Blackham School Vertical Data Team
For years the City of Bridgeport Public Schools focused on 'Looking at Student Work' (LASW), which is the collaborative analysis of student work by educators using a structured protocol to inform instruction. Grade level groups and content area groups for middle school teachers were developed for these sessions, and this professional activity enabled teachers to share effective teaching strategies with the goal of improving student performance.  While these sessions gave teachers an opportunity to meet to discuss student work and establish criteria for what constituted proficient and exemplary work, our purpose and scope seemed limited and we were missing many parts of the 'big picture. '  This influenced our ability and initiative to follow through and to make effective adjustments to instruction to improve student learning outcomes.

In the 2006- 2007 school year Cooperative Educational Services, the regional state professional development provider, introduced the statewide initiative of Data Teams, driving us to create Horizontal Data Teams from our already existing grade level and content area groups.   These teams of educators were to participate in collaborative, structured, scheduled meetings, focusing on the effectiveness of teaching as determined by student achievement. Our goal was to adhere to continuous improvement cycles, to analyze trends, and to determine strategies to facilitate analysis of data which would result in action.  This initiative provided our groups a more focused approach when meeting and a systematic way of looking at student work to extrapolate data.

 

The formation of our Horizontal Data Teams was the first step towards complying with the Connecticut Accountability for Learning Initiative (CALI), which is a statewide model of continuous school and district improvement with the goal of closing Connecticut's achievement gaps.  The next step was the formation of the school-wide data team known as the Vertical Data Team. This team of teachers is responsible for data analysis and instructional/curricular decision-making. It was comprised of teacher-leaders from each of the grade levels and content areas (representing Pre-Kindergarten through Grade Eight), the Numeracy Coach, Literacy Coaches, and the middle school's English as a Second Language teacher.  It is important to note that while the school administrators do not play a role on the team, their support has assisted in its success, especially by providing release during the school day for the team to meet as a whole and by valuing the work that we do.

Since several of our members had attended the Data Driven Decision Making workshops provided by the State Department of Education, we gathered as a team at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year, following the protocols established for Vertical Data Teams by the state.  These initial meetings included quite a bit of thoughtful discussion and the presenting of ideas and opinions on student achievement at our school.  At times members left meetings with their own take on the discussion, leaving much to interpretation.  By the next meeting, we relied on the summarization caught by the recorder as well as our own individual recollections.  The need for a system that would allow the Vertical Data Team to capture these ideas and to arrange them in powerful, more visible ways in order to be more productive was evident.

After witnessing a Vertical Data Team meeting, a visiting educator prompted a discussion about the use of Thinking Maps (which had been already used within classrooms as a communication and learning tool) within the Vertical Data Team.  Our hope was that use of the Maps would lead to deeper discussions, increased participation of members, clearer goals, and improved efficiency within the Vertical Team, with the added benefit of a trickle-down effect to the Horizontal Data Teams.  This insight stimulated our desire for the Vertical Data Team to participate in some action research. We decided to use the Thinking Maps as a common visual language for the critical work of leading our school's commitment to continuous improvement.

Since the Vertical Data Team is the foundation of our whole-school change, it affects many aspects of our school's framework.  These include distributive leadership, communication, and student learning outcomes.  Use of the Thinking Maps as leadership tools impacted these same three aspects as well.

Distributive Leadership
Since Blackham School was a school in Bridgeport that was 'ahead of the curve ' in the development of Data Teams, the Superintendent of Bridgeport Public Schools invited the Superintendents' Roundtable, a group of superintendents from around the state, to observe our Vertical Data Team in action.  Feedback from these visiting superintendents included the suggestion that our team compose a specific mission statement.  A visiting National Urban Alliance (NUA) representative suggested that a group of teachers begin by meeting to discuss the team's purpose, using a Thinking Map as a leadership tool to organize their ideas.  Since all teachers were already familiar with the Thinking Maps as instructional tools, they decided to use a Circle Map to define the Vertical Team mission.  (View this map on the video @ 4:33 and as a close-up @ 5:07-5:14.)  The ideas on this map were transformed into the Blackham School Vertical Data Team Mission Statement, which is still in effect today:

The mission of the Blackham School Vertical Data Team is to collaborate school wide, share and analyze data, create common assessments, impart strategies, and develop timelines to achieve set goals in coordination with Horizontal Data Teams.

