The Oregon DATA Project

Posted Aug. 30
The Direct Access to Achievement Project is pleased to announce the debut of its fourth strand of training designed for teachers and administrators. "Essential Skills in Reading: Impact on Teaching and Learning" will be rolled out Oct. 19-20 in Redmond, and all districts participating in the project's sustainability and implementation efforts are invited to attend free of charge. Strand 4 will take a close look at student data and building your skills in the use of benchmark screeners, progress monitoring and scoring guides. The DATA Project's new Accountability Toolkit will also be introduced as a reliable framework for keeping team activities on track. We encourage you to register as soon as possible through the link here. Full details can be found on the Strand 4 page at left. Go to Training > Instructional > Strand 4. The Project has a full slate of activities scheduled this school year. To download the calendar, click here.

Here is a list of other trainings set for this year:

Feb. 1‐3, Clackamas, Certification-Strands 2/3 or 3/4
April 12‐13, Clackamas, Training-Strand 4
April 14‐15, Clackamas, Training-Strand 5 rollout
May 16‐17, Clackamas, Certification-Strands 2/3
May 18‐19, Clackamas, Certification-Strands 4/5

Updated Aug. 24
The nuts and bolts of data teams was the subject of a two-day conference in Southern Oregon that began Aug. 19. About 60 people gathered at Seven Feathers Casino Resort from several different districts, including Klamath Falls City, Rogue River, Myrtle Point and North Douglas. Over two days, district teams worked together to learn how to create successful data teams, and developed a district action plan for the next school year. The workshop is sponsored by the Oregon Direct Access to Achievement Project, and presented by Douglas, Southern Oregon and South Coast ESDs.

Analicia Santos of Douglas ESD sets the scene for the "Nuts and Bolts of Data Teams" conference in Canyonville.

Updated Aug. 25
Resources presented at the COSA-EESC Assessment Institute are now available online. To access materials, including the program, event organizers and presenters' materials, go to Training > Conferences at left. More than 300 people attended the two-day workshop in Eugene on Aug. 11-12. In the opening session, Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo welcomed the attendees--school administrators who came from all over Oregon to learn more about how to use assessment to increase student achievement. The opening session also featured instruction by certified trainers from the Oregon Direct Access to Achievement Project on how to use a 100-day plan to implement lessons learned from the two-day conference. The Institute featured about a dozen sessions focused on assessment-related training and information.  

Directors of the Oregon Direct Access to Achievement Project continue to receive requests to conduct sessions related to the project, and July was an exceptionally busy month.

Training director Mickey Garrison received a rare invitation to present a three-hour session to the attendees of the NCES Summer Forum in Bethesda, Md., on July 26. Garrison's professional development session, titled "Using Education Data: What Works!" drew an enthusiastic response from the audience of more than 200. "The hows and whys of using data to improve student achievement obviously struck a chord with them," Garrison says. "It was very encouraging and a lot of fun besides." 

Later that week, Garrison joined project manager Josh Klein and evaluator Denise Airola for a session at the NCES Data Conference that presented preliminary evaluation findings and looked at collaboration between Oregon's data-related initiatives.

Earlier in the month, Garrison and Airola presented a two-hour session at the annual convention of the National Staff Development Council in Seattle, "Statewide Framework for Professional Development: Oregon or Bust!"

In September, school officials with the Montana Office of Public Instruction will be visiting Oregon to observe districts participating in the Direct Access to Achievement Project.

Posted July 21
In collaboration with the Oregon Direct Access to Achievement Project, the Continuing Education program in PSU's Graduate School of Education is providing graduate credit for 2010-2011 trainings. Administrators can receive four graduate credits (ELP 506) for use as electives toward Portland State University's Continuing Administrator License (CAL). Teachers and aspiring administrators can receive two graduate credits (CI 810), which can be used as electives in a program of study, moving up the pay scale, or licensure renewal, as applicable.

Administrators in the four-credit class must attend 60+ hours of Oregon DATA Project trainings throughout the 2010-2011 academic year and complete a practicum project. Teachers and aspiring administrators in the two-credit class must attend 20+ hours of Oregon DATA Project trainings throughout the 2010-2011 academic year. Participants electing to transfer these credits to a program other than PSU's should seek approval from their adviser in advance. The credit will be graded and awarded spring term 2011.

To register, visit www.ceed.pdx.edu/ORdata/

Updated Aug. 4
Several regions in Oregon have scheduled events to support their work with the Oregon DATA Project. In the Central Oregon region, Dr. Kevin Feldman will provide research and practice to secondary principals/coaches and lead teachers on the role of being an instructional leader in their school with an emphasis on literacy across the content areas. The event is scheduled for Aug. 19-20. There will be two follow-up days in each of the four participating ESD areas for in-school, hands-on training. Click here for the "Instructional Leadership for Secondary Administrators" flier.

Also on Aug. 19-20, a Southern Oregon conference will offer instruction on the "Nuts and Bolts of Data Teams." The workshop will be held at Seven Feathers Casino Resort in Canyonville. For registration information, download the flier here.

The Southern Oregon ESD Fall Conference on Oct. 4-5 will talk about integrating systems for student success--PBIS, RtI, and PLC and data teams. The Monday, Oct. 4 session focuses on early childhood and elementary; the Tuesday, Oct. 5 session looks closely at middle and high schools. Click here for the flier.

On Friday, Nov. 5, Lane ESD will host an all-day session on TIPS ("team-initiated problem-solving"). The morning session looks closely at TIPS considerations, and afternoon sessions offer a look at how to blend TIPS with data teams, PBIS, and RTI. Click here for the flier.

      The June issue of Today's OEA magazine devotes a four-page spread to the project. "Data driven: A Statewide Grant Turns Test Scores into Teaching Strategies" takes a look at project activities––and their results--around the state. Download a printable copy HERE.
      In an entry titled "Data, Data Everywhere: But Are There Brains to Think?," a blog focusing on stimulus issues highlights the DATA Project. The writers discuss the importance of training people to use data, then say: "Among the pioneering states is Oregon, which is training teachers and principals on data use and has a comprehensive website that's been a good model." Read the entire blog entry HERE.
      The good work being done in the Grant School District in eastern Oregon is featured in an article in the Blue Mountain Eagle. "The WRITE stuff: Local teachers use data to help students hone their skills" talks about the great strides student at Humboldt Elementary have made in achievement, thanks to teacher Susie Garrison and her work with the Oregon DATA Project. Download the story HERE.

Updated June 25
More than 35 teachers and district administrators attended three days of training from the Oregon DATA Project at the Redmond Summer Institute. Day 1, "Using Data to Plan Student Success," helped guide districts and building-level staff in effectively using data to implement their CIPs and SIPs. Day 2, ""The Effective Use of Classroom Data," took teams deep into formative and summative data from a classroom and student perspective. On Day 3, Peggy Schooling from Learning Sciences International provided participants with a process for developing a "language of instruction." For more information, download the flier by clicking HERE. Materials used in each session are available for download at left: go to Training > Special sessions.

Mickey Garrison, Director of School Improvement for the Oregon Education Enterprise Steering Committee (EESC), has been named the State Data Director of the Year by the Data Quality Campaign during its yearly meeting in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29.

Educators across the state are hard at work on the sustainability phase of the Oregon DATA Project. Several strong efforts are under way to ensure the data training continues to build capacity, as well as embed a culture of data quality in schools throughout our state.