Schools honored for making data public.
The Marshall Elementary School and New Mission High School are leading the way in using data to accelerate student attendance and learning results. BPE honored the two schools for their success in boosting student results while sharing their struggles and successes in the Making Data Public contest.
By publicly highlighting student attendance data daily among teams of teachers this year, the Marshall Elementary school saw a dramatic increase in K2-5 students who attend school 92-100% of the time (an average gain of 19% across these grade levels) and a decrease in students who attend school less than 92% of the time. Key to their success is making student data public for students, teachers, parents, and the community. Both schools created data walls—public displays of their data designed to build awareness across the entire school community, track progress, and stay focused on the results. “I think this project has really excited the teachers in a different way,” claimed Teresa Harvey-Jackson, Principal at the Marshall. “We’re seeing a shift on every grade level because they’re looking at data and it’s public because everybody has access. Teachers can see kids moving and they focus on making sure that all students succeed.”
Edline, an industry leader for developing technology solutions that enhance school improvement, will also provide the winning school with a one-year license for a Learning Community Management System, enabling students and parents to track progress through real-time access to course information and assignments, daily attendance, course grades and other important information.
This effort is part of a broader, school-based inquiry initiative, supported by BPE and the Boston Public Schools (BPS) through a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. This year, 14 Boston schools participated, all working to increase the number of students who are on track to graduate from high school. Participating schools kept track of students’ progress on predictors of successful promotion and graduation — attendance, course passing, and performance in math and English language arts to help them review what they were doing with these students. The effort will extend to more schools this fall, eventually reaching all schools in the district.
Download the announcement.
