Author: Curtis Griffin

Performance Mangement Overview

Curtis Griffin

This approach builds the capacity of educators to use data to prioritize activities that (a) advance core goals, (b) measure progress toward meeting those goals, and (c) make informed decisions regarding the best ways to improve student achievement. Specifically, performance management strategies can aid schools in effectively using data at the school and classroom levels to improve instruction and learning, monitor progress toward goals, and evaluate the effectiveness of decisions.

Overview of Performance Management Principles and Practices

Principle 1: Establish and communicate a strong commitment to evidence-based decision making.

  • Practice 1: The principal establishes a schoolwide data team with ongoing responsibility for promoting and ensuring effective data use.
  • Practice 2: Develop a data-use plan that articulates activities, roles, and responsibilities.
  • Practice 3: Develop common understanding of key terminology among all data users.

Principle 2: Identify and monitor indicators aligned with campus goals.

  • Practice 1: Review lagging data to determine performance goals.
  • Practice 2: Determine indicators for measuring progress toward goals.
  • Practice 3: Establish targets for indicators based on school goals.

Principle 3: Guide and support teachers in the use of data to meet the needs of students and to support them in reaching their goals.

  • Practice 1: Provide targeted professional development and ongoing data support.
  • Practice 2: Designate a school-based facilitator who meets with teachers to discuss data.
  • Practice 3: Dedicate structured time for staff collaboration.
  • Practice 4: Organize and prepare a variety of data about students and student learning.
  • Practice 5: Interpret data and develop theories about how to improve student learning.
  • Practice 6: Modify instruction to test theories and increase student learning.

Principle 4: Guide and support parents and students to stay on track to postsecondary success by selecting goals and monitoring their progress toward those goals.

  • Practice 1: Explain expectations and assessment criteria.
  • Practice 2: Provide feedback to students that is timely, specific, well formatted, and constructive.
  • Practice 3: Provide tools that help students learn from feedback.
  • Practice 4: Use students’ data analyses to guide instructional changes.

Principle 5: Ensure that school-level and student data needs are incorporated into districtwide data management system planning and implementation.

  • Practice 1: Involve a variety of stakeholders in defining user requirements for the system.
  • Practice 2: Plan and implement a data system.

Research Base for Student Goal Setting

Curtis Griffin

Black, A. R., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., & Wiliam, D. (2003). Assessment for learning: Putting it into practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Boudette, K. P., City, E. A., & Murname, R., J. (2008). Data wise: A step-by-step guide to using assessment results to improve teaching and learning (6th ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Bruner, C., Fasca, C., Heinze, J., Honey, M., Light, D., Mandinach, E., & Wexler, D. (2005). Linking data and learning: The Grow Network study. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 10(3), 241-267.

Clymer, J. G., & Wiliam, D. (2007). Improving the way we grade science. Educational Leadership, 64(4), 36-42.

Hamilton, L., Halverson, R., Jackson, S., Mandinach, E., Supovitz, J., & Wayman, J. (2009). Using student achievement data to support instructional decision making (NCEE 2009-4067). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

May, H., & Robinson, M. A. (2007). A randomized evaluation of Ohio’s Personalized Assessment Reporting System (PARS). Philadelphia, PA: Consortium for Policy Research in Education.

Student Feedback Toolkit

Curtis Griffin

Effective Timely Student Feedback
Newsflash! MSMI releases a NEW Student Feedback Toolkit:

Effective, Timely Feedback for Students

There are ways to provide students with formative feedback on assignments, activities, and assessments that promote increased learning. Feedback is most effective when it: (1) is delivered soon after the learning activity or at intermediate points throughout; (2) is specific; (3) does not represent a judgment or evaluation, and (4) provides students with a clear path toward improvement of their work.

Research Base for Writing to Learn

Curtis Griffin

Baker, W. P., Barstack, R., Clark, D., Hull, E., Goodman, B., Kook, J., & … Lang, M. (2008). Writing-to-Learn in the Inquiry-Science Classroom: Effective Strategies from Middle School Science and Writing Teachers. Clearing House: A Journal Of Educational Strategies, Issues And Ideas, 81(3), 105-108.

Bangert-Drowns, R. L., Hurley, M. M., & Wilkinson, B. (2004). The effects of school-based Writing-to-Learn interventions on academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 74, 29-58.

Brown, A. L., & Day, J. D. (1983). Macrorules for summarizing texts: The development of expertise. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22, 1-14.

Chapman, S. B., Sparks, G., Levin, H. S., Dennis, M., Roncadin, C., Zhang, L., & Song, J. (2000). Discourse macrolevel processing after severe pediatric traumatic brain injury. Developmental Neuropsychology, 25(1&2), 37-60.

Dlugokienski, A., & Sampson, V. (2008). Learning to Write and Writing to Learn in Science: Refutational Texts and Analytical Rubrics. Science Scope, 32(3), 14-19.

Effeney, G., Carroll, A., & Bahr, N. (2013). Self-regulated learning and executive function: Exploring the relationships in a sample of adolescent males. Educational Psychology, 33(7), 773-796.

Gabriel, R., & Dostal, H. (2015). Interactive Writing in the Disciplines: A Common Core Approach to Disciplinary Writing in Middle and High School. Clearing House: A Journal Of Educational Strategies, Issues And Ideas, 88(2), 66-71.

Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2010). Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading. Commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellence in Education.

Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2011). Writing to read: A meta-analysis of the impact of writing and writing instruction on reading. Harvard Educational Review, 81(4), 710-744.

Graham, S., & Perrin, D. (2007). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(3), 445-476.

Gunel, M., Hand, B., & Prain, V. (2007). Writing for Learning in Science: A Secondary Analysis of Six Studies. International Journal Of Science And Mathematics Education, 5(4), 615-637.

Hebert, M., Gillespie, A., & Graham, S. (2013). Comparing effects of different writing activities on reading comprehension: A meta-analysis. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 26(1), 111-138.

Reed, D. K. (2006). Time’s up: How to Stop Running out of Time for Writing across the Curriculum. Journal Of Staff Development, 27(3), 36-42.

Sampson, V., Enderle, P., Grooms, J., & Witte, S. (2013). Writing to Learn by Learning to Write during the School Science Laboratory: Helping Middle and High School Students Develop Argumentative Writing Skills as They Learn Core Ideas. Science Education, 97(5), 643-670.

Tilstra, J., & McMaster, K. L. (2013). Cognitive processes of middle grade readers when reading expository text with an assigned goal. Learning and Individual Differences, 28, 66-74.

Research Base for Using Adult Advocates

Curtis Griffin

Larson, K. A., & Rumberger, R. W. (1995). ALAS: Achievement for Latinos through academic success. In Thornton, E. (Ed.), Staying in school: A technical report of three dropout prevention projects for middle school students with learning and emotional disabilities. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration.

McPartland, J. A., & Nettles, S. M. (1991). Using community adults as advocates or mentors for at-risk

Sinclair, M. F., Christenson, S. L., Evelo, D. L., & Hurley, C. M. (1998). Dropout prevention for youth with disabilities: Efficacy of a sustained school engagement procedure. Exceptional Children, 65 (1), 7-21.

Smink, J. (1990). Mentoring programs for at-risk youth: A dropout prevention research report. Clemson, SC: National Dropout Prevention Center.