Educator Spotlight: Using Data to Drive Impact

Discovering that a student group had a zero percent passing rate on the STAAR and End-of-Course (EOC) tests in 2023, Grant Granquist, then assistant principal at Tomball Memorial High School, knew their team had a 9-1-1 emergency on their hands.  

Granquist, now associate principal of operations, said he was looking at data on disproportionate discipline.

“I immediately started analyzing all the special education data related to disproportionality,” Granquist said. “In the process of doing that, I quickly realized that none of our eighth through 11^th grade, black females had passed English I or II, History, Science, or Math.”

With this alarming data in hand, Granquist took the information to content specialists in the Tomball Independent School District. He had a few ideas of how to start solving the problem with his team. Granquist is a doctoral candidate in Baylor’s K-12 Educational Leadership program, and was attending a class with Dr. Jon Eckert, executive director of Baylor’s Center for School Leadership and professor of educational leadership.

“I took a lot of what Dr. Eckert said in the class and started thinking about how to solve the problem we had on our campus,” Granquist said. “One of the books Dr. Eckert recommended was The Novice Advantage. This book focuses on having a fresh mindset and the idea that we can accomplish anything if we put our minds to it.”

Granquist said he presented pieces from the book to his team and followed up with the four questions of the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) solution tree. 

1. What is it we want our students to know and be able to do? 
2. How will we know if each student has learned it?
3. How will we respond when some students do not learn it? 
4. How will we extend the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency?

With these tools in-hand, the special education support teachers started to hold weekly meetings focusing on the PLC strategies and they took turns reading the book, The Novice Advantage. 

“Through this process, we saw tremendous growth with our black females just within months,” Granquist shared. “We saw gains that were incredible! All of a sudden, this student group was competing with all the other groups according to the data.”

Below is a chart of the special education African American Females mid-year assessments.

The cherry on top? Granquist said he saw a huge shift in the team being more optimistic. 

“In the world of special education, you are consistently battling that your students are struggling all the time, and it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel because you get focused on what the students can’t do,” Granquist said. “Once we got into the book study, I saw teachers who shifted their attitudes to ‘my students can, and my students will’. To see them from go from down in the dumps to overly optimistic was amazing.”

The teachers were so excited about the progress they saw their students making that they didn’t want to stop the book study or lose their momentum. 

“The team met with Dr. Eckert virtually and he gave them several different ideas to take it to the next level on their own or through the book study,” Granquist said. “We developed a vision for the ’24-’25 school year and they’re continuing to run with it.”

To encourage other school teams that may be facing similar challenges, Granquist said the first thing he would do is to dive into the data. 

“Do you know what all the needs of your campus are right now? Start there,” Granquist said. “Then start talking about different intervention processes and PLC methods as a team. The first step is understanding how deep the hole is.”

Granquist is encouraged that his campus team is making progress amid other challenges that arise. 

“We’re still trying to close gaps. Our demographics are changing. We’re not a Title I campus, but the number of economically disadvantaged students is increasing,” Granquist said. “I’m currently working with kids who haven’t been in school for two or three years.”

Granquist continued on to say that in situations like these, school teams cannot continue doing things they way they have always been done.

“Every book that Dr. Eckert recommended, I purchased a copy for the campus, and we have a section of the library for staff now. I’ve done three or four book studies with different staff and teams,” Granquist said. “It’s really cool to learn with your team. Ideas start growing and popping up.”

Is your school team ready to try something different? We have the perfect chance for you to do that! The Baylor Center for School Leadership (BCSL) is hosting CATALYZE, a retreat that offers a collaborative environment where you’ll work alongside a network of educators and the BCSL team to develop a plan of action using our improvement science tools. 

Your team of teachers and administrators will have the opportunity to address a problem of practice related to your campus improvement plan. With ongoing monthly support from our team, you will be equipped with strategies to catalyze lasting improvement in what we like to call “catalytic improvement communities” that will benefit your school. 

You will improve an aspect of your campus improvement plan, develop leaders, and enhance collective teacher efficacy. Gather a team of 2-10 teachers and administrators because we do this work best together. 

Learn more and register on our website.