The following is an executive summary of the BrightBytes data compiled from the results of a survey that was administered to our stakeholders May 14, 2018, through June 1, 2018. The survey was administered to our students (grades 3 to 8), all instructional staff and all parents. We collected responses from 2,743 students, 408 staff members and 956 parents.
Overall Results
District 97 improved its overall BrightBytes score from the spring of 2017 to spring of 2018. The district moved from 1087 to 1097, which is still in the Proficient range overall and comes very close to the 1100 cutoff for Advanced. We made gains on all four areas of the CASE Framework (Classroom, Access, Skills and Environment).
During this collection we were able to add our own questions, which was a request we received during the past three collections from users who wished to share additional feedback beyond questions asked in the survey. Since these questions were added by District 97 and not part of the BrightBytes survey, they are not included in any of the above score results. However, we plan to use the additional feedback as we assess our strengths and areas for improvement. Here is a link to the slides with highlights from the 2018 spring data collection.
Focus Areas: Communication & Collaboration & 3 Ps
Based on the survey results and the planning completed by the Technology Advisory Committee and the teaching and learning department, the team decided to continue our focus on teacher and student use of the 4Cs, which is part of the Classroom domain of the CASE Framework.
The survey this year identified that we need to be more deliberate in the implementation, execution and communication of our procedures, policies and practices. The technology department will be building out their webpage to provide this information, and we have already started finding new ways to provide tutorials and communication.
Next Steps
For the upcoming year, we will provide a review of the data to our Administrative Leadership Team and Professional Learning Committee, as both groups collaborate on professional learning for our staff. Teacher and student use of the 4Cs includes important types of experiences and skills that will help our students be successful they progress through their educational career.
Now that we have a total of four data points with the BrightBytes survey, we can see trends and identify areas of success over time and areas for ongoing improvement, including opportunities for professional learning. For the 2018-19 school year, the top four topics for professional learning requested by staff are: classroom management with technology, multimedia skills, online tools for critical thinking, and online collaboration.
In order to provide support in these areas during the upcoming year within our existing time constraints, we have collaborated closely with the teaching and learning department to embed the use of technology in our professional learning opportunities when it can enhance student learning. This includes time for our principals to learn together as a group and include key stakeholders (instructional coaches, teacher librarians, innovators) from their buildings to identify strengths and areas for improvement. We will also continue to work with the district’s Professional Learning Committee to provide data/feedback and plan for future learning opportunities that meet the needs of our staff.
Finally, as a result of the planning conducted with the teaching and learning department last year, District 97 will be partnering with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) in order to leverage their resources around student, educator, instructional leader and coach standards, as well as hundreds of online training tools. As part of this partnership, all District 97 staff members will have a membership to ISTE, giving them access to the organization’s training materials (including online webinars, a database of online resources that have been reviewed by staff across the world, and an admin portal to a database of resources that are used by our District 97 students in order to identify aggregate usage.