Boston Arts Academy Year End Report, 2003-2004
Web link: See the Boston Arts Academy website to download the full report:
http://www.boston-arts-academy.org/documents/documents.html

Having goals is pretty meaningless if we are not going to look at information that speaks to our progress toward them.  Not that data is the only lens that we use to discuss such things, but it is a critical piece that forces us to move our discussions beyond our every day interactions with individual students and look at the big picture of how we are doing as a school.  Overall, I think that our use of data helps us avoid stagnation.  –Boston Arts Academy teacher

   Boston Arts Academy (BAA) is continually assessing its progress as a school – looking backward while moving forward.  The Boston Arts Academy Year End Report, 2003-2004 is one such example.  The report contains a wealth of information – 60 pages – about the school, including BAA’s school-wide goals for the year:
              1) To practice differentiated instruction to promote equity. 
              2) To practice seriousness of purpose to promote equity. 
              3) To evaluate and document our practice using multiple sources of data. 
   Equity is clearly an important goal at BAA – every year it is in some way part of the school-wide goals.  One way the school works to achieve equity is through the use of disaggregated data to inform and improve school practice.  BAA reports an abundance of data in its Year End Report.
  “We gather this data and disaggregate it as we do because it speaks to our progress toward our goal of providing equitable access opportunities for all of our students,” said one BAA teacher.        How is this data then used by BAA?  School faculty and staff are organized into teams, “each working in their specialized areas to support our essential goals for the school year,” according to the report.  Teams examine and make decisions based on the data.  The teams include: Arts Team, Curriculum Team, Leadership Team, Academic Teams, Teacher Interns, Student Support Team, and Development and Outreach Team.  Each team meets at least once weekly, and the entire staff meets weekly for two and one-half hours.  “I think any time we look at the hard data it is bound to help us get better by identifying where we should focus our efforts and it also presents us new challenges,” explained a BAA teacher,  “Simply talking about what questions we want to be able to answer with data helps us keep on track with our mission and goals.”

Student Data
   The Year End Report includes student data, disaggregated by grade, on racial distribution, gender, arts major, and Boston neighborhood.  A second section of student data reports honor roll students by grade and gender.  The data shows male and female honor roll students by term for each grade.  Additional honor roll student data is broken down by arts major and by race for each term.  In 2003-2004, students were 51% Black, 23% White, 23% Hispanic, and 3% Asian.  For honor roll in term 1, students were 30% Black, 27% White, 41% Hispanic, and 7% Asian.  Staff can then use this data to explore the disproportionately low rate of Black students on the honor roll. 

Benchmark Data
   Another section of the report examines BAA benchmarks.  The school sets both qualitative and quantitative goals for their students.  MCAS Mathematics and Language Arts results over six and five years, respectively, are reported.  BAA also developed an internal writing assessment, and graphs are shown for pre- and post-writing assessments in the 9th and 10th grades collectively and the 11th and 12th grades collectively. 

Additional Indicators
   More detailed information about students is provided in the additional indicators section, including how often students attend after-school help for academics, when students experience the most stress, and how much time students spend on average doing homework each night.  Part of this section includes an “Equity Gaps Analysis,” which examines racial inequities in course selection.  According to the report, “Enrollment data for students choosing the open honors option was disaggregated by gender and race in order to uncover any existing achievement gaps.” 

Admissions Data
   Not only does BAA track progress of current students, but the report also provides data on BAA applicants and accepted students.  “To get a full picture, it is important to not only portray data that speaks to our outcomes…but also to the demographics of our existing and new population,” said a BAA teacher.  Graphs show the race of both applicants and accepted students. 

Looking Ahead
   “We are constantly aiming to improve our data collection…so that the data provides a clearer picture of our successes and challenges as a school,” said a BAA teacher.  “While we always strive for perfection, the reality is that we will always have more to work on and the data will always reveal that.”  As BAA continues to make equity a school-wide goal, the use of data remains a critical indicator of progress.  Stagnation is unthinkable.

Professional Development at the Mason Elementary School
   The whole staff of about 30 was seated together in a large circle at the Mason Elementary Pilot School.  It was a September afternoon after school and the staff was gathered to participate in a “Race, Class, and Achievement Gap” professional development meeting.  The desired outcomes of the professional development were to help staff improve their practice, student, and family relationships and, in turn, the achievement of their students. 
   A teacher leader opened the meeting with a faculty share – an opportunity for staff to share professional or personal updates – and a summary of points from a previous professional development meeting in which a speaker related the importance of parent and family connections.  One point was to “be mindful that we are culturally different,” and another was to “examine yourself, be reflective.”  Today the staff would be involved in making both of these discussion points a reality.  Staff started the work brainstorming the needs of the school to address a need for stronger family and community connections.
   Many staff brought up the idea of more family days and casual gatherings with families, either as classroom or school events.  Another suggestion that was agreed on was having a protocol for families who speak languages other than English.  The protocol would involve knowing what staff members could speak another language and turning to them for assistance when contacting families.  Engaging in more learning about cultural differences as a whole staff was another suggestion.  One teacher stated, “It is so important that we get out into the community and see where our babies live, where they play.  How about a field trip?  We need to know the whole child sitting in front of us.…”  
   Later in the meeting, staff discussed in small groups a set of core values/non-negotiables be created that would used to guide their race, class, and achievement work.  In small groups they listed their responses on chart paper and then shared them with the whole staff.   Collective commitments to in-depth work, investment in professional development, and high expectations were just a few of the core values that the staff found essential. 
   The meeting came to a close with a viewing of a segment of The Way Home, a film in which eight groups of women of different races and ethnicities talk openly about their experiences of race, class, and gender in the U.S.  Following the film, staff wrote down individual responses, and some shared these with the larger group.  One staff member said that she felt “more aware” after the film, more interested in learning about other cultures, and very moved by all of the stories.  Another felt that the movie was difficult.  It brought up intense emotions, yet she said it was important to take a risk to feel uncomfortable and have a courageous conversation that could impact the staff’s personal growth and in turn the growth of their students. 

   Everyone went around the room and said a one-word closing, which reflected both the excitement and the challenges inherent in such a difficult topic.  The conversation would continue in the next “Race, Class, and Achievement” meeting at the Mason Elementary School.