Data! Dialogue! Decisions!

The analysis of data for instructional decision making is a hallmark of the 21st century. Teachers and administrators alike need a process that links instant, consistent, and relevant data to instant, consistent, and relevant results. Data! Dialogue! Decisions! describes a simple process--selecting a piece of data, dialoging about the data, and making SMART goal decisions about how to increase student performance--that includes the critical elements for powerful school improvement: meaningful teams, managed data, and measurable goals. Using a collegial process, administrators and teachers choose their own school of class achievement data to analyze and interpret as they target "breakthrough" instructional decisions that yield rapid and quantifiable results. Results have been staggeringly successful.

Brian M. Pete, co-founder of Robin Fogarty & Associates, comes from a family of educators-college professors, school superintendents, teachers and teachers of teachers. He has a rich background in professional development. Brian has worked with the adult learner in districts and educational agencies throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand and the GCC in the Middle East.  He has an eye for the “teachable moment” and the words to describe what he sees as skillful teaching. He delivers dynamic, humor-filled sessions that energize the audiences with engaging strategies that transfer into immediate and practical on site applications. Comments from school leaders often say that it is the best PD the staff  has ever had. ? Brian is co-author of: How to Teach Students to Think Within the Common Core, School Leaders Guide to Common Core Achieving Results,Supporting Differentiated Instruction: A PLC Approach, From Staff Room to Classroom: A Guide to Planning and Coaching Professional Learning, From Staff Room to Classroom II: The One-Minute PD Planner and  The Right to Be Literate: 6 Literacy Strategies for the 21st Century. His works in progress include two pieces, one on inquiry learning with a focus on Problem-based Learning and the other on how to explicitly teach thinking skills in IB International Schools. Catherine Sambo is vice president of Kinney and Associates where she supervises site-based and field-based staff, provides a leadership role in all sales/marketing presentations, and designs and implements workshops relating to the relationships between curriculum, standards-based assessments, and student achievement. With more than a decade of educational consulting experience in over 300 schools Sambo offers her expertise in the collection and use of data for improving classroom instruction and student performance. She received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Loras College and a master’s degree in educational administration from Governors State University.