Teacher scholars building professional capacity through teacher-led data collection

At our veteran school sites, Rosa Parks, New Highland and Roosevelt, teacher scholars are engaged in collecting focal student data for each other.

At Rosa Parks
In March and April Rosa Parks teachers used two half sub days each month to support focal student data collection on their focal students reading comprehension. Some teachers chose to have the sub cover the class and they collected the data themselves. Other teachers opted for a colleague, Matilde Merello, to come in and audio record, take observational notes, and debrief what they observed. One teacher shared that it felt like a “luxury” to be able to really focus-in on one student who had complex reading patterns and reflect in a targeted way on what was getting in the way of his understanding.

At Roosevelt
At Roosevelt teacher scholar leader Kenny Moy video taped his colleague Renee Purdy interviewing her focal first graders students on their own views about their reading progress. Kenny then took Renee’s questions back to his third grade classroom and interviewed his focal students as well as interviewing colleague Cynthia Epps’ fifth grade students. The Roosevelt teacher scholars, who are in their fourth year of collaborative inquiry supported by Mills Teacher Scholars wanted to more deeply understand how students talk about their use of reading strategies and their own awareness of their reading progress.

At New Highland Academy
At New Highland Academy teacher scholar leader Channon Jackson supported her colleagues to better understand their focal students’ learning by collecting data that their colleagues requested. In some classrooms teachers asked Channon to monitor their class while they engaged with focal students while other colleagues had Channon collect observational and interview data.