Standard 2.

8
These artifacts are the Data Overview and Action Plans 1 and 2 from ITEC
7305, Data Analysis and School Improvement course. These artifacts were
completed as individual assignments for the course. The purpose of the data
overview project was to gather data in areas of school improvement, design
and present a plan that shows the needs for the school, and come up with a
discussion on how those areas could be improved. The purpose of the Action
Plans were to determine a school need which was outlined in the data
overview and design a plan that included research-based strategies for
improvement, those involved in the plan, the steps involved in the plan, and
the goal that was to be met.
This artifact demonstrates mastery of PSC Standard 2.8 because it shows my
ability to model and facilitate the use of digital resources to collect, analyze,
and interpret student achievement results. For the data overview I had to
apply what I learned from the content in the class, the professional
knowledge that would apply to the assignment and the skills necessary to
carry out the process of data collection and presentation. I had to research
using state and school data that was associated with our school, grade level,
and special populations to determine where students were having difficulties.
I had to use digital resources located online and within the schools data
collection to collect the data. I had to analyze the data using digital
resources and organizational tools to figure out why students had difficulties
in certain areas, and what was currently being done to help students. After
gathering the data and sorting it out to the appropriate sub-groups, and
interpreting the results I had to create a presentation using presentation
digital tools that would be shown to the faculty and staff at my school to help
them understand our current position in student learning. I had to end the
presentation with discussions that would prompt teachers in each grade level
and content area to come up with plans to meet student needs. All of these
skills were learned through various modules throughout the course and used
to complete the assignment. After presenting the information and discussing
with team members, I had to design the action plan that the team came up
with. Based on certain needs, we determined that there needed to be more
support for students with disabilities and that there were plenty of resources
to add more intervention programs to help those students out.

I learned through this experience how research and data collection are
extremely important in education and how teachers should consistently
participate in the process to make a positive impact in their schools. I
learned that presenting information clearly is just as important as gathering
the information and data because if teachers cant fully understand the
issues at hand then the motivation to make changes will not be there as
much as I would like. I learned that it takes time to gather data and put it all
together but that it will be extremely beneficial in making a positive change
at the school. To improve this artifact, I would combine teachers from areas
where student needs were most prominent. This would allow the team to
understand what types of constraints those teachers were under so that
better interventions could be enforced.
This positively impacts the school and staff by determining if the professional
development and other learning for teachers that has been offered were
effective or not. Faculty can understand if they need to improve more in
some areas compared to others and organize their teaching based on the
feedback from a data overview. By coming up with a decisions on the data,
school leaders can determine if they need to make changes and adjustments
which will positively affect the school environment and the strategies
teachers use. Students will benefit by having proven credible teaching
strategies used in their classes to engage them in their learning experiences.
This impact can be assessed by teacher observations, administration
observations, and teacher and student feedback, and different types of data
that occur throughout the year.