To improve learning experiences and outcomes for students, many principals set annual school improvement goals and identify action steps to achieve them. Central to this work is monitoring school data—evidence that helps leaders understand what’s working, what isn’t, and where adjustments are needed. Monitoring data becomes especially critical when instructional reforms are part of these improvement goals. However, the daily demands on their attention can make it difficult for principals to select, understand, and respond to their school’s data effectively.
Ritenour School District (RSD) in Missouri has been partnering with REL Central to address this challenge. In recent years, the district has undertaken a significant instructional shift to a competency-based education model and successfully implementing the model is a key focus of school improvement goals. District leaders recognized that principals play a critical role in translating this reform into classroom practice, and that doing so requires more than setting expectations. By equipping principals with timely, relevant data and practical tools, RSD aimed to strengthen principals’ ability to monitor progress, support teachers, and ultimately drive improvements in instruction.
Recognizing the role principals play in turning improvement goals into practice, the district’s focus on principal empowerment is firmly rooted in the evidence. Principals who use data to set goals, monitor progress, and provide training aligned with improvement goals have more positive impacts on student outcomes. Data-driven practices can also build momentum for change, strengthening teacher buy-in and increasing the likelihood that reforms take hold. At the same time, strong principal support plays a role in teacher retention, with teachers who feel strongly supported by principals much more likely to stay at a school than those who do not.
To empower the district’s principals, RSD and REL Central collaborated to develop and pilot tools for helping principals respond effectively to teachers’ instructional needs and determine the right action steps for reaching their improvement goals.
From Data Review to Data-Driven Action
Using the district’s existing classroom walkthrough data, REL Central and RSD leaders collaborated to create data visualizations that summarized information on teachers’ instructional practices related to the learning environment, student engagement, small-group instruction, and more. Although the summaries were previously shared with principals, REL Central and RSD recognized that summarizing data wasn’t enough. Instead, they wanted to help principals effectively use the data to track progress toward goals and identify teachers’ instructional needs. To further help principals make sense of their data, REL Central and RSD worked together to create a data reflection protocol that focuses on using walkthrough data to monitor progress toward goals and support teachers.
The tool helps principals use walkthrough data to monitor and refine action steps to achieve their school’s continuous improvement goals. It can also be used more broadly by others outside RSD to examine and respond to a variety of data. The protocol guides readers through the process of (1) preparing to examine data by specifying learning questions and identifying available data; (2) engaging the data by examining results, trends, and patterns and assessing the strength of the evidence and underlying factors; and (3) planning next steps to determine the actions needed to make progress toward goals, strengthen instruction, and support teachers. By following these steps, principals and other school leadership staff can determine and refine action steps to advance improvement goals, identify areas of need, and bolster teacher supports. Moreover, they familiarize themselves with a process that encourages strong data use and can be applied broadly in the future.
Together, the data visualizations and reflection protocol are moving RSD principals beyond simply reviewing walkthrough results to actively using data as part of their instructional leadership. By engaging in a structured process to examine evidence, identify patterns, and plan next steps, principals are becoming better equipped to monitor progress toward improvement goals and respond strategically to teachers’ instructional needs.
Check out this short video to learn more and see the tool in action.
