations for student success.
• Rigor – Generation Ready’s education consultants supported teachers in developing and aligning curriculum to drive instruction, increasing the rigor of instruction in order to prepare students for the state assessment
• Instructional Improvement – Education consultants collaborated with both teachers and the principal to create an understanding of how to develop, plan, and deliver effective lesson plans, including introducing objectives, teaching to the objectives, and using specific strategies for closure to check for understanding. Education consultants modeled best practice instruction for teachers and assisted in implementing plans of improvement using data to illustrate why certain procedures were used
• Content Instruction – Education consultants instructed teachers in content areas in which they were not familiar, instructing teachers in appropriate strategies in content delivery to their students using specific evidence-based strategies
• Observation and Data Collection – The principal was mentored to understand and identify effective and ineffective teaching instruction through the use of observations. This included assisting walkthrough observations, where the principal and education consultants would observe teachers in practice, gather and analyze data, and provide constructive, tangible and attainable feedback
• Assessments – Teachers worked with the education consultants to develop common and informal assessments, analyzing and interpreting the data and results of the assessments to drive instruction to increase student achievement

Outcomes of the Work

As a result of the support received from Generation Ready, the school’s achievement improved, as illustrated above. The principal and the teachers used the mentoring that they received from Generation Ready’s education consultants to adjust their teaching methods and use data to drive instruction so that they could see growth progress with their students. Additionally, the principal and teachers understood the importance of instructional focus and continue their efforts to increase the performance of Port Gibson Middle School, in both teacher motivation and student achievement.