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I used to think I was too cool and progressive to give quizzes. But a quiz tells you whether students are learning what you think you are teaching them, quickly and precisely. It’s a perfect data-collection tool: If students learned what you wanted them to learn, they will answer the questions correctly. If they haven’t, they won’t, allowing you to provide targeted help to specific students based on which questions they get wrong. The only caveat is that you shouldn’t grade the quiz, because attaching a grade to a quiz ruins your data.

Principal Natalie Daniels and her team partnered with educators and community to develop a powerful two-day seminar and advisory program focused on connection, relationships, and whole-child support.

Alec Patton talks to Michael McDonald, Stephen Rinaldo, and Tarima Levine about how Yonkers Public Schools and Bank Street Education Center improved eighth grade math proficiency particularly for students who are Black, Latinx, or experiencing poverty.

Bidwell Junior High School created a structure in their school to both increase student voice and decrease unwanted behaviors.

Alec Patton talks to Dr. Kim Carter, superintendent of Battle Creek Public Schools in Michigan, about how her district broke a pattern of outmigration through building relationships with families and local businesses and nonprofits based on transparency and LOTS of conversations.

Improvement teams and system leaders reflect on data while receiving feedback from reviewers to move their work forward

Allyson Fritz shares what she has learned about conducting empathy interviews from her work on reducing chronic absenteeism in Washington State. The first rule: an empathy interview is about LEARNING, not changing other people's behavior.

Bell Middle School reduced its D/F rate from 51% in 2022 to 28% in 2024. That's a 23 percentage point reduction. Even more impressive, for low income students, the D/F rate was 67% in 2022, and Bell cut it by more than half, down to 29% in 2024. In this episode, Alec Patton talks to science teacher Teddy Meckstroth about how they did it.

Alec Patton talks to Hamilton Elementary Principal Dr. Brittany Daley and San Diego County Office of Education Executive Leadership Coach Julia Bridi about how Hamilton cut its chronic absenteeism rate from 24% to 10% in a single year, using creative parent communication, home visits, data checks, and public sliming

Now that I support 19 schools, I’ve come to understand that the “conduit role” is necessary but not sufficient. The real power of the “data lead” role lies not just in presenting the data, but in bringing together the people who need to talk about it, facilitating their conversations, and supporting them as they turn insights into action.