Napa County Office of Education

Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement and Data Literacy to Improve Student Outcomes

Overview

Napa County Office of Education (Napa COE) continues to prioritize their continuous improvement efforts in their strategic plan, focusing on building capacity to use data in meaningful and intentional ways to improve student outcomes. To increase data literacy among their districts, Napa COE invested in professional learning opportunities that could provide them with the tools to understand and utilize K-12 educational data in their practice. Napa COE also established a county-wide data system, which provided the infrastructure for districts to easily access, share, and use data. It not only gave districts the means to identify and address achievement gaps, but it also helped the county provide tailored technical assistance support to the districts. As a result, Napa COE has created a strong culture of collaboration rooted in effective data analyses to positively impact student learning.

Laying the Groundwork – Collaborators and Partners in Learning

Napa COE recognized that cultivating strong, trusting relationships with all district leaders would lay the groundwork for effective collaboration. Rather than monitoring operations from a compliance-oriented role, the county was intentional in maintaining their role as a collaborative partner and providing assistance based on what districts identified as a priority. In doing so, districts felt comfortable with Napa COE being a thought partner in the development of their Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) and the differentiated assistance process. This relational trust was further strengthened when Napa COE began to establish their Data Literacy Professional Learning Network (PLN). As this network would be tailored towards district leaders, the county met with them individually to ask what they wanted to achieve out of the network. By elevating their voices and needs in shaping the purpose of the PLN, Napa COE created shared ownership and commitment to the work that would ensue.

Assisting Districts with Continuous Improvement Through Data Literacy

Napa COE's Data Literacy PLN included participants from all five districts in Napa County and focused on data literacy, data analytics, and the use of data to monitor progress and make informed decisions. As much of the PLN work would require educational leaders to engage in vulnerable conversations about what they're seeing in the data, the county continued to focus on the relational aspect in the network. Napa COE was cognizant about participating as collaborators and partners in every opportunity of interaction — creating shared agreements, collaborating on agendas, taking an inquiry-based approach when listening and asking questions, and honoring input and ideas from all members of the PLN.

Superintendent Barbara Nemko and Deputy Superintendent Joshua Schultz emphasize the importance of trust and relationships.

By laying the groundwork in building relational trust, Napa COE created a safe space that fostered people's willingness to engage in the difficult work of continuous improvement. In addition to inviting experts to present on topics such as data literacy, data analyses, and data-informed decision-making, the PLN also facilitated "data dives," in which districts present what they're seeing within their local context. Due to the community of trust within the PLN, district leaders feel comfortable sharing their data and how their improvement work is progressing — including the "the good, the bad, and the ugly." Creating opportunities for district leaders to learn from each other's experiences helped promote a culture of continuous improvement in the county.

Establishing a County-Wide Data System for Continuous Improvement Work

Click on this link to download a template of Napa COE's Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that outlined their data sharing agreement.

The implementation of a county-wide data system was an important stepping stone in Napa COE's continuous improvement efforts, as a good data system can provide ready access to easily digestible, real-time student data. Napa COE opted for DataZone as this system was being utilized by other LEAs in California, meaning that they would not have to reinvent the wheel in developing dashboards with indicators tailored to California's K-12 system. With neighboring counties utilizing DataZone, this also meant that Napa COE had access to thought partners to bounce ideas off of. At the time, Napa COE was beginning to launch the Data Literacy PLN. This helped districts see the potential value in adopting a county-wide data system; however, it was the relationships that Napa COE had cultivated over the years that provided the necessary buy-in from their districts.

While it took over a year to launch DataZone, the platform has been instrumental in providing the tools to facilitate data conversations. DataZone enables districts to feed student-level data directly from the Student Information System (SIS) and other data systems (e.g. formative assessment data) into a dashboard that presents the data in an easy-to-understand format. The dashboard allows users to generate reports that can be filtered by indicator, student group, or even a customized cohort. Napa COE is currently experimenting with DataZone's features to triangulate survey data (e.g. Social-Emotional Learning Survey) with other indicators within the system. As all districts in Napa County signed a data sharing agreement, Napa COE can access their data to support them in their continuous improvement work.

Once Napa COE launched DataZone, the county focused on training districts on how to utilize the platform. Their rollout plan included group trainings, customized trainings for each school district based on their priorities, as well as trainings tailored to specific roles (e.g., district leadership, site-level leadership, certified staff, classified staff) to ensure users felt comfortable accessing data relevant to their role.

Advancing Equity Through Data Analysis

In 2017, Napa COE joined the California Association of African-American Superintendents & Administrators (CAAASA) PLN to identify the inequities experienced by African American students and to address them through a systems-change approach. Although African American students only make up 2.1% of the student population in Napa County (EdData, 2021-22), Napa COE believed that many of the best practices surfaced in the CAAASA PLN could translate to other student groups. In the words of Napa COE's Superintendent, Barbara Nemko, "Good instruction is good instruction." The CAAASA PLN offered a great opportunity for the county to collaborate with and learn from other local educational agencies (LEAs) in using data to promote more equitable learning environments for underrepresented students.

Superintendent Barbara Nemko and Deputy Superintendent Joshua Schultz share why they decided to join the CAAASA PLN in 2017.

In 2022, the CAAASA PLN participants reconvened for a series of in-depth discussions on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their ongoing work to improve outcomes for Black students. The results of these sessions were summarized in a brief released in June 2022. Napa COE's partnership with CAAASA still continues today through CCEE's latest learning network, which aims to tackle problems of practice through short-cycles of progress monitoring activities to support Black student achievement. Napa COE's problem of practice focuses on increasing their high school graduation rate (one-year graduation rate) for seniors enrolled in Career Technical Education (CTE) programs in the county-run community schools. They will be examining data to determine the efficacy of implementing enhanced career pathway training programs in culinary arts and welding/construction.

Lessons Learned

In their efforts to increase data literacy among their districts and foster a culture of continuous improvement, Napa COE always came back to the relational aspect of the work. They continue to put the relationship piece at the forefront of their work, which has allowed them to step into their role of supporting districts in their continuous improvement efforts as collaborative thought partners. Recognizing that continuous improvement work takes time to produce tangible results, Napa COE plans to maintain an intentional and continual focus on what the data is showing, how it's informing practices, and if those practices are positively impacting student outcomes. By taking a data-driven approach, the county hopes to find innovative ways to improve student outcomes across all of their districts.

Learn More About Napa COE's Partners

California Association of African-American Superintendents & Administrators (CAAASA) - Napa COE joined the CAAASA Professional Learning Network to strengthen their equity efforts and improve outcomes for their most underrepresented students.

Meet the Team

Barbara Nemko, Ph.D.

Superintendent,
Napa County Office of Education

Joshua Schultz

Deputy Superintendent,
Business Services

Lucy Edwards

Director,
Continuous Improvement

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