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Alabama Schools Improve With Accurate, Efficient Use of Data

An analysis by AL.com found that smart use of student data helped 43 Alabama schools improve grades and test scores, for example by grouping students by skill level and informing personalized learning plans.

Sherwood Elementary.jpg
Students work during class at Sherwood Elementary School in Phenix City, which was identified as a high flyer school by an Alabama Education Lab analysis. Trisha Powell Crain/AL.com.
Trisha Crain
(TNS) — Alabama teachers gather hundreds of data points each year — they just don’t always think of them that way.

Reframing conversations about student grades, progress reports and testing has taken awhile, experts say — but it’s often key for successful schools as they assess how to help students. And it’s possible for teachers and staff to conduct smart analyses of information with simple tools.

“The way we look at data is completely different than the way we looked at it 10, 15, 20 years ago,” said Melissa Shields, who leads school improvement efforts at the Alabama State Department of Education.

According to an analysis by AL.com's Education Lab that revealed 43 “high flying” Alabama schools, accurate and efficient use of data is key.

Often, principals lead the effort for improvement at the school level — but then teachers and even students must figure out how to track achievements and help the whole school become invested in success.

“You can be data rich,” said Phenix City’s Superintendent Randy Wilkes, “and still not apply it right.”

Teachers that are new to Phenix City are given three days of intense training prior to their first day in the classroom, and part of that training is on how to collect and use student data. Wilkes credits smart use of student data as one of the components of the rise in test scores at Sherwood Elementary, one of the high flyers.

Sherwood Elementary third grade teacher Shea Lisle, who has been with the school for 13 years, said sharing data with students and reviewing which skills need to be shored up has made a big difference in overall academic growth.

Students at Sherwood use iReady, a computer-based testing system commonly used in Alabama schools, to assess learning. IReady is considered a low-stakes test, used by teachers on a regular basis to figure out what students are struggling with and personalize a learning plan unique to that student.

“IReady gives us weekly assessments, but it also gives comprehensive checks,” said third grade teacher LaShawn Peterson. “So you can go back and find their mistakes.”

Peterson groups students by which skills they’re missing or by skill level and works with those small groups on specific skills every day.

Sherwood Principal Aretha McDonald, who previously led the district’s Meadowlane Elementary School to earn national recognition for closing achievement gaps, emphasized the need for teachers and leaders to focus on student outcomes and what that data shows.

“You have to begin with the end in mind. It’s all about student outcomes.”

TESTING AND DATA



Teachers have always given pop quizzes or chapter tests, but examining those lower-stake test results in a systematic way gives teachers good information about what areas a student didn’t fully grasp.

Shields said that type of analysis is often learned on the job. Many teacher prep programs don’t explore which various testing programs a school might use, experts said.

Beyond tests, teachers also need to be able to analyze data about student absences, social emotional learning, and behavior. And schools use different types of tests and collect different types of information, meaning a teacher will likely have to learn a new system of data analysis if they move from school to school.

“The annual test data is just the tip of the iceberg,” Shields said.

All of the testing isn’t about earning high test scores on the annual test, though. It’s about making sure students are progressing through the school year. That’s also why some national experts and state officials — though certainly not all — say it was still important to conduct tests during the pandemic, even though many students faced additional challenges.

“We all know there is a lot of stock put into these tests,” Guin Elementary sixth-grade teacher Jennifer Crowe said. “But we all know that’s one test, one day. That’s not showing what my kid can do throughout the year.”

Karin Chenoweth, a researcher who focuses on school achievement, said successful schools really aren’t focused on the tests — the tests are just a minimum bar.

Still, Chenoweth believes the tests are necessary to gather high-quality data that can help educators make improvements. That type of analysis has been present in schools she studies nationwide that have successfully improved learning for students who come from poverty.

“It’s the scientific method,” she said. “Identify a problem through data. Fashion a solution in light of the research.”

“There are a lot of solutions to different problems. And all of them could be successful depending on the context, and all of them could be failures.”

SCHOOL INVOLVEMENT IN SUCCESS



Schools may have different ways of tracking student progress and implementing interventions — but staff at the high flyers do keep track, and involve teachers and students to a high level.

At Geneva County Elementary in south Alabama, another high flyer, Principal Chancy Smith had a giant red binder sitting on her desk. She has a page for each of her more than 400 students with color-coded boxes to compare a student’s test scores to the grade the student earned.

In the margins are handwritten notes as to what type of academic support, like special education or regular interventions, a student receives. Beginning in second grade, Geneva County students who need extra help will be paired with a teacher who is the specialist in that subject area.

The data system was put in place nearly a decade ago, she said, by former principal Ann Stafford.

When the grade shows green but the readiness scores are yellow or red, Smith digs further, “because there’s a breakdown between the grades and the testing.”

Similarly, color-coded student progress charts are posted in each classroom.

Kindergarten teacher Amie Miller said her students track their scores on tests and report cards and learn how to identify which skills they need to work harder on.

In every classroom, color-coded student progress charts are posted on the wall. If student scores drop from one month to the next, teachers don’t just talk with each other, but also talk with the student, Smith said.

“We immediately have a conversation,” she said. “What’s going on? Was there a part of that that you just didn’t know how to do? Did you go to bed on time? Or did something happen on the bus? There are so many different factors.”

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