Building on the success of this use of Thinking Maps, the NUA representative brought to our attention an opportunity to apply for a grant and work with the Thinking Foundation on an action research project. Our proposal, 'Thinking Maps, Thinking Teams, Thinking Schools:  Using Thinking Maps as a Catalyst for Strengthening School-Wide Leadership and Increasing Communication that Will Lead to Improved Student Learning Outcomes, ' would allow us to examine the ways in which using Thinking Maps as a leadership tool could support the development of distributive leadership skills and improved communication in the service of increasing student outcomes. 

With the initial implementation of the Thinking Maps at Vertical Data Team meetings in December of 2007, the team was still in its infancy, therefore allowing the maps to become our tools of choice for deeper, more visual thinking.  They enabled us to organize the overwhelming amount of ideas and thoughts generated by a team of twenty-two people. The beneficial focus of our action research project facilitated the inquiry and discussion of real problems facing the Vertical Data Team and their solutions.

During our team meetings, we began by using a Flow Map to form the agenda of our meetings. (Several examples of the Flow Map agendas are appended to this report.) Other maps were used to:

• define and set goals (See 'NUA Evaluation of Sucesses, Concerns, and Goals for 09-10 ' Tree Map and 'Action Plan to Achieve Goal ' Flow Map, both @ 4:39 on the video.  See also the Circle Map of the 'Blackham School Vertical Team Goals 2008-2009 ' appended to this report.)
• schedule and assign team tasks (See 'Status of the Vertical Team ' Circle Map @ 1:11 on the video.  See also the '2008-2009 Team Plans for Vertical Data Team and Horizontal Data Team ' Brace Map appended to this report.)
• communicate data (See the 'Common Formative Assessments ' Tree Map @  0:54 and @ 4:55 on the video.  See also the 'Important Data Team Information ' Tree Map appended to this report.  Additionally, see 'Focus Areas for the Vertical Team ' Bubble Map @ 1:23 on the video.)
• generate ideas (See the 'Strengths ' and 'Challenges ' Bubble Maps @ 0:57 in the video.  See also the typed version of these maps appended to this report.  Additionally, see 'Ways to Capture Data for our CFAs ' Bubble Map @ 2:32 on the video.) 

Our next steps include expanding the proficient use of the Thinking Maps within our Horizontal Data Teams with the goal of deepening discussion, increasing the efficient working of the teams through the active participation of its members, and the setting of clearer goals.  We expect these actions to foster the growth of more social capital within the building. 

Communication
The Bridgeport Public Schools have been receiving professional development from the National Urban Alliance since 2006.   Through professional development activities and workshops, many teachers had already been trained or exposed to the Thinking Maps as an instructional tool.  This previous professional development and exposure proved useful as the Vertical Team progressed towards using the Maps as a common visual language to communicate ideas and points of view.  Once we determined to use Thinking Maps to aid our desire to pattern information and link ideas, we continued on with increased confidence to tackle the complex tasks of formulating our Vertical Team's mission statement, recording our school-wide SMART Goals, displaying our progress in reaching those goals, and communicating those findings in opened communication with Blackham School stakeholders:  teachers, students, staff, parents, community members, and any other individuals affected by the success of our students. 

For example, the Vertical Data Team is charged with the task of analyzing the data from the Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs) and determining which areas are causes for celebration and which should be our focus areas of concern.  Those areas that the Vertical Team determines to be of particular importance for the students is collaboratively determined, based on the data and our own professional judgment.  The improvement we would like to see in particular learning standards is then formulated into SMART goals (goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant/realistic, and Time-bound) for Reading and Math.  The Horizontal Teams then develop Pre-tests, common formative assessments that are the same across a grade level and/or content area, which are used to inform and adjust instruction. Post-tests, additional interim common formative assessments, are administered periodically thereafter to measure students' mastery of our standards-based curriculum objectives.

The Vertical Team displays the results of these common formative assessments as they relate to progress towards our SMART goal with a Tree Map.  This has been a simple format that allows all staff and visitors to see the areas of strengths as well as challenges and to look for patterns across grade levels. 

Prior to using the Maps, we relied solely on the minutes of the previous meetings for data recollection.  Each Horizontal Data Team had shared its CFA results using different formats, such as bar graphs, pie graphs, and numerical percentages.  The use of a Tree Map enabled us to have a uniform display of data, with each grade level's and content area's data for CFAs visible in one large data wall, avoiding various representation of data by individual team members. This data wall was displayed in our conference/resource room, where all of the stakeholders could readily view and access the data.

