Sasha from The Autism Helper defines data-driven instruction as concrete, numerical measurements of student performance, like answering 8 out of 10 questions correctly. She explains that teachers already use data daily and should make it systematic: set up reliable collection, review it frequently with your team, and adjust instruction when skills plateau or reach mastery.
Hi, this is Sasha from The Autism Helper, and in this episode of the mini video training series, we're going to talk about data-based instruction. So that sounds fancy, right? There is kind of— education goes through phases where there's different buzzwords or buzz phrases that everyone says. You go into a job interview, you have to be like, "Well, I'm really into differentiating assessments and project-based learning and data," and you just say all this stuff and you sound like you know what you're talking about, right? Data-based instruction is kind of one of those phrases right now, and it sounds intimidating, but I want to ensure you that it's not. So let's break down this phrase. Data is the details. It's the specific skills that the student is working on and how far they are in their progress towards mastery of that skill. So it's just knowing exactly where they are at each individual skill that they're working on.
So data is not about your opinions, it's about numbers, but it's just the details, right? So I know that Johnny's working on answering who questions. The data I have to support that is when given 10 questions, he can answer 8 correctly.
That's the data.
It's the details. So data-based instruction is looking at taking those details, taking the knowledge of where the student is at in a skill, and then planning your next instructional activities. So planning your activities in the classroom, planning what resources you're going to use, planning what instructional techniques you're going to do next. So that's just using the details to plan what you're doing in your classroom. So this seems really obvious, right? You're like, "I do this every day." So it's not an intimidating phrase. It's something that as a special educator we do naturally, right? We're always collecting information and then using that information to plan what to do next. So next time your principal walks in your class, don't be like, "Oh, I'm teaching reading." Be like, "Oh, I'm in the middle of some data-based instruction." Everyone will respect that. So a lot of times we only are really looking at the data and looking at those details when it's IEP time. When we come to write a new IEP goal, we look at the progress that the student has made and we see what IEP goal we want to plan next.
But I encourage you to be using data on a regular basis. Not yearly, not right before report cards or progress reports. Be analyzing and using that data regularly. We want to learn from the data that we're taking to know how to change what we're doing in the classroom. And if we're waiting for the end of the quarter, we might be waiting too long to make those changes. So if you have a great data system collection— collection system in place, set up a regular schedule for you and your team to review that data so you can make those changes to your programs. That's what the data-based instruction is, is looking at the data regularly, not just on IEP time, and making those changes of, "Oh look, Johnny hit mastery criteria, let's go to the next thing," or, "Oh man, he's been plateauing here really at this skill for a while, we have to change something up." You're gonna get so much more valuable instruction in, in your classroom if you are regularly reviewing data and setting up your program based on that, those data-based decisions, and and having that all rolling in your classroom.
So don't be intimidated by this phrase.
This is something you as a special educator do already, and you do it well, so keep at it.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the mini video training series.
To hear more, head over to YouTube or theautismhelper.com.
