A Measured Approach to Measuring Students

A district's use of broader and balanced indicators to assess performance at the student and system levels

As a 7th grader, Jose Scott never thought he’d make it to college. No one in his immediate family had attended a four-year postsecondary school, and college was a long way off. But he joined a program called Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID.

The national college-readiness program combines academic rigor with strong academic and social support. AVID would become the hand rail along Scott’s path to high school graduation.

In Vancouver, Wash., Public Schools, we take a measured approach to recruiting students like Jose into AVID. Data play a role in identifying the students and monitoring their progress as they work toward high school graduation and college.

However, AVID isn’t the only program in our district to mine data for information that allows educators to make strategic decisions. Data are fundamental to our comprehensive approach to performance management and personalization.

Creating a Vision

Let’s be clear: Data aren’t everything. Our students are more than numbers. They’re more than their test scores. Fifteen years of federal public policy that narrowly defined student, school and district success in those terms made that evident. But as schools and districts face bigger challenges and larger demands, sometimes while drawing from fewer resources, educators are finding that data are necessary not only for state and federal accountability purposes, but more importantly to transform student trajectories.

We have found that in Vancouver, a broader, more balanced accountability framework that attends to multiple measures of student, school and district success has allowed us to make gains while remaining true to stakeholder expectations.

In January 2008, Vancouver Public Schools adopted Design II, our next-generation strategic plan. Thousands of district stakeholders provided input. Here’s what we learned: Our community members expect us to educate the whole child. They expect our graduates to be future-ready in terms of college, career and life.

Holding Accountable

As part of that planning process, Vancouver identified 28 evidence-based student learning key performance indicators, or KPIs, that serve as both leading and lagging measures of success. These are high-leverage, high-yield measures that have predictive value for later success in our classrooms and schools.

The scorecard is about accountability — to parents, partners, the community and our students. Designing this scorecard was a deliberate process that involved the following:

• Guidance and supporting documentation from the nonprofit group Education Northwest;
• Statistical analysis of the historical and current performance of the school system, Washington state and 10 peer districts;
• Critical analysis of the achievement gaps that impact students who receive free or reduced-price lunches, English language learners and special education populations; and
• Input from school and district stakeholders to refine the goals of our system to which indicators must align.

Revised in 2015-16, our current scorecard focuses on targets that we hope to meet by the year 2020 and is aligned to the following systemwide goals:

• Increased and equitable student achievement at all levels;
• Increased and equitable access to college- and career-readiness opportunities; and
• Climate and culture that engage and support all learners.

Longitudinal View

Data must cause the user to wonder, pose questions, explore relationships and determine a course of action to improve results. Robust data systems report trends over time, but the more sophisticated models are based on individual student growth.

We believe that our data can report student performance longitudinally to track learning, as well as allow our district to monitor school and district performance. The latter includes reporting on achievement and opportunity gaps with transparency and fairness so that the district remains accountable to our school board, families and community.

Our 28 evidence-based key performance indicators are tied to learning milestones. One of the indicators to show that high school students are on track, for example, is the percentage of freshmen who have attained at least six of the 22.5 credits currently required to graduate.

Research tells us that 9th grade is a make-or-break year. It was for Jose Scott, whose grades slipped his freshman year. He was far from alone in his struggle. More students fail 9th grade than any other grade in high school. Students who fall behind during their freshman year are less likely to graduate at all, much less graduate on time.

In addition to being reported through scorecards, indicators such as these are tracked through a data dashboard that produces real-time results on an individual level, monitoring attendance, discipline, credit accrual and other factors that research tells us are critical to student success. A watch list alerts school staff of changes in student academic and assessment performance that indicate a need for intervention.

The key performance indicators also serve a broader purpose — alignment to systemwide goals that govern the design of programs and services for all of our students. The 9th-grade credit accrual indicator, for example, supports the target of raising both on-time and extended graduation rates to 90 percent and the larger goal of increased and equitable access to college- and career-readiness opportunities.

We’re on our way. Graduation rates have increased 16 points since 2010. Our on-time graduation rate has topped 80 percent, up from 64 percent six years ago. Latino and black students have made the greatest gains. We’ve also eliminated the graduation achievement gap for black students in our district.

At the end of the day, our work is about cultivating hope, creating opportunity and building agency in the children we serve so they become future-ready graduates.

Beyond Statistics

Data are useful as a predictive tool and help us work with focus and coherency. However, the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Data aren’t a substitute for good teachers and administrators nor are they an alternative to determination and perseverance. Training, instinct, relationships, experience and judgment still count.

Scott’s mother passed away during the summer before his junior year of high school. The family trauma easily could have derailed his schooling. But Scott had an abundance of determination and a talent for leadership that propelled him forward. Along the way, his AVID family and the staff at Fort Vancouver High School lifted his spirits. He took more AP classes, earned a spot on the school’s Honor Roll and sought opportunities to serve others and build his community.

The accolades followed. Scott received the George C. Marshall Youth Leadership Award, a local honor given annually to a high school senior who displays the leadership and integrity that characterized its namesake’s military and political careers.

Scott is a success story. He graduated on time in 2014 and now is thriving at Washington State University Vancouver, where he is majoring in public affairs.

Finding Balance

Accelerating learning and closing achievement gaps for students are more than just measuring system outputs. They’re also about inputs. We acknowledge that the educational opportunities, both inside and outside schools, that help children from wealthy families are the same opportunities that would most benefit children who lack access to them.

Vancouver’s performance management approach is about equity and excellence for every single student. A comprehensive approach strikes the right balance between data-driven indicators of performance and the right people and support. Effective performance management demands both.