To Improve Learning For Each Learner, Turn a Mirror on Your System

When the Ed School’s Data Wise Project decided to publish a book nearly 20 years ago offering a step-by-step process for using data to improve teaching and learning in schools, their target audience was clear: educators in schools. The project had no intention of scaling the work beyond that group.

But eventually, something else became clear: While the Data Wise book and the initial data-related course they offered were huge hits, educators wanted — and needed — more guidance as they worked toward better serving students. Additional books followed, plus a group of professional learning offerings, ranging from a massive open online course (MOOC) to a coach certification program. 

“We put Data Wise out into the world and were very heartened by the reception of school-based people feeling like, oh, this is a model that can help me do my work better,” says Kathy Boudett, director of the Data Wise Project and a senior lecturer at the Ed School. “But pretty quickly, people at the system level who were supporting schools started asking, ‘What’s our role in modeling this work and supporting schools in doing it well?’”

To help answer these questions, the Data Wise Project staff decided it was time to capture what they’ve learned from working with systems, not just educators in schools, in a new book, out this month through Harvard Education Press called System Wise: Continuous Instructional Improvement at Scale. Written by Adam Parrott-Sheffer, Ed.M.’09, Ed.L.D.’20; Carmen Williams, Ed.L.D.’22; David Rease, Jr., Ed.L.D.’14; and Boudett, System Wise extends the Data Wise process from individual classrooms and schools to broader educational contexts for educators at any level. Plans are also underway to launch the first System Wise Leadership Institute, which will take place in May 2025. 

One of the challenges that all system-level leaders face is how to think about scale. The Data Wise team was no different. When they attended the Scaling for Impact institute at the Ed School, “It was like someone turned on the lights,” they write in System Wise. “Until then, we had understood scaling to be about getting bigger, and we were hesitant to embrace growth for growth’s sake. Discovering that scaling could involve depth, sustainability, spread, shift, and evolution helped us to see that scaling didn’t mean we needed to water down our model in an effort to serve more people. In System Wise, we share this learning.”

That original model includes allowing educators to build the skills necessary for looking at data, identifying a problem, coming up with an action plan, and then assessing how well the plan is working to improve student learning. It lets educators dig deep and look not just at numbers, but also teaching practices. Team leaders, principals, and district administrators become “system wise” when, as the book points out, they cultivate the “ACE habits of mind” around action, collaboration, and evidence.

Williams, a school assistant superintendent of instruction and innovation and co-chair of the Data Wise in Action Program, says the ACE habits come from the Data Wise book, but they have evolved.

"What we’ve been able to do is talk about how critical practicing those [habits] are to building a culture around data,” she said in an interview with Harvard Education Press, the publisher of Data Wise and System Wise. “It’s not just doing Data Wise, it's being Data Wise. The Ace Habits of Mind help us to shift our mindsets, but also our orientation to the work of improvement cycles. I think that’s a game changer when you're at the system level because, typically, a system leader gives a directive and someone else follows it. If there's going to be a culture change, everyone is going to be rowing in the same direction. By committing to the Ace Habits of Mind, that's kind of the anchor for how we can all move together and have a rhythm. If we’re speaking the same language and we have the same mindsets, then at every level of the organization we’re deepening our practice around data.”

Each chapter of System Wise starts out with a question, such as, “What counts as data?” and “Do we see each learner first through their strengths?” which are designed to support taking an equity lens. Chapters also include case studies, planning checklists, implementation templates, and a discussion of what the approach looks like at each step. Parrott-Sheffer says the book allows readers to jump in at any point.

“We really think as you read System Wise, you’ll be like, ‘Hey, I'm at a stage where I'm trying to figure out what to focus on, so I might start at the beginning.’ You might already have a strategic plan you’ve built and you’re going to start with step six and seven, more towards the middle of the book, because that’s going to be most applicable. The nice thing about continuous improvement is you can join the carousel anywhere and it’s going to get you into the feedback loop.”

The work is also very student centered. Rease, director of equity, diversity, and belonging in Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland, points to chapter two of the book, where Jorge, an educator in Illinois, talks about how they were not setting high expectations for immigrant students in their district. As his system engaged in the improvement process, they realized they had “been doing school in the same way” and, with this new group of students, what they were doing might be harmful. “The System Wise approach created an opportunity for that reflection to happen,” Rease says, “so that people could start behaving differently and really assess their values.”

Another key aspect of the System Wise book, Williams says, is its focus on community.

“There are going to be people who pick this book up and feel affirmed because they’re already doing some of the practices,” she says. “The missing piece, though, might be how do you know to what level? To what end are you producing what you really want to produce? That’s where the value of reading this book and doing this book in community comes in. It’s just like a workout with a trainer. You can walk on the treadmill at a pace, but you might need someone else to say, ‘I bet you can go faster. I bet we can go longer.’ Reading this book and living this book in community is where you’re going to get the best results.”

• Learn more about the upcoming System Wise Leadership Institute chaired by Carmen Williams and Adam Parrott-Sheffer.