A Guide for School Districts: Exploring Alternative Measures of Student Learning and Wellness

N

27

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

Administrators

School Districts; Educational Quality; Measurement Techniques; Educational Indicators; Data Collection; Accountability; Evaluation Methods; COVID-19; Pandemics; School Closing; Progress Monitoring; Academic Achievement; Standardized Tests; Postsecondary Education; College Readiness; Family Involvement; Student Participation; Well Being; Educational Opportunities; Equal Education

This slide deck is a toolkit to help districts adapt existing school performance frameworks to the current moment or create new ones. These slides identify and walk through the fundamental questions districts need to consider in designing school performance frameworks that acknowledge the challenges that schools and students are facing, as well as a continued need to monitor performance and continuously improve. These questions include: (1) What are the key concepts or indicators that make up the district's current/past approach to assessing school quality? Are there other concepts or indicators related to school performance that become newly or more important for districts to assess in a COVID-19 world? (2) How has the district measured school performance within these indicators? (3) Why does the district focus on these measures? What questions is the district trying to answer? (4) What kinds of decisions does this data inform? What are the stakes of these decisions for students, schools, communities, and districts? (5) What problems or complications may prevent the district from using these measures now? Are there other limitations of those measures of which the district is concerned or aware? (6) What are other ways the district could get at the questions that these measures are intended to help us answer? What information is the district currently collecting from schools? Is there additional information that schools are collecting that might help? Are there other information sources that would be useful that districts and schools do not currently have but potentially could? and (7) What steps must the district take to implement these other ways of assessing quality or use them well? Are there any statutory or regulatory constraints? How will the district engage stakeholders and build buy-in for the changes? [For the accompanying guide, "Addressing Data Gaps during a Pandemic: How Authorizers Can Continue to Hold Charter Schools to High Standards," see ED610382.]

ERIC

2021

ED610389