Path to the Summit: West Virginia Heightens Local Data Literacy

00:00:04.05 AMY BITTERMAN: For the IDEA data center, I'm Amy Bitterman, and this is A Date with Data. Every month I sit down with data quality influencers from around the country to share their stories about special education data and the work they do to improve outcomes for children with disabilities. Welcome to A Date with Data. On this episode, I am joined by Sheilah Paitsel, Special Education Director, Tanya Rogowsky, who is the SIP and Secondary Transition Coordinator. And Jonathan Shank, who is a special education coordinator all from the West Virginia Department of Education. We're going to be talking about West Virginia's Special Education Data Summit, a conference that they held recently focusing on data literacy and data quality. We also have with us Fred Edora, who is an IDC TA provider, and Fred presented at the data summit, so he's going to share with us his experiences. So thank you all so much for being on, really appreciate it. And just to kick things off, can you talk about why you initially decided to hold the data summit? How did it kind of come about?

00:01:09.66 SHEILA PAITSEL: Hi. Yes. Last year we found ourselves in an unusual situation where we had some money that we were able to spend, and we pushed that out to our team and our team is very interested in the things they're assigned to. And we got lots of requests for training, and one of them was for data. And we have a lot of turnover in West Virginia with our special ed directors, many of which are pretty inexperienced. And I feel like data is an area where individuals sometimes feel a little bit intimidated. So there was a strong push from Tanya and Jonathan, our part B data manager, to put on a conference to sort of make people at ease, give them the information that they needed to do their jobs. So we went forward with the plan and the data conference happened.

00:02:02.98 AMY BITTERMAN: Great. So how did you all go about planning for the data summit initially, who was involved in part of that planning process?

00:02:11.74 TONYA RUTKOWSKI: This is Tanya Rogowsky and the data team decided that we wanted to put on a really comprehensive data summit that involved not just our special ed team, but the entire team that focused from the Office of Data Analysis research. They did data literacy, data privacy, data governance, that team as well, anybody who had a touch point to the special education data at the state level. So we started off with like a big brainstorming meeting, invited everybody who could possibly be in interested in presenting or being on the planning team. And after that first meeting, we narrowed it down to a planning team who was willing to get in and get their hands dirty. And we planned monthly meetings, we went from weekly meetings to bi-weekly meetings, and then monthly meetings. We started planning in, I want to say early May for an event that took place at the end of September. And then we also started putting out notices to our school superintendents and a weekly reminder that, Hey, save the date was the first thing we did, and here's this big conference that's coming up. So we invited not just the special ed directors, but we also planned to include the principals and the superintendents. And then Jonathan put out a needs assessment and if you want to talk about that needs assessment, Jonathan.

00:03:46.10 JONATHAN SHANK: Yes. So-- 

00:03:46.61 TONYA RUTKOWSKI: Because that was your brainchild. 

00:03:48.15 JONATHAN SHANK: Yes. This is Jonathan. So we developed and sent out a needs assessment to our LEA directors of special education to kind of get their perceived level of data literacy, how comfortable they are with data, using data, where to find it, and what they need, what they needed to build their skills. And so we got the results of that, summarized that, narrowed it down into specific categories and kind of just used that information to hit the areas hardest where there was the most need. And so after we kind of figured out what they wanted to see from us, I mean, we knew what kind of data quality issues we wanted to address at the SEA level. But instead of us just always telling them what to do and how to do it, we wanted to know from them what they needed to be able to use the data effectively to drive results for their students with disabilities. And so after we got a pretty good idea of the content that we needed to put on for this conference, we did an internal survey among our SEA's data staff in our office, the special ed office and the Office of Data Analysis and Research because we wanted to get everybody's perspective on their own specialties and how they could contribute. So we kind of matched up what the needs were from the needs assessment with what the WVDE staff, what their skills and expertise were. And we developed materials that way just to kind of make sure that the people who knew the most about those topics were the ones presenting on this.  

