Instructional Improvement System

In collaboration with the Florida and Ohio Departments of Education, the Center for Educational Leadership and Technology (CELT) will convene school district administrators, statewide education association leaders, regional education service centers representatives (if applicable), and school/classroom level educators to determine functional requirements and performance specifications for an Instructional Improvement System (IIS). This project will build off the Teacher-Student Data Link (TSDL) work currently being led by CELT with SEA/LEA participation from both Florida and Ohio along with three other states. LEA involvement will be actively engaged via regional focus groups, webinars, in-state review meetings, and cross state planning institutes.

A major cultural and pedagogic shift is underway in Florida and Ohio to incorporate the use of data to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional materials, strategies, and approaches for educating different types of students. However, the student and staff data collected in most local Instructional Improvement Systems may not provide the complete information needed to improve instructional practices, make learner centered decisions, enhance staff productivity, and assess overall effectiveness. Data from statewide and local longitudinal and other data systems are required in order to continuously monitor student achievement. Florida and Ohio's state data, including but not limited to course standards and benchmarks, assessment results, and data about students as they relocate from school district to school district, must be made available for incorporation into local Instructional Improvement Systems. At present, state and local data reside in multiple applications and formats. The data are not consistently available across all sources, and if they are available, they come in different formats depending on the source. This situation often results in LEAs manually entering state data into their local Instructional Improvement Systems, thereby creating custom data loading processes, and/or doing without the information entirely.

• generates accurate and timely information in order to improve student achievement
• permits students to assume an active role and accept responsibility for their educational experience
• enables parents and community members to participate more fully in the learning process
• empowers staff to work cooperatively, collaboratively, and interdependently in order to increase student achievement, enhance productivity, and improve accountability
• links staff development programs and supervision/evaluation activities with student learning
• correlates state/district curriculum standards to instructional programs and assessment strategies
• identifies gaps in instructional programs, such as adequacy of instructional resources, assessment items, and/or staff proficiencies

Both the Florida and Ohio Departments of Education are wholly committed to personalizing instruction for every student in every classroom every day. Achieving this most important goal requires that both states ensure that data is being used effectively by all stakeholders – teachers, principals, administrators, parents, and researchers – with the necessary professional development and supports in place.