You might see that acronym BHAG and be thinking......"what in the world does that mean?"  Well, Cole Elementary has brought BHAGs to their school (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) as a way of having "unrelenting focus, clarity of thought, consistent communication, alignment of resources, innovation, discipline, and teamwork" (Sparks, 2007, p. 13). 

Cole Elementary started the year with a literacy BHAG and decided to create a BHAG for math.  To create the math BHAG, they used the collaborative inquiry process during grade level team meetings to get teacher voice about the math BHAG.  Once the teachers' BHAGs were compiled, the leadership team met to finalize the math BHAG.  Then, on November 16th, grade level teams are meeting to collaboratively develop action plans for achieving their math BHAG.

To read more about their BHAG work, go here: www.mnpscollaboration.org/cole-elem-bhag-fall-2017

Cole Elementary also participated in the SEL Culture and Climate Walk-through.  On November 6th, the collaborative inquiry process was used to help them analyzed the data and discuss actions they might stop, continue, and start to continue working on the culture of the building.

To learn more about that exciting work, go here: www.mnpscollaboration.org/cole-elem-culture-and-climate--2016.html

If you have a collaborative story to share or would like to request assistance, please contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

Reference:
Sparks, D. (2007).  Leading for results: Transforming teaching, learning, and relationships in schools.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

The Exceptional Education team began using the collaborative inquiry process in September for their coaches.  The purpose of these sessions is to foster a culture of collaboration for supporting student success.  Each group was assigned identified a goal for their work in September.  During the October meeting, multiple sources of data were used to further inform their action plans.

To learn about their work and the workshop, please go to www.mnpscollaboration.org/exceptional-education-coaches.html

If you have a collaborative inquiry story or are interested in learning more, please contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

Several years ago, the MNPS Data Warehouse team developed the MNPS Virtual Data Wall report to assist schools in supporting student success.  The card is a great snapshot of student information, including demographics, at-risk indicators, support and interventions, etc.

Recently, the MNPS Data Warehouse team updated the virtual data wall report by adding the MAP data to the student "card."  To access the virtual data wall report, log into the MNPS Data Warehouse at http://datawarehouse.mnps.org and go to the Assessment folder.  The report is located in this folder.  NOTE: This report contains images, so please consider the time needed to download the report.  OR Only run the report for a small number of students.

Here is a Data Guide to help you interpret and analyze the data: http://bit.ly/MNPSvirtualdatawall.  To access more data guides, navigate to them on this website. 

You can also contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org and/or your assigned data coach to support you and your school.

Also, we would love to hear how you use this report to support student success.  If you use the report, please share with Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

The Department of Equity and Diversity offers a wonderful professional learning experience called the Poverty Simulation.  After participating in the poverty simulation, participants engage in a data dive during the Poverty Simulation follow-up meeting to discuss action steps for supporting student success.

For the poverty simulation follow-up meeting, participants engage in a data dive by reviewing various data warehouse reports, including Assessment Details by Subgroup for TLA, MAP, and/or ACT; Attendance Dashboards for 2017 through 2014, and Behavior Dashboards for 2017 through 2014.

To see specific details from each follow-up meeting, click on the name.

• Hull Jackson Montessori
• Central Office staff
• Jones Paideia
  

If you have a collaborative inquiry story or are interested in learning more, please contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

Kassie Williams, a coordinator for the MNPS Exceptional Education department, is using the collaborative inquiry process to work with coaches this semester.  One session is planned for September, October, and November. 

The first session was held on September 20, 2017.  The purpose of these sessions is to foster a culture of collaboration for supporting student success.  The primary outcome for this meeting was to allow the exceptional education staff to leverage their collective expertise in addressing four focus areas:

• Data- Based Decision Making
• Instructionally Appropriate IEP’s
• Access to High Quality Core Instruction
• Effective Intensive Interventions

To learn about their work and the workshop, please go to www.mnpscollaboration.org/exceptional-education-coaches.html

If you have a collaborative inquiry story or are interested in learning more, please contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

After a brief discussion about SMART goals, draft goals were generated during this session.  We are still working to finalize their goals for their deadline of October 6th.  

I was honored to work with such a talented group of professionals.  Keep up the wonderful work!!

