"It's very detailed and organized and doesn't leave you feeling
too overwhelmed even though there's a lot of info." Amy Willhoite Teacher - 3rd
Grade Guthrie, OK
My Data First
Based on state-of-the art research, Literacy First assists schools to develop,
implement, and sustain a strategic, comprehensive, school wide literacy process
that incorporates all the components of the No Chid Left Behind legislation in
an active problem solving manner.
In February 2004, Literacy First added myDataFirst.com to the services it
offers schools. myDataFirst is a highly effective, highly intuitive, online
technology system that improves teachers' understanding of each child's rapidly
changing literacy needs and assists teachers in flexibly managing the learning
environment in response to those changing needs. myDataFirst also equips school
and district administrators for effective, data-driven management of the larger
educational system. Finally, the data generated by teachers and administrators
provides a rich base for insightful scientific research at all
levels-individual, class, school, district, and national.
Teacher Tools. Because (aside from parents) teachers are in the most
direct educational relationship with school children, myDataFirst was
intentionally developed around teachers' needs. The goal is to equip teachers
with data tools to understand what a given child needs on a given day, without
time-consuming, cumbersome recordkeeping.
Quickly enter student data for every Literacy First assessment.
Rivet teacher focus on what the "next literacy skill" is for each individual
child.
Collaborate with other teachers to flexibly group students from multiple
classes around a common "next literacy skill."
Capture student performance on state assessments.
Generate individual and class profiles for each assessment based on real-time
data.
Monitor individual and class on-grade-level progress.
Capture student demographics such as gender, race, English proficiency, free
and reduced lunch status, special educational needs, etc.
School and District Tools. myDataFirst also equips school administrators
for effective, data-driven management of the larger educational system.
Quickly set-up teachers, classes, and students.
Transfer students (and their data) between schools and school districts,
including inter-state transfers.
Easily re-enroll students into their classes for the next academic year.
Post announcements/messages for users when they log in.
Access data at all levels-student, class, grade, school, and district.
Log confidential teacher observation notes.
Monitor on-grade-level progress by class, grade, and school.
Data-drive accountability for teacher performance over time.
Managerial and Scientific Research Opportunities. Literacy First's
primary commitment is to help teachers better meet children's literacy needs,
especially children who are having difficulty acquiring literacy. A secondary
aspect of this commitment is using data as a platform for managerial and
scientific research that 1) illuminates trends, correlations, and causes and
effects in both teacher and student performances, and 2) unlocks, at the most
global level, greater understanding of how children acquire literacy and how
best to assist them in this most important of discoveries. myDataFirst is a
gigantic and important step in this direction.
Self-Validating. A basic maxim for data systems is "garbage in, garbage
out." If inaccurate data is put in, the aggregations and analyses that result
are of no value. myDataFirst is self-validating, which ensures that only good
data is put in. First, teachers are kept close to granular, student-level data
because their direct relationships with students makes them the most likely to
recognize and correct inaccuracies. Moreover, data-driven accountability places
a high incentive on teachers to make sure their data is accurate (this includes
preventing artificial inflation of student performance).
Real-Time. Children's literacy (and other) needs change literally every
day. To meet students' changing needs, teachers must understand, on a day to
day basis, "where" each child is. Likewise, to manage the larger educational
environment, school and district administrators need the capacity to identify
where assistance is needed and where it is available. myDataFirst provides the
data snapshots necessary to track "moving targets." When data is entered for
one student, the change is instantly reflected in class, grade, school,
district, and national analyses. This is especially important in the team
approach of the Literacy First model where teachers work with students from
various classes (and sometimes various grades) that are grouped together based
on where the students "are" today.
Longitudinal. myDataFirst serves classes of all grades from
pre-kindergarten to Grade 12. Moreover, students' data follows them from grade
to grade and from school to school, even if they move to another district or
another state. Furthermore, myDataFirst captures historical information on the
performance of teachers. Over time, this longitudinal capacity will reveal
temporal performance trajectories which can be used to understand "seasons" in
literacy acquisition, compare acquisition among varying demographics,
understand the regression that occurs during summer breaks, and evaluate
long-term improvement in teachers' competencies.
Granular and Aggregate. Information overload is a ubiquitous Catch 22 in
the new technological age. Too much information obscures the salient, paralyzes
users, and creates waste. It is only with large amounts of granular data,
however, that rich and valid scientific research can be performed. myDataFirst
overcomes this Catch 22 by providing users with a view of the data that
captures only what they want and need to see. For teachers, this means very
granular student data for only their students. For administrators, this means
moderately aggregated data for only their school(s), with the capacity to wade
into more granular data if and when desired. By focusing users' views on what
they want and need to see, myDataFirst allows granular data to be reliably and
efficiently captured without the paralysis of information overload. Having
captured the data at the most granular level, very rich research is possible at
all levels. Furthermore, highly aggregated analyses are supported and validated
by real data at the lowest level, rather than by smaller aggregations of
unverifiable data.
Geographically Diverse. Literacy First serves schools across the
country. This allows for the identification of norms and trends, for making
comparisons, and for establishing benchmarks at multiple levels of
geography-school, district, state, and region. This not only serves the ends of
scientific research, but also allows schools, districts, and states to
comparatively evaluate their own progress and performance.
Connected to Other Disciplines. Using normed state assessments,
myDataFirst will be able to connect students' Literacy First data to other
disciplines such as math and science, as well as to outside measures of
literacy acquisition. This connection will not only allow improved evaluation
of the Literacy First Process, but also greater research into the interplay
between literacy and the other disciplines in the standard courses of study.