00:05:31.40 AMY BITTERMAN: Wow. It sounds like you had a very thoughtful intentional planning process, but then not a lot of time either. You kind of only a few months really were able to pull it off. So that's amazing. And just such dedication and thinking kind of going into it to make sure you're not just throwing at them kind of what you at the state level think or know, but definitely pulling them in and hearing what they need and want makes a lot of sense to get that buy-in too, and to hopefully, ensure that a lot of folks would attend.

00:06:06.15 JONATHAN SHANK: Stakeholder engagement.

00:06:07.32 AMY BITTERMAN: Yes. At its finest. So tell us about the data summit. What were some of those areas of need that you identified and the content that you covered, who in the end did attend, how many people and what were their roles?

00:06:22.57 TONYA RUTKOWSKI: So this is Tanya again. We had about 225 attendees, we held it offsite in an event venue so that everybody could really focus on what was happening at the summit and not really worrying about what was going on in their schools--

00:06:41.42 AMY BITTERMAN: Mm-hmm.

00:06:41.70 TONYA RUTKOWSKI: At that time. We had looked at the four elements of data literacy. It was a TA center, I think it was a combination of work that you and NCS I did at some point in time in the early work of the SIP. And the four elements of data literacy are the exploration of data, management of data, use of data analysis, and then reflection and improvement. And the whole summit was kind of focused around those four elements of data literacy and that all of the needs assessment data that Jonathan had gathered kind of fell into those four different categories. So we actually, Fred can talk more about this later, but we invited him to be our keynote speaker on these four elements of data literacy. And then we gave sessions, some of them were hour long because they really needed to go in depth, some of them were half hour long, they were more compliance related. And so we offered a variety of sessions all simultaneously, we didn't assign anybody to anything. We had student level data on progress monitoring, we had LEA level data, we had state level data sessions, and we just basically provided the agenda and the speakers and we just let people choose what they wanted. We offered them multiple times throughout the day so that Jonathan might be speaking in the morning from 10 to 11, and he might have also spoke again in the afternoon for a 30 minute session.  

00:08:18.92 AMY BITTERMAN: Mm-hmm.

00:08:19.77 TONYA RUTKOWSKI: We invited principals because they're the creators and reviewers of the data that feed into the certified data collections, such as discipline.

00:08:27.06 AMY BITTERMAN: Yes.

00:08:27.36 TONYA RUTKOWSKI: And also to promote their understanding of their role as data producers and also of the special education data that a lot of times they don't understand it as well as our special ed directors. Did I miss anything, Jonathan?

00:08:41.55 JONATHAN SHANK: I guess the only thing I would add is whenever we were doing that needs assessment, there was a lot of interest in the student level data, like progress monitoring and just like finding ways to improve outcomes for individual students at the student level. So because of that, we actually doubled up on some presentations. So I and a colleague gave the same presentation at two different times in the day just so we could accommodate the level of interest in that topic. And so we just kind of did some database decision making with how we laid out and planned the whole thing.

00:09:19.70 AMY BITTERMAN: Yes. And you mentioned Fred, so can you talk a little bit about how Fred and IDC supported West Virginia with the summit?

00:09:29.10 FRED EDORA: Yes, no it was funny because when actually this all came about I remember this was April, 2024, and Jonathan had actually invited IDC, in fact, invited me and others to come to West Virginia to do their state data process work because they were looking to update all of their data processes. And day two of that meeting, if you all remember, day two of that meeting, we had a tornado warning.

00:09:55.39 AMY BITTERMAN: Oh no.