If you would like assistance with facilitating your team using the collaborative inquiry process, please feel free to contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

On August 30, Goodlettsville Middle engaged in the follow-up meeting.  While we ran out of time for developing theories of causation, another meeting will occur to finish up the process.  These theories will then guide grade level teams' work for supporting student success.  To learn more about this meeting, including the PowerPoint presentation and data sets used, go to: Goodlettsville Middle Poverty Simulation Follow-Up Meeting  (http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/goodlettsville-middle-poverty-simulation-follow-up-meeting.html)

The Poverty Simulation is an outstanding professional learning experience.  If you are interested in learning more about it, please contact Allison Buzard at Allison.Buzard@mnps.org.

How are you and/or your school using the collaborative inquiry process for making data-informed decisions?  Please share stories, resources, or request support by contacting Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

 
Two components of MNPS' Instructional Framework are positive culture and distributed leadership.  Danette Warren, Whites Creek High School Freshman Academy Principal, began addressing these two areas by having her team included in the development of vision and mission statements for their academy. 

Using the collaborative inquiry process, Dr. Margie Johnson facilitated the one hour meeting during their academy planning time.  Below are their current vision and mission statements and if you would like to read more about the process, go to http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/whites-creek-high-freshman-academy-vision-and-mission.html

Vision
WCHS Freshman Academy will be a bridge to success for students on their journey through high school and beyond.

Mission
Our mission is to promote a welcoming, safe, caring and supportive environment to prepare our scholars to become successful and productive citizens by providing them with educational opportunities and experiences on their journey through high school.
(While we did not get to draft the mission statement during the planning meeting, team members submitted drafts and a consensus was reached via online voting.  This statement is the current draft.  They do plan to revise it in the next meeting.)

If you have a story about collaborative inquiry to share and/or would like support with the collaborative inquiry process, please contact Dr. Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

Each year, the National Center for Education Statistics hosts the STATS DC Data Conference.  This year's conference was held in Washington D.C. on August 1-3.  Two MNPS employees presented at this conference.

Laura Hansen, MNPS Director of Information Management and Decision Support, was part of a expert panel on Wednesday, August 2nd entitled, A Tense Marriage: Governing the Relationships Among Data Interoperability, Security, and Privacy.  This session discussed the tension between balancing the needs to support students and teacher in experiencing high quality learning experiences while maintaining appropriate barriers and privacy protections for students.

Dr. Margie Johnson, MNPS Collaborative Inquiry Coordinator, co-presented with Dr. Stephanie Wilkerson, president of Magnolia Consulting, on Wednesday, August 2nd about MNPS' journey to implementing collaborative inquiry data use practices throughout the district.  The session entitled, A District's Journey of Implementing Effective Data Use Practices, shared MNPS's data journey toward developing and implementing the Data-Informed Decision-making Ecosystem, of which collaborative inquiry is the heart of the ecosystem and serves as a guide for empowering educators to use data, no matter the source, for making informed decisions.  Tools developed to support the implementation of the ecosystem, including the Teacher Data Use Survey and MNPS IC Map for Collaborative Inquiry were shared with participants.  The PowerPoint for this session is available HERE.

(Stephanie and I also have a published article mentioned in the PowerPoint.  If you would like a copy of it, please email me requesting a copy.)

The presentations from the conference should be available online soon.  If you want to check out their website, you can access it at http://www.mnpscollaboration.org/collaboration-corner-blog/ci-update-do-you-understand-the-words-coming-out-of-my-mouth.

If you need any support with collaborative inquiry and/or have a story to tell, please contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

Are you familiar with the MNPS Poverty Simulation?  It was developed by the Missouri Association for Community Action (http://www.communityaction.org/povertysimulations/) and brought to MNPS and led by Allison Buzard, MNPS Equity and Diversity Coordinator to help us learn about the daily circumstances some of our families face on a regular basis.
 
On August 4, 2017, I had the privilege of helping with the MNPS Poverty Simulation as a vendor while Hull Jackson Montessori School and Jones Paideia School educators participated in the simulation.  During the simulation, I was a representative for the Office of Immigration and Customs, which I selected because all of my children are immigrants, and we had to go through the process of getting them US Citizenship.  In this role, I had to deport undocumented participants either by having their name provided as part of the simulation directions or by them being in trouble with law enforcement. The critical part of the simulation is to see the behaviors that are exhibited during the simulation.  It certainly is a wonderful learning experience.

I thank Allison for bringing this professional learning experience to MNPS.  Furthermore, I thank her for the partnership of having schools take a data dive using the collaborative inquiry process as a follow-up discussion for establishing an action plan for supporting our students.
 
If you are interested in using collaborative inquiry for facilitating data conversations and leveraging collaborative expertise, please contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.