What is Data Inquiry?

Inquiry is a scaffolded process that guides teams of teachers and school leaders to:

• Identify student learning challenges based on data

• Examine instruction to understand how teaching impacts learning

• Design high-leverage instructional strategies

• Assess progress in student learning and teacher practice

• Refine and adjust practice until student learning improves

• Discover their own professional learning needs

Every school has a “sphere of success” – a group of students with whom the school is currently successful. The challenge is to continually expand that sphere to include all students. Inquiry teams iteratively drill down to increasingly specific and immediate data in order to hone understanding of the learning challenges students face and increase the specificity and alignment of their response. Engaging in collaborative inquiry increases teacher efficacy as teams see the direct impact their teaching has on student learning and their collective capacity to expand the sphere of success.

In order to expand each school’s sphere of success, we utilize the Data Wise Improvement Process from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to lead schools through cycles of collaborative inquiry. The Data Wise Improvement Process develops the practices and habits of mind necessary for continuous improvement through three phases: Prepare, Inquire, and Act. As described by authors Kathy Boudett, Elizabeth City, and Richard Murnane, during the Data Wise Improvement Process:

(1) Initially, teams "prepare" for work by establishing team structures and expectations, and learning principles of responsible data use.

(2) Teams then "inquire" by looking for patterns in data that indicate areas for improving teaching and learning.

(3) Finally, teams "act" on what they learn by designing and implementing instructional improvements.