00:09:55.76 FRED EDORA: We had a tornado warning. So we all had to go downstairs to the basement, we all had to make sure that if this tornado was going to hit downtown Charleston, that we weren't going to be in the middle of this. So when we get down to the basement, Tanya comes up to me and she's like, "So we are having this data summit presentation that's happening in September, do you want to present at that presentation?" And I'm thinking, wow! Next time I want to present here in West Virginia, I just need to come during tornado season, and then there you go. I'll be happy, I'll be able to come to a summit. But yes, absolutely. I said yes, and I was happy to support, just kind of in a roundabout way, we've been able to support West Virginia and so many different other things. And to be able to support them in their first data summit was really good. As Tanya mentioned, I led a presentation on the elements, essential elements of data literacy which we had all 225 people in that presentation. After Sheila's wonderful introduction where she shared some of her personal experiences with the data and with special education in West Virginia as well. But we try to make it personal, we try to make it directly applicable to their work in the district, in the school that this wasn't just a state-level activity that everyone in the room had some way or some role that was involved in collecting high-quality data and using high-quality data. And it was a great presentation, it was people coming up to me and love the essential elements and glad they were able to apply it through the rest of their work through that summit. I also helped Jonathan and others do some presentations on the APR and what was required in terms of data collection. I've never seen someone go so fast and effectively through the APR that Jonathan did in that whole presentation. It was like only 90 minutes, but he was able to cover everything there. And then I also helped in another session regarding local process data documentation because the state felt it was important that states knew how they were, or that local districts and school districts knew how they were recording the data at their level. And to be able to find a process to do that.  

00:12:04.12 AMY BITTERMAN: Great.

00:12:04.36 JONATHAN SHANK: I couldn't have done it without Fred though. I mean, he just gave me that energy just to keep going through that session. And don't forget, the second time IDC came to work with our data processes, you brought a total solar eclipse with you.

00:12:17.80 AMY BITTERMAN: Wow.

00:12:18.00 JONATHAN SHANK: First time it was a tornado, and then the second time [CROSSTALK] the IDC weather events are a big thing.

00:12:21.49 FRED EDORA: That's right. I forgot about that. You're right. So we have solar eclipses, tornadoes. What's the next event? Is there going to be something else happening?

00:12:28.57 TONYA RUTKOWSKI: Well, actually--

00:12:29.18 FRED EDORA: Probably an earthquake next time.

00:12:30.52 TONYA RUTKOWSKI I was going to say we're going to be holding one in September, I think, again, Fred. So pick your weather event and we'll plan the date around it.

00:12:37.91 SHEILA PAITSEL: One time we had a big facilitated IEP training in Charleston and there was a major flood. So we have a way of doing things.

00:12:44.59 AMY BITTERMAN: Oh my gosh. You don't think of West Virginia as a place that has crazy, crazy weather.

00:12:49.68 FRED EDORA: I'll bring Caribbean heat wave. How about a heat wave next time? Would that work next time?

00:12:53.40 JONATHAN SHANK: Yes, sure.

00:12:53.82 AMY BITTERMAN: In September, maybe.

00:12:54.62 FRED EDORA: All right. Perfect.

00:12:55.42 JONATHAN SHANK: There you go.

00:12:56.34 AMY BITTERMAN: Fred, is there anything from the sessions that you presented at or attended that you think are worth kind of highlighting and bringing out for others listening that they might want to hear about?

00:13:08.22 FRED EDORA: Yes, I think what really impressed me about the summit is that the state really did a good job analyzing what was needed before the summit, that this wasn't a waste of anyone's time, that all the content, that all their sessions, that everything that Sheila, Jonathan, Tanya wanted to bring to the table were all meaningful for everybody that was there. And that's really important I think, in creating a data use summit or wanting to execute one. That a lot of these topics may be of interest to lots of different people, but you really need to assess what people need first. You have to just accept the reality of where you're currently at today.

00:13:49.77 AMY BITTERMAN: Yes.

00:13:49.87 FRED EDORA: Because we all have visions, we all have dreams about what we want to do. We all have goals of what we want to do, but you're never going to get there unless you know exactly what you need today. And that's exactly what I feel like West Virginia did a wonderful job with. That they weren't willing to just super stretch themselves just to bring everyone together. But that there we're going to do it productively, that we had a framework to start off the day with the essential elements, that we had sessions that were important to the staff, that we had the right people at the table to be able to do that. And that they had the resources and the infrastructure to be able to bring it to the table. Then in Morgantown, it was a beautiful location, a lot of people were able to schedule it in, had enough advanced notice. So the planning, I think, in this kind of thing for a summit is really important in analyzing what those needs are. And West Virginia did an excellent job of doing that this time around.

