Technology & Learning - March 2009 - (Page 34) Strategies for K-12 Technology Leaders Strategies for K-12 Leaders Assessment DATA at Your FINGERTIPS Advances Allow for Timely Reporting By Matt Bolch The ever-increasing standards of No Child Left Behind regulations and various state assessments have put more pressure on teachers and administrators to monitor the learning process. Fortunately, technology is allowing teachers to test more often to prepare students for high-stakes tests and also is allowing districts to understand results for various groups and subgroups, which helps remedial efforts and future students. tendent for technology and academic services for the 54,000-student district. “It’s made a difference in the day-today instruction as it relates to how teachers present the material,” Hirsch says of the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Suite for Education package the district launched in fall 2005. In the mid-’90s, the Plano district had a central database for assessment information, but it was so cumbersome to use that many principals went back to spreadsheets. The turn of the millennium saw the advent of a proprietary Webbased assessment tool that was an improvement over the previous system but still had no ad hoc reporting feature, which meant that Hirsch’s staff built more than 600 specialized reports. Reports also were difficult to print. The SAS product allows teachers to examine student Jim Hirsch performance during the school year, not the following year. Robust ad hoc reporting and printing options make the system easy to use, and it interfaces well with demographic reporting tools, which helps teachers and administrators parse data many different ways. Parents and guardians can log on to the parent portal to access the history of a child’s learning and his or her expected achievement growth, and where a child stands against the norm. Data include cognitive measures, Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) scores, and other individual reports. “We’ve gotten excellent feedback from parents,” Hirsch says. However, the district learned an important lesson during implementation: Fortune 100 companies, like those SAS usually works with, may not have as many Enterprise Solution Allows Real-Time Analysis The Plano [Texas] Independent School District is on its third iteration of assessment technology and believes the software finally has evolved to provide useful, real-time data to instructors, explains Jim Hirsch, associate superin- 34 | School CIO Special Section
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