If you have been part of the collaborative inquiry work long, REL Appalachia is a name that has been mentioned.  REL (Regional Educational Laboratory) Appalachia has been MNPS’ partner supporting the collaborative inquiry work for fostering effective data use practices.  REL Appalachia is one of 10 federally funded RELs and provides research-based support to KY, TN, VA, and WV.  MNPS is fortunate to be the only district throughout the US with a partnership with a REL.
 
During the first year of our partnership, time was spent bringing together diverse stakeholders representing middle school teachers, coaches, assistant principals, principals, and central office departments.  Time was spent with Dr. Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman building our capacity around collaborative data use practices and then taking deeper dive in discussion of two critical implementation questions:

• What are the barriers to implementing collaborative inquiry throughout the district; and
• What would be the ideal once the barriers are removed?

The top three barriers identified were lack of a common language, lack of trust, and lack of leadership modeling.  The logic models created to address these three barriers helped provide a roadmap for year 2’s work.
 
In year two, work began to address two of the barriers—lack of common language and lack of leadership modeling.  To address the lack of a common language barrier, a committee worked with national experts to develop the MNPS Innovation Configuration Map (IC Map) for Collaborative Inquiry.  This map provides a common language about observable behaviors when collaborative inquiry is occurring.  It has a progression, so teams can use the IC Map in a variety of ways.  The Institute of Education Sciences created two videos highlighting MNPS’ IC Map work:

• What is an Innovation Configuration Map?
• Example of an Innovation Configuration Map

To address the lack of leadership modeling barrier, a committee of MNPS stakeholders worked with REL Appalachia to develop an evaluation plan, which was then used during the community of practice implementation in Spring 2016 to collect data and monitor the progress of implementation.  This final report is still being reviewed by IES, but will be available soon.
 
If you want to learn more about this work and/or would like support implementing collaborative inquiry data use practices, please contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

More exciting things happening this week in the world of collaborative inquiry.  Remember, there's no checklist for collaborative inquiry as it is a cultural norm for the way we work together to honor, value, and leverage the expertise within MNPS.

 A what???  That's what I usually hear when I say the words, "Innovation Configuration" to people.   What is it?  Why do I care?  How could I possibly use it?

To help answer those questions, REL Appalachia created two videos to add to our Collaborative Inquiry Toolkit.  You can find them on the About page of our toolkit: http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/about.html. 

The 2016 Nashville Analytics Summit was hosted at the Omni Hotel with more than 400 participants from various organizations in the Nashville area.  The Summit focuses on a fundamental issue in organizations today: how to effectively leverage analytics.

Dr. Margie Johnson presented a 90 minute workshop on August 11th sharing about the MNPS data warehouse, its implementation and lessons learned, particularly the development of the Data-Informed Decision Making Ecosystem.  The ecosystem is the framework used by MNPS for building the capacity of employees to use data for making informed decisions.  To access the workshop materials, please click on one of the below pictures.

Vote now to send MNPS to the SXSWedu 2017 conference in Austin, TX! We have two innovative session ideas we want to share with our education community, but we need your vote to make that happen.

Implementation Road Map to Expected Results - Learn about a cool tool for implementing education initiatives!  Discover how educators and researchers can use it to define and guide implementation of practices that lead to expected results. Click here to vote: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/64916

Walk Your Talk: The Teacher Data Use Survey - Learn about a new tool designed to assess teacher data use and the supports that make it happen along with a user-friendly tool for reporting TDUS data. Click here to vote: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/64502

By voting for MNPS' conference proposals, you let the SXSWedu proposal reviewers know that people want to hear more about MNPS' innovative work that is making a difference in students' lives.

VOTING ENDS SEPT 2nd.

Welcome back to the school!
 
There’s so much excitement in the air with students full day of class being today.  It’s just an honor and privilege to be able to serve the students, parents, and community of Nashville.
 
With all that being said, I am excited to share a quick update about what’s been happening with collaborative inquiry the past two weeks.
 
July 25, 2016—The JE Moss Elementary leadership team used the collaborative inquiry process to finalize their vision, mission, and values.  They also developed three SIP goals—cultural, literacy, and numeracy.  You can learn about their exciting work at http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/je-moss-elementary-leadership-team-meeting.html.
 
July 26, 2016—The Una Elementary leadership team used the collaborative inquiry process to develop recommendations for a school-wide communication plan.  The recommendation will be used by a sub-committee to create the final recommendation.  You can learn about their work at http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/una-elementary-leadership-team.html.
 
July 27, 2016—Dr. Canidra Henderson, Dr. Margie Johnson, and Andres Rischer presented about the MNPS collaborative inquiry work to the Kentucky Principal Partnership Project in Georgetown, KY.  The audience was eager to learn about the awesome work being done here in MNPS.  Thanks to all of you for making it happen.  The PowerPoint used can be viewed at this LINK and here: http://www.relappalachia.org/events/powerful-practice-effective-school-level-data-systems/.
 
August 1, 2016---Haynes Middle Prep started their year of by using the collaborative inquiry process to develop recommendations for a communication plan, which also went to a sub-committee to finalize.  You can see their work at http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/haynes-middle-prep-august-1-2016.html.
 
August 2, 2016---Jere Baxter Middle Prep used the collaborative inquiry process to develop vision, mission, and values as part of their SIP process.  The session was co-facilitated by their SIP Facilitator, Karen Flowers and Margie Johnson.  Teresa Hogue, their data coach, was also there to help with any questions.  You can view their work at http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/august-2-2016--jere-baxter-middle.html.
 
Finally, I wanted to mention West End Middle as we co-planned their workshop for August 2nd.  Dr. Craig Hammond and Noelle Taylor used the collaborative inquiry process to engage teachers in conversations about the importance of building relationships with students.
 
If you and/or your school are using collaborative inquiry, please feel free to share it with us as we love learning from one another.  Email Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org to share it.
 
Finally, if there’s anything I can do to support you, your work, and your students, please feel free to reach out to me as I’m always happy to help.
 
Here’s to an AWESOME 2016-2017 school year!!!