00:14:42.10 AMY BITTERMAN: So it's exciting to hear you're going to be doing it again.

00:14:45.39 FRED EDORA: I guess I am here. It's just one of those things where it's just like the relationship I think everyone has with each other is also very key too, it's also very critical, I think. I mean, without going into too much, I've been their liaison for multiple years now, but it's just the fact that they're willing to come to the table and learn about a lot of this stuff and wanting to do a good job, it just makes my job a lot easier, I think.  

00:15:09.36 AMY BITTERMAN: Yes. Can you talk about some of the benefits that you've seen as a result of holding the summit? I don't know if you had any kind of evaluation or collected any data to kind of learn and get feedback. But what did you see kind of come out of it?

00:15:23.28 SHEILA PAITSEL: Well, I'll start us off on that one. And I know that Tanya and Jonathan have information about the feedback that we received, but just anecdotally, things that I noticed, we had even our FDA staff here that don't necessarily work directly with the data.

00:15:40.44 AMY BITTERMAN: Mm-hmm.

00:15:40.92 SHEILA PAITSEL: And we had some people from the field who typically you don't consider your data folks out there that came to the summit, some principals, some specialists, IEP specialists in the LEA. And I could just see that they were benefiting and understanding and they were making the connections to their jobs. So I thought it was really valuable that way because everyone was able to sort of see that they had a piece of this puzzle, that the IDEA puzzle fit into data perfectly and in a unique way. And I'll let Jonathan and Tanya talk to you about the feedback that we received from the conference.

00:16:21.24 JONATHAN SHANK: Tanya, you want to go?

00:16:22.49 TONYA RUTKOWSKI: Sure. One of the things that was a benefit of the data summit is many of the special educators that are working with me in the OSEP work, which we call West Virginia guidepost to graduation because our summit is focused on improving graduation results for students. And in fact, we're going to be moving toward a different focus the next cycle, and we're going to expand upon that and go toward improving post-school outcomes as well as maintaining and improving graduation. But that being said, we also borrowed from IDC they used to have hands-on learning academies that they called HOLAs. And so we are also holding HOLAs for the SIP work as a result of this data summit because these folks wanted to get deeper into their data and what it means and how they can use it for improvement. So we are conducting those twice. In fact, they other one's coming up in three weeks. During the year, during the course of the school year, where we look at their specific data and we work through that with them so that they can develop communication plans and professional development learning plans and that they're very excited about it, which was something that was a surprise and a benefit. We also helped them make connections between the results and compliance data. Compliance data, you can check a box and yes, you're 100% compliant, but does it really mean anything?

00:17:56.30 AMY BITTERMAN: Mm-hmm.

00:17:57.18 SHEILA PAITSEL: And so we helped them with some of the sessions, that was one of the benefits. They began to see that there is a difference between a focus on results and a focus on compliance that actually makes improvements for students at the local level. And then the collaboration between the gen ed folks and the special ed folks, both at the state level, those who are presenting, and also those who attended. I think that helped build that relationship and that capacity at the local level by having everybody there at the same time. Jonathan.

00:18:26.77 JONATHAN SHANK: Something else I noticed, I don't know if it's a benefit or a surprise or both, but since the conference I've been noticing an increase in calls and emails from LEA staff and LEA special ed directors about data requests or where they can find this data or that data in WVEIS, our West Virginia Education Information System. I've had people email me and ask me about how to do the calculations for certain indicators so they can kind of keep an eye on it on their own. Just to kind of have that own understanding at the LEA level so they can engage their LEA staff and stakeholders about their results, goals. And it's just I hadn't seen that level of engagement before this conference. Before it was just give us our data and tell us what to do with it, and now they're like how do we use this? How do you calculate this? Where do we find this? So it's encouraging to see that engagement and increased interest in data, using it, where to find it, and how to analyze it.

