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‘Data Room’ Keeps Teachers, Students Focused on Goals

(Ericka Mellon/Houston Chronicle)
Welcome to the war room at Sharps­town High School.

Labeled magnets cling to walls from floor to ceiling, loaded with data about students – their past test scores, their likelihood of passing upcoming state exams, their tutoring plan.

Photographs of each teacher hang nearby. Next to them are the average test scores for each of their classes, color coded in green, blue and red marker for high, average and low. Picture a super-size spreadsheet.

“I’m data crazy,” admits Brandi Brevard, the improvement coordinator at Sharpstown and the mastermind behind the room. “You can never have too much information.”

Educators talk often about “data-driven instruction” as a key to improving schools. It’s education jargon, but at Sharpstown, a southwest Houston campus with historically low test scores, the meaning has become clear. Room 233 – otherwise known as “the data room” – is the new meeting place for teachers.

There, they can track their students’ progress, compare test results, spot problem areas and brainstorm ways to improve their lessons. Principal Rob Gasparello jokes that the dizzying display of data gives him a headache, but there’s no escaping the importance of the numbers. Students must pass state exams to graduate, and their scores determine how their schools are rated by state and federal education agencies. Teachers also can get bonuses or pink slips based on how their students do.
(Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle)

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