Into the Wilderness We Trudge...

5ish years ago my building (and ultimately, corporation) implemented the 8 Step Process. In a nutshell, it is a data management philosophy based on the business model plan-do-act-check. It is painful to implement, and can be very time consuming. As a building we jumped in with both feet and raised our school grade from an F to an A less than a year (though the state wouldn't let us have the A the first year since we'd had an F, a rule they've since changed). 

I now have the opportunity to lead some others into the process, albeit on a limited basis.  Looking at it from this perspective, it is still somewhat time consuming, but having 5 years experience in this data-driven system makes all the difference. It seems easy now, and almost fun. I love that they trust me to lead them through this process and cannot wait to see the results. I also love that I can use my integration to provide resources, allowing the students to learn as digital natives and gather life skills. 

There are some that say this is teaching to the test.  When you are reinforcing skills and standards, which is what the curriculum is, I fail to see how it could be teaching to the test. You're giving struggling students a chance to learn material differently and gain ground. You're also giving high students a chance to spiral up and work on more difficult material.  Our focus today is so narrow and geared toward passing a test, we often neglect those that pass with ease, doing them a disservice. The "success" classes give students a chance to learn core material from teachers they don't normally have. As a music teacher, I welcomed the chance to teach other content (I'm weird like that). This gives the high a chance to move upward, the middle a chance to grow and the low a chance to catch up.

Warren Township School Corp in Indianapolis is the poster child for this successful system. In a data driven world, how can you doubt the data?