"Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction" by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo

For a book of this type, this one is fairly good.  By "this type" I mean a textbook format one might come across in a university-level education course.  It is very readable, has a streamlined, linear approach I like, and didn't get too repetitive.  For those who mentally wander when reading these kinds of things (I do), there are nice summary boxes to reinforce concepts at the end of each section.  The chapters are short, blissfully light on edu-speak, and have a lot of real-world examples to drive home the point.  The point, for the record, is fairly simple.  Schools can dramatically improve performance by following three simple steps and one slightly challenging step:  1) Employ rigorous interim assessments, 2) Analyze the assessments quickly and thoroughly, 3) Take action and re-teach, 4) Create a culture where this is commonplace.  Guess which one is slightly challenging?  (and that's an understatement).  It is no surprise that my favorite chapter in the book was the one on culture.  In my nearly three decades on the job, I have learned that nothing, absolutely no initiative or goal, trumps culture. 

What I also liked about this book was that it didn't shy away from failure, highlighting the widespread reasons why initiatives like this fail.  The results are impressive.  They take a number of 90/90/90 schools (90% minority, 90% free and reduced lunch and 90% fail rates) and turn them around using this method.  Personally, I can see how it would work.  The challenge is that your school would have to do this, and this alone.  No other initiatives, no other goals, just this.  Not likely in systems that pride themselves on multi-goal programming and have diverse populations that don't fit into the 90/90/90 model.  Which brings another question.  This method was highly successful at specific schools -- most of which seem to be charter schools, independent schools, academies.  Would it work for an entire school system?  A fully public school with open enrollment?  Unclear.  Could we, in our state, de-emphasize the annual high-stakes testing to focus almost entirely on formative assessments?  Unlikely.  Nonetheless, I liked the message of this book, and got a number of good take-aways.  See this as a good option for those willing to be brave.