Great Lakes East
Comprehensive Center

Great Lakes East and the Ohio Department of Education

A Look Back at Year 4

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has made a concerted effort to develop a common language of district and school improvement, increase understanding of improvement processes, and provide universal access to data tools aligned with the Ohio Improvement Process. This process articulates four stages: (1) identify critical needs of districts and schools, (2) develop a focused plan, (3) implement and monitor the focused plan, and (4) evaluate the improvement process.

In its Year 4 work, Great Lakes East Comprehensive Center focused on collaborative efforts with the state-level design team to articulate structures and processes to support district and building leadership teams as they implement and monitor focused improvement plans (Stage 3). An ODE internal and external workgroup has identified key indicators at the building, district, regional, and state levels that will help evaluate the effectiveness of the Ohio Improvement Process (Stage 4). A critical part of the work has been the design and implementation of training for state support teams focused on Stages 1 and 2. State support teams also facilitated regionally based training for staff of educational service centers (ESCs).

In addition, Great Lakes East helped ODE and its partners to design data tools (Decision Framework and Ohio Data Primer) and professional development data modules to support the effective use of data by all levels of the education system. The Decision Framework tool is complete and includes both a district version and a building version, which ensure the development of a focused plan with strong alignment of goals, strategies, and actions from district to buildings. The Ohio Data Primer is complete and designed for principals to use as a data-training tool for teachers who are novice data users. Professional Development Data Modules are complete and will be used by regional trainers and through online courses to build the capacity of teachers to use data more effectively and to support the use of the statewide data system known as Data Driven Decisions for Academic Achievement (D3A2).

Great Lakes East facilitated a working group composed of regional staff from Ohio’s ESCs, district administrators, and staff from ODE to design a focused district improvement planning process. The result of this work has been a process that all technical assistance providers can use as they work with districts in the state. Ohio’s State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG) has provided an opportunity to test data tools and district improvement processes with Cohort 1 districts identified from each of Ohio’s 16 regions (Ohio Department of Education, 2007). Each of these districts has formed district leadership teams and will move through this pilot in cohorts. Training and support of regional facilitators working with the first cohort of districts began in Year 3; training advanced and became more focused in Year 4. In this process, district leadership teams, and now building leadership teams, use the Decision Framework and Stages 1 and 2 data tools to identify a limited number of critical problems and likely causes of these problems. The result of this focused district improvement planning process is that problems become translated into goals in the district improvement plan and causes become specific research-based strategies. The working group also developed the Ohio Improvement Process Facilitator Guide that serves as a resource for both regional facilitators and district leadership teams. Cohort 2 district and building leadership teams will be moving through Stages 1–3 of the Ohio Improvement Process during Year 5.

 

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