Empowering Community Success with Student Performance Analytics

Student performance data is available in every district. The challenge was to find a way to quickly turn the data into actionable steps that administrators and team members could readily use to support all students.

Millcreek wanted to drill deep into the data to look at specific issues.

• Equity: Are there areas of disproportionality?
• Access: Do all students have access to rigorous coursework?
• Early Intervention: How can we proactively identify and respond to students who need additional support?

The Results:

By expanding the use of analytics to the building level, Millcreek’s teams collaborate to identify what is happening in the current quarter, prioritize needed support, and strategize on plans to ensure all students are successfully moving forward.

Using Frontline Student Analytics saves time assembling data and organizing it in a way to communicate significant findings. It helps focus on the specific data needed to support evidence-based discussion and decision-making.

Collaboration matters

“It’s really helped our admin set goals for the school year based on data.”

Working together as teams to examine data and implement effective interventions takes courage and perseverance. It also allows the district to address its three priority issues — equity, access, and early intervention — more efficiently.

Looking at data can be uncomfortable, especially when teachers see their own performance indicators and grade distribution percentages on display. Jason Keim, High School Administrative Officer, explained that building level teams at Millcreek work to create an atmosphere of honesty and respect so they can truly understand their students’ progress and challenges.

With a focus on equity, the team can identify areas of potential disproportionality in their responses to academic and behavioral concerns and target interventions based on data, not subjective observations.

Using data to differentiate

Access to rigorous coursework is much more visible using customized reports. By examining which students could be successful in higher-level classes from middle to high school, Millcreek has increased access and participation to all students, especially those who may not have considered AP courses. Student input also guides what courses are available.

Teachers at all grade levels have learned how to use their data to identify goals for individual students and measure progress. They can build custom dashboards to monitor and support at-risk students from kindergarten through graduation.

At Millcreek, school leaders and staff use Frontline Student Analytics to focus on instructional decisions. By assembling and organizing data to make evidence-based decisions, they know how to meet the needs of all students.

“We have to have the data. It has to be accurate. It has to be timely. It has to be presented in a way that it’s readily understood and will lead us to understand complex questions. A way to have that is through our partnership with 5Lab [now Frontline’s Student Analytics Lab].”