DanyaBlog

When I visited Atlanta recently to meet with the management team, we exchanged ideas about how to stay active and in shape. Maintaining a healthy workforce benefits the company, as well as each employee. Danya has always given health insurance top priority as a benefit, paying the majority of the premium to keep it affordable for all employees, despite the year-after-year increases in premiums. We also support the health fairs, subsidize health club dues, and provide many other health-related benefits. However, ultimately, your health depends on you, and how you take care of yourself!

As you begin to ponder New Year’s resolutions for 2012, think about what you can do to improve your health—get in shape, exercise, cut down on unhealthy foods or drinks, or quit harmful habits such as smoking. I realize that I need a new health strategy. Simply wanting to lose 10 pounds is not enough. Fred and I have had an ongoing bet that one of us could lose more weight than the other. After 5 years, we both lost about 50 pounds—and we both gained about 50 pounds—for a net loss of zero!

I’m trying to figure out my next goal, such as a 10K race or maybe a sprint triathlon. I’m a decent swimmer, love to bike, and can run a pretty good 5K. I may be slow for a competition, but I might give that a try. Nikki Lovell and Sarah Preston ran and finished the Marine Corps Marathon last month—that was inspiring! Stacy Dietzler in Atlanta is a regular marathon runner, and she told me about an interesting and helpful website called www.active.com, which provides information about all types of sports and competitive events.

There are also some events we could do together as a company, such as the Bright Beginnings 5K in DC in the spring and the AIDS Walk in Atlanta in the fall. We have had several participants in both of these events over the past few years, but we could step it up and present a larger Danya showing—what do you think? If you have health problems and can’t take on something as challenging as a long-distance run or a mountain climb, you might be able to work toward a walking goal or set your sights on another low-impact fitness routine.

Another great exercise is to dance—so I hope to see you all out on the dance floor at our high-energy Danya holiday parties coming up over the next couple of weeks! Give it some thought, but most importantly, just get out there and move!

Please share your ideas and suggestions in the comments. I wish you all the best with your families and friends during this holiday season.

Sincerely,

Jeff

Danya has been awarded the Corporate Social Responsibility Award by the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce (MCCC). The award, sponsored by Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Mid-Atlantic States, Inc., will be presented at MCCC’s annual Business Awards Dinner on October 26, 2011, at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.

“Danya’s mission is devoted to services in the crucial health and education sectors,” said Trevor Garner, Administrative Vice President for M&T Bank and Chair of the 2011 Business Awards Dinner. “When we reviewed Danya’s impressive accomplishments, we knew it was a perfect fit for this particular award.”

According to the MCCC website, the award is “presented to an individual or company that has demonstrated exemplary business practices and dedicated involvement and unyielding commitment to community service and volunteer programs that enrich the lives of residents of Montgomery County.” Over the years, Danya has been deeply involved with volunteer work and support for Families Foremost Center, Hearts and Homes for Youth, and Bright Beginnings Child Development Center for Homeless Children, as well as several other local organizations and programs.

Danya International’s system of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is designed to support multiple stakeholders toward meeting their performance accountability. This M&E system is particularly suited to contribute to solutions that address the accountability challenges in public education where responsibilities and functions are distributed across various levels.

Click here to read Part 1.

M&E Connects Students to School Practices

At the level of school practice, Danya’s M&E system can play an instrumental role. In the Glenwood Leadership Academy, a turnaround school in Evansville, Indiana, Danya partners with the school district and the Academy leadership to use real-time, online student surveys for tracking student engagement. Because Danya’s online surveys are deposited into a database, individual teachers, the school leadership team, and the district leadership can use the data on student engagement for planning, instructional improvement, and resource allocation. The design of Danya’s dashboard system is solely for formative support and not for summative accountability.

Danya’s M&E Integrated Data System

Danya’s M&E system at the instructional and school levels provides much-needed support for several school improvement functions. Among the issues that the M&E survey system address are the following:

• What do students tell us about their engagement and perception of instructional quality and rigor?
• Does the level of student engagement remain the same or different across different core subject areas (math, ELA, science, and arts), as well as across different grade levels (fourth through eighth grades)?
• Does the level of student engagement increase as the academic year progresses?
• Given the district’s investment in professional development, what do teachers tell us about their engagement and perception of the quality and relevance of specific professional training activities? Does the level of teacher engagement increase over the course of the academic year?

Clearly, these issues constitute common concerns for educators and school leaders across the nation. There is a growing body of literature that identifies more systematic ways in gathering data on student perception and engagement. Positive student attitudes in learning contribute to student performance. For example, the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project, which is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, examined instructional effectiveness of over 3,000 teachers in seven large urban districts during 2009 through 2011. A key part of the study was a survey of about 100,000 students on their perception of instructional practices. Drawing on surveys used by the Tripod Project, MET identifies seven aspects of student perception. Often referred to as the Seven Cs, student perception includes Caring (e.g., “The teacher in this class encourages me to do my best.”), Captivating (e.g., “This class keeps my attention—I don’t get bored.”), Conferring (e.g., “My teacher gives us time to explain our ideas.”), Controlling (e.g., “Our class stays busy and doesn’t waste time.”), Clarifying (e.g., “When I am confused, my teacher knows how to help me understand.”), Challenging (e.g., “My teacher wants us to use our thinking skills, not just memorize things.”), and Consolidating (e.g., “My teacher takes the time to summarize what we learn each day.”). These and other studies provide a knowledge base upon which Danya develops its student engagement and perception survey that is now being used in the Glenwood Leadership Academy. Among the key survey items are students’ assessments on instructional rigor, critical thinking development, and connectedness to the classroom.

Danya’s M&E Key Factors

Much of the current work in this area does not monitor and evaluate student response over the course of the academic year. Danya’s M&E system at Glenwood is among the very few that uses the survey data to generate a dashboard system in an ongoing fashion. Furthermore, Danya’s dashboard system is designed to address multiple stakeholders simultaneously, including individual subject-matter teachers, school leadership, and district leadership. In other words, the M&E system at Glenwood offers an innovative solution to a key challenge in school improvement—the need to monitor and evaluate the student perspective on instructional practices. Clearly, this M&E system is adaptable to other school and district settings.