Lessons from the Data Wise Project: Three Habits of Mind for Building a Collaborative Culture
Drawing from their Data Wise book, the authors say that a key lesson in their years of data use work is that they still “need to make the case that educators should engage in the [data use] process collaboratively, treating Data Wise not as a program to implement but, rather, as a means of organizing and bringing coherence to staff members’ collective efforts at improvement.” They also say that “we have learned to warn educators that simply going through the eight steps of the [data use] process will not guarantee success. Schools that use data to make real improvements in learning and teaching bring a distinctive approach to their work, and we have come to call this disciplined way of thinking the ACE Habits of Mind, where A stands for a shared commitment to Action, Assessment, and Adjustment; C stands for Intentional Collaboration; and E stands for a relentless focus on Evidence.” The remainder of the article covers the ACE Habits of Mind.
The title and subtitle of this article effectively state the authors’ purpose, which is principally to help teachers and schools effectively use data to improve student learning. The methods, reasoning, and authors’ expertise combine to effectively achieve that purpose. Communications quality is reasonable, although the text could be larger and use greater spacing. Utility should be reasonably high based on the content and the widely known book that form the basis for this article. Evidence of effectiveness must be inferred, but the article could very possibly a positive effect on learning.