Data Farm

Members of a successful learning community, including teachers and administrators at Glenville, know how to use data effectively for decisionmaking. One example is the "Data Farm," a district-maintained database that Glenville teachers consult to obtain data on individual students. Teachers design instruction based on these data to more effectively address the needs of all students. Even staff members who are not skilled in the use of data seek out knowledgeable colleagues who provide assistance. At the administrative level, the principal routinely shares school data with her staff and the community, and requests feedback to make plans and strategic decisions.

The Data Farm is a collection of online rosters and reports created by the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) Data Quality Team. The Data Quality Team provides professional training on the use of the site, which is accessible only from the CMSD intranet, and from a CMSD computer. Some information requires the use of a login to ensure security. Refreshed daily, the Data Farm site gives "real time" student lists, rosters, and proficiency scores. Data can be viewed in a standard format, or can be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet for use in classroom teaching and learning. Data Farm can provide teachers and administrators with helpful information for a wide variety of uses, including the designing of individualized instruction and curriculum mapping.

The Student Assessment Profile portion of the Data Farm provides current as well as historical student data. For example, a seventh-grade math teacher with a student doing poorly in math can look at the student's sixth-grade math proficiency test, his fifth-grade math proficiency test, and so on, all the way back to first-grade, to see if this student has always had a problem with math. Teachers have been asking for this kind of data for years, and through Data Farm, it is now available to them.