The use of the Thinking Maps as a leadership tool in our Vertical Data Team has both directly and indirectly affected student learning outcomes at Blackham School.  For example, the discussions fostered by the use of the Maps have allowed teacher-leaders to share effective instructional strategies. When our Vertical Data Team brainstormed effective strategies to support our Reading and Math SMART goals, we displayed them in a Bubble Map, which was then shared with the Horizontal Data Team.  Those teams added additional ideas to the map.  By compiling detailed examples of these strategies and lessons in a binder, teachers will be able to access what they and their colleagues have determined to be the most effective strategies to attain our school's academic goals, providing them a way to expand their teaching repertoire without resorting to the tendency to 'go it alone ' and 'reinvent the wheel. '  With increased use of these effective strategies, we expect to see an increased student achievement in our targeted areas.  (See student use of a Circle Map to generate adjectives and the nouns they could describe in a bilingual classroom @ 0:10 on the video.)

Additionally, the increased use of Thinking Maps as a leadership tool in the Vertical and Horizontal Data Teams has also led to an increase of their use in the classroom.  With increased familiarity, teachers and students are using the maps in more complex and independent ways.  Not only does use of the Maps help students unite in using common strategies, but the wide variety of Maps for student learning and as higher-order thinking tools also provides teachers with the means for automatic differentiation for all learners.

Many teachers throughout the building have shared their satisfaction with using the Thinking Maps in their classrooms:

Brenda Ferrante
As a Pre-K teacher, I have the first opportunity to familiarize students with Thinking Maps. We use at least three new maps weekly, ranging from a Bubble Map for the 'Letter of the Week ' to Flow Maps to sequence our Weekly Story.  Tree Maps are useful to classify in science lesson.  My students know how to use Thinking Maps and expect to use them, which provides the added benefit of routine and familiarity in their week.

Sara Tasber
I've found that using a variety of Thinking Maps has provided all students tools to excel.  Each student can choose, use, and reuse a map across all content areas, providing them with a familiar resource.  This can be a comfort when students are presented with challenging material. 

Joan LaBanca
We use Circle Maps to determine word meaning, synonyms, and to define a word in context across the curriculum. 

Cat Eigo
Thinking Maps are beneficial tools to utilize in the classroom.  They not only provide continuity and structure, but also allow students to maintain focus on the task at hand, providing them with the ability to collect, organize and process information. Students can make use of maps on various subject matter and topics and interchange them within cross-curricular activities.  They are valuable in providing the students with a sense of feeling confident in their academic achievements. 

Krista Rekos
We have been using Thinking Maps across the subject areas since the first week of school.  By now, my students are comfortable using them on their own to organize their thinking and enhance learning. The amount of information my students can relay to me after reading a passage increases significantly after we organize what we have read into a Thinking Map.

Maureen Hammer
Thinking Maps provide a consistent way to promote the use of essential learning strategies.  For instance, we use a Double Bubble to compare and contrast two texts or two characters within a text.  A Bubble Map is the perfect tool for activating prior knowledge on a topic, so we've used it when we talked about the Fall.  Flow Maps are especially beneficial for sequencing across the whole curriculum.

Finally, during our Horizontal and Vertical Data Team meetings our more focused conversations have provided all teachers in these teams the opportunity to discuss the standardization of content instruction across grade levels, a recommendation made by the Cambridge Academy of Collaborative Education.  Other benefits have been achieved through increased reflection between teachers and coaches. Interpreting classroom data with another professional not directly connected with the students can help teachers gain a new perspective as they strive to determine what might be the most effective instructional practices for the desired learning outcomes.  As the year progressed, we grew in our ability to choose appropriate maps when needed, but also learned that some of our work was best achieved through other means.

Final Reflection 
We are encouraged by the growth of our strong professional learning community, empowering teachers as leaders via the Vertical Data Team, and initiating the use of Thinking Maps as a strategy to organize and communicate goals and objectives for the school.   We feel the Maps have helped drive instruction and have had a direct impact on student learning.  While exploring the use of these maps, we have tailored them to be applicable to our needs.  There were a few occasions where the team felt frustrated or limited in choosing which Map would be most affective in a given situation.  Trial and error allowed us the opportunity to learn from our mistakes and move forward. 

The Blackham School Vertical Data Team thanks the Thinking Foundation for this grant.  The grant allowed us the time and the tools to work closely and efficiently to meet our goals.

Blackham School

Principal Investigators of Foundation Grant