Week 7 Discussion 2 – Douglass Street Case Study-Motivation

As we continue to evaluate the Douglass Street Case Study, consider the following statements and respond to the questions.

The Douglass Street Case Study spends some time (an entire paragraph) talking about the motivational speeches Principal Brown gave to students about proving what they knew just prior to the first interim assessment. She asked the teachers to bring graded exams to a half-day professional development workshop. They were provided a worksheet to fill out, where they had to write the initials of every student that got each problem wrong. (I will let you read the rest of what Principal Brown did).

Then after the first assessment results came in, everyone was in a state of shock! The lowest performing class had 40% correct; the highest had 65% correct, far lower than original predictions.

• What went wrong, in your opinion? Principal Brown had worked very hard to motivate everyone, to plan workshops, and to get everyone on board to raise scores. They had even filled out a Teacher Analysis sheet and role-played a teacher- principal conversation about the results they believed they would realize.
• What could Principal Brown have done differently? (Key: Look at teacher attitude before and after the first assessment).
• What part do you think teacher attitude played in the disappointing results?
• How will you handle disappointing results in using data to drive instruction?
• How will you modify what Principal Brown did when you conduct your first data meeting?

Your initial response is due by 11:55 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday and should be between 200-250 words.