Teachers examine data, diagnose needs, and develop strategies to enhance student learning. Teachers examine student data when establishing professional development needs. For example, teachers give and get results from the Stanford 9, S.T.A.R. Program, Quantitative Reading Assessment and other sources. Teachers may look at surveys, report cards, absentee reports and many other sources of data. We have learned through the Effective Schools training how to analyze data.
Teachers know it takes sharp skills to find gaps in learning.
The teacher wants to be equipped with a variety of strategies to meet student needs. This part might be called putting tools in the teachers' toolbox. Teachers want to have a variety of tools and want to be proficient in using each one. Teachers sometime reflect on a strategy that is being used to meet a student's needs and discover it isn't working. The keen teacher knows that it is time to put that strategy aside and pull another from the toolbox.