00:19:38.19 AMY BITTERMAN: Yes. Really kind of like building those relationships, having this opportunity for them to meet you and the other staff I'm sure it makes maybe that districts and the schools kind of more willing to say, I remember him from the conference. I'll just reach out to him and ask him for this. So that always leads to more improvement and collaboration for sure.

00:20:00.28 JONATHAN SHANK: Oh, and I also wanted to point out IDC brought another sort of I don't want to say disaster, but there was a chemical spill that happened on the interstate towards the end of our conference. And so we had to be flexible and adjust how the sessions were going to occur. I think we ended up making one of the sessions into a working lunch because we needed to squeeze more content into the day so that we could let out the participants a little bit earlier so that they could try to get on the road earlier to get back home. Because they were coming from all across the state so yes, I don't know if IDC caused that or not, but it just seems like, I don't know. I'll let you all give [CROSSTALK].

00:20:42.63 AMY BITTERMAN: Given everything else. Right. Oh, go ahead.

00:20:44.58 SHEILA PAITSEL: I was going to say, the nice thing about it was that as Jonathan said, we had to pivot really fast. It was a panel discussion, the afternoon session was a panel discussion with some of our schools who had actually been CSI/ATS schools who were using data and we had a probably 10 minutes where like, okay, can you do this? Can you not do this? Are you willing to-- and everybody was just so flexible, and the audience was great. People actually stayed until the end even though they knew about this chemical spill that was closing roads. And so they were really excited about being there and were grateful for us being flexible and having that working lunch. So sometimes things happen on the fly and you just kind of have to go with the flow.  

00:21:31.44 AMY BITTERMAN: Absolutely.

00:21:31.94 JONATHAN SHANK: Yes. I had a whole closing remarks speech prepared. I thought I was going to be delivering it to 200 plus people and I ended up delivering it to maybe, I don't know, 20 people including like some of our SEA staff, but that's all right.

00:21:45.10 AMY BITTERMAN: Can use it for next time.

00:21:46.56 JONATHAN SHANK: Yes.

00:21:48.44 AMY BITTERMAN: Any other kind of surprises or things you have coming up that are kind of maybe related or maybe happened because of the summit?  

00:21:58.73 SHEILA PAITSEL: I just think that we had a lot of things going on in the state. Tanya mentioned the comprehensive support schools and the CSI/ATS schools that didn't meet proficiency in the students with disabilities subgroup. But also there are other things. Our state-wide reading initiative, our state-wide math initiative, and everybody is sort of hyper-focused on benchmarking and looking at their data. And I feel like this was a real opportunity for them to sort of get some basic knowledge and help them to feel a little bit more adequate in those areas. And everybody is working on some part of all of those projects. So I think that's definitely-- there's a lot of things to relate the data to right now. So it really came at the right time. 

00:22:50.15 AMY BITTERMAN: Yes. And just, I'm amazed by, and I think it's unusual too, just like you said, the bringing in general ed to all of this as well, whether through the SEA and the planning and presenters, but then who you invited to attend, I think that's pretty unusual. So kudos to you all for going in that direction and I'm sure that really added to everyone's knowledge and understanding in building those relationships. Well, thank you all so much for your time and for sharing about the data summit. Exciting to hear about all that's going on in the state and the summit in particular. Hope it goes well next time and you avoid some of maybe the natural disasters and everything goes smoothly. But love to hear how next year's goes.

00:23:38.83 SHEILA PAITSEL: Thank you so much.

00:23:40.32 JONATHAN SHANK: Yes. Thanks for having us. It's been great.  And I hope to see you all again soon.

00:23:43.62 TONYA RUTKOWSKI: Thanks for having us.

00:23:46.13 AMY BITTERMAN: Thanks. A date with Data is produced by the IDEA data center, which is funded by the US Department of Education. Have a story about special education data that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear from you. Reach out to us at ideadata@westat.com. To learn more about our center and our work, visit us at ideadata.org.