The plan you will develop is called a “data-informed plan” because you use data (information) to guide your planning. The goal of the plan is “to improve language and pre-literacy instruction,” so the data you use should help you know how well your site or campus is doing with language and pre-literacy instruction. You will also want to identify data that will help you measure your progress as you implement your plan.
In some cases, data will be focused on student performance. Like the school in the scenario in Part 1, you may identify sources of information about children’s early literacy skills, their language and vocabulary development, and age-appropriate milestones. These data sources may include the following:
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Children’s work samples
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Staff observations
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Anecdotal notes
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Portfolio entries
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Informal and formal assessments
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Parental surveys and questionnaires
An additional resource might be an evidence-based literacy curriculum. Many evidence-based curricula include useful guidance and strategies for teaching the language and pre-literacy skills that children will need to be ready for kindergarten.
When writing the plan, also consider information about staff skills, current teaching practices, and the possible effect of available resources on literacy outcomes and goals. Your team may also decide to focus the goals of your plan on the use of researched-based practices. This approach may work well, especially when serving children too young for valid assessment of language and literacy. In that case, data sources would also focus on instructional practice, such as teacher observation and lesson plans.
The components that make up the data-informed plan could include the following:
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Goals that are specific and clearly stated, based on data
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Action items to accomplish the goals
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Resources to support the goals
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Person(s) responsible for doing the action steps and/or monitoring progress toward the goals
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Timelines for completing the action items
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Criteria for evaluating progress
Once your team has completed the first draft, you are ready to share the plan with other administrators and stakeholders to receive their feedback. This feedback will be reviewed and discussed at future meetings as your team creates and revises a completed data-informed plan for improving language and literacy instruction.
TO LEARN MORE: At the links below, you can see two different approaches to creating a data-informed plan for improving language and pre-literacy instruction. Sample 1 uses student performance data to inform the plan and Sample 2 focuses on instructional practices. These are only examples; remember that there is no one correct way to create your plan. You may choose to use one of the blank templates from the samples here or you may decide to use a similar one that your team has created.
Sample plan 1: Ages 0–5
Template 1
Sample plan 2: Ages 0–2
Template 2
(This template may be used in all ages from 0 to school entry. The sample illustrates a site that serves only children ages 0–2).
NEXT STEPS: Depending on your team's progress in creating your plan, you may want to consider the following next steps:
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Identify what data sources to use for goal setting.
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Collect, organize, and analyze data from these sources.
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Create a timeline to complete the plan.
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Determine the format for your plan (see To Learn More above for examples and templates).
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Identify needed resources.
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Plan your next meeting.
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Solicit input from teachers and other stakeholders regarding your plan.