About the Book
When numbers become people, learners thrive
Waves of data—indigestible, dehumanized, and disaggregated—are crashing into the education system every day, driving you to distraction. But imagine a world where you’re not being drowned by data, but inspired by it; where that data has a FACE and gives you focused information on how to reach every student.
Sharratt and Fullan turn worldwide research into a road map for school leaders to use ongoing assessment to inform instruction and drive equity at the classroom, school, district, and state levels. Inside you will find
A fresh look at data to incorporate new learning
Updated case studies, figures, and vignettes
Insights from more than 500 educators in answering the 3 research questions: Why do we put FACES on data? How do we put FACES on data? and What are the top three leadership skills needed to do this work?
An integrated approach to using the 14 Parameters to enhance Deep Learning and critical thinking
Tools for committing to "equity and excellence"
FACES is about setting up the conditions for success in every classroom: identifying the right factors, at the right time, with the right resources. Its focus on student-centered data will help you:
Increase learners’ growth and achievement
improve engagement that results in students, teacher and leader empowerment
build cultures of learning
drive a learning environment of continuous improvement
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1: Information Glut to Well-Known FACES
Chapter 2: The Power of Putting FACES on the Data
Chapter 3: Making It Work in Practice - Assessment Literacy
Chapter 4: Making It Work in Practice - Instruction
Chapter 5: Leaderhsip - Individualizing for Improvement
Chapter 6: Ownership - Of All the Faces
Epilogue
About the Author :
Lyn Sharratt, EdD, is a practitioner and researcher working in remote and urban settings worldwide. Lyn is an Adjunct Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada; a Fellow at University of Melbourne, Australia; an author consultant for Corwin Press; an advisor for International School Leadership with the Ontario Principals’ Council; and consults internationally, working with system, school, and teacher leaders at all levels in Australia, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Lyn focuses her time and effort on increasing each student’s growth and achievement by working alongside leaders and teachers to put FACES on their data, taking intentional action to make equity and excellence a reality for ALL students.
Visit www.lynsharratt.com for articles, video clips, podcasts; on Twitter: @LynSharratt; on Instagram: lyn_sharratt; and on LinkedIn where Lyn owns the “Educational Leadership” LinkedIn group made up of 99,000+ members.
Lyn’s authorship includes: Realization: The Change Imperative for Deepening District-Wide Reform (with Michael Fullan); Putting FACES on the Data: What Great Leaders Do! (With Michael Fullan); Good to Great to Innovate: Recalculating the Route, K-12+ (with Gale Harild); Leading Collaborative Learning: Excellence (with Beate Planche); CLARITY: What Matters MOST in Learning, Teaching and Leading (International Best-Selling Education Book in 2020); and Putting FACES on the Data – the 10th Anniversary Edition (with Michael Fullan).
Lyn is proud of the recent co-development of the CLARITY Learning Suite (CLS) - a web-based collaborative Professional Learning opportunity that mirrors CLARITY. Lyn and her team believe that ‘everyone’s a leader’, thus CLS provides guidance to Learning Leaders on how to do this work of system and school improvement – together – to make a difference for all students. Visit www.claritylearningsuite.com.
Michael Fullan, Order of Canada, is the former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto. He is co-leader of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning global initiative. Michael served as Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Special Policy Adviser in Ontario from 2003-2013. He received the Order of Canada (OC) in December 2012 and holds five honorary doctorates from universities around the world. His ‘interim autobiography,’ Surreal Change, covers his pre-Covid-19 era to 2018. Michael and his colleagues are now working diligently on field-based comprehensive system change in several countries. Under the umbrella of what they call the ‘humanity paradigm’ —equitable-equal deep change that integrates local (school and community), middle (district/regional), and centre (policy) entities. Michael’s latest books are: Spirit Work and the Science of Collaboration (with Mark Edwards, 2022), The Principal 2.0 (2023), The Drivers (with Joanne Quinn, 2023), and The New Meaning of Educational Change, 6th Edition (2025).
For more information on books, articles, videos, podcasts please go to: www.michaelfullan.ca
Review :
A superb book. Full to the brim of practical, workable ideas. Sharratt and Fullan exude love and compassion for all students everywhere, reinforcing that they all deserve the best educational experience, irrespective of circumstance or context. It also reminds us to look at faces first, data second, in the pursuit of achievement for all. Powerful and persuasive, this book speaks directly to the importance of focusing on global education now more than ever.
A rich tapestry weaving together data, student identity, and informed professional judgement. Sharratt and Fullan have provided a context for the use of student data to move from an aspiration that all children can learn to an accountable set of actions to ensure that all means all. Putting faces on the data requires knowing the whole learner, including their identity, community, and lived experience.
Unlocking the capacity of each student remains the essential work of all teachers and leaders. This new edition expertly provides an elaborated and contemporary focus on how to enhance school performance through identifying and understanding the abilities, passions, and potential of our next generation of innovators and problem solvers.
Sharratt and Fullan’s 2012 work was a catalyst for progress in Queensland public education, leading us out of a "teacher-led / data-driven" binary into a new era characterised by deep understanding of our student and community needs, grounded in evidence. New perspectives in this edition reflect contemporary research and case studies, updated parameters, and provocations around emerging global challenges.
A book starts with blank pages, has within it a lovely apparition and a sense of beauty waiting to be imprinted so that potential readers can then make interpretations about what they see. There is no immaculate perception when interpreting data, but there are multiple meanings tied to beautiful faces. Sharratt and Fullan paint the pictures, sculpt the beauty of the meaning of data, and dive deeply into the interpretations and implications. A work of art, indeed.
This is our forever work.
My journey as a school and system leader has run parallel to the 10 years of Putting Faces on the Data. As a school leader, it helped me learn that the only way you lift outcomes – whether for a class or a school – is child by child. This ensures that we have a line of sight to what each child and school needs to improve student outcomes. Thank you from every child who has been ‘given a face’ in a class, school, and system across the world.
This book changed the way our system views data and how collectively a shared understanding of data literacy brings accountability to the forefront. There is no system improvement without ′Putting Faces on the Data′!
It is great to have a 10th anniversary edition of FACES! This book changed the way we understood how to promote improvement in our work with teachers and leaders in Chile. It taught us what to look for in the process of learning, what data is relevant to collect, and how leaders become learners with their teachers. FACES taught us that focus for collaboration and professional learning is all about putting each student’s achievements at the center of our conversations!
In this fast-paced world, work that is relevant ten years after its first edition speaks to its durability. Each part of this book can be found in the work we do – I see data walls and I hear conversations about assessment and how it drives instruction. This book guides our work with practical examples, clear explanations, and guidance. Thank you to Lyn and Michael for continuing to make Putting FACES on the Data relevant and valuable to all educators!
Lyn Sharratt and Michael Fullan clearly articulate the complexity of change and the necessity to understand the 13 parameters by providing an insightful resource using case studies to provide an indisputable pathway to system improvement. This is a must read for every system leader, school leader, and teacher leader. Their work has been pivotal in my work as a system change leader in both Manitoba and Alberta and is even more important coming out of a global pandemic.
This powerful book provides the missing links between intention and action. Educators want to see every student succeed in learning and in life. The challenge is to reform the system to deliver on broader and deeper goals while also engaging each student on a pathway to their "best possible, most richly imagined future." This book is a beacon of hope that honours the work of all teachers and leaders by making sense of the improvement journey in classrooms, schools, and systems.
