Data really is the secret sauce in the K-12 classroom

Key points:

Along with all the educational technology that has come into K-12 classrooms over the past 10 years, we also now have a constant stream of useful, actionable data that we can use to improve student outcomes. This is especially true in the case of literacy, where it is very easy to lose sight of students’ progress and performance as they progress through primary and secondary school.

Knowing this, we chose to test the Lexia Core5 Reading adaptive blended learning literacy program a few years ago. Our initial goal was to improve the reading support we offered to students based on their literacy data, specifically in the area of ​​foundational skills. We were collecting data from a variety of assessments, but the interventions we were using simply did not show that students were making consistent progress as readers.

We had recently implemented a new implementation of small group guided reading instruction, but it was showing limited results. We primarily used a reading workshop and a balanced literacy model to teach reading. We had added additional phonemic awareness instruction in kindergarten and first grade classrooms, but knew we still needed to make improvements to our district literacy program to better support our students.

Fortunately, our literacy pilot program went well and we slowly expanded our use of our literacy program in our district’s elementary schools with a before-school program. In the spring of 2020, we obtained unlimited licenses for the literacy program, which the company was offering at no cost due to the pandemic, and we recruited all of our K-12 students to use it at home. In the fall of 2020, we purchased unlimited licenses for all of our elementary schools and began implementing our first structured literacy program for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Needless to say, our access to reliable data improved significantly once we implemented a unified literacy program. Here are four main benefits we’ve seen as a result of doing this move:

1. A gateway to structured literacy. Taking a new approach to literacy instruction was critical to driving better outcomes for our students. When we implemented a new structured literacy reading program that we could integrate with our Lexia programs, we found the true gateway to structured literacy. With structured whole group literacy reading lessons and a literacy center block to provide time for daily personalized literacy instruction for students on our literacy platform and Amira, a digital reading tutor, I never imagined there would be a accelerated support for our students like we have. now. We are lucky to have these different programs that are aligned when it comes to teaching children to read and then supporting them as they become advanced readers.
2. Easy access to valuable data. We are pleased with the results of our multi-year approach to improving literacy and extracting the data needed for effective decision-making and performance monitoring. As we continue to refine our structured whole-class and small-group reading literacy lessons, we will continue to support consistent student use in our digital literacy and tutoring programs. For example, if usage and progress data does not meet teachers’ expectations, our teachers can quickly understand how students are performing in the programs and intervene accordingly. This was a big change for us because we now have quick access to a continuous collection of data points to better support students.
3. Better reading test scores. For the 2022-23 school year, 84 percent of our students met Core5 usage expectations and 74 percent of all students advanced at least one grade level of the material. During the same period, 65 percent of students who used the literacy program with fidelity and 49 percent of all students achieved skills at or above grade level. Students’ NWEA RIT scores also improved, to the point where the district’s median RIT percentile was higher than usual. We had growth data across all elementary schools like we had never seen before. In fact, a comparison of NWEA reading test results from the 2019-20 school year to the 2022-23 school year showed that K-5 students passed 37 percent at or above rate standards. growth to 93 percent. Similar results were obtained on the NWEA language use test for students in grades 3 through 5, where students rose from 37 percent at or above growth rate standards to 96 percent. We tend to have good growth data because we have many students who show growth throughout the year, but typically not from fall to winter. The strong growth we saw across all elementary schools last year was amazing.
4. A reading program that everyone loves. The positive momentum of the literacy program has been an important factor in our district’s literacy journey supporting students, teachers, and families throughout the school year and during the summer months. Teachers now understand the literacy program and can support their students. Teachers are excited when they see students making progress and see that our literacy program has a direct connection to those students’ educational progress. We also like how we can view program data through different lenses. For example, principals can easily view metrics related to their building’s literacy data, while we can also access district literacy data. Teachers, interventionists, special education staff, and paraprofessionals can view class, caseload, and student data to address students’ literacy needs more effectively.

Our district now has the data it needs and a structured literacy approach that is already producing impressive results in improved reading scores.