Delivering on the promise: advanced uses of technology strengthen educators' capacity to analyze student learning data in Montgomery County, Md.

Closing the achievement gap in one of the most diverse school systems in the nation--one in which more than 160 different nationalities are represented, 120 different languages are spoken and more than 26 percent of the students are living below poverty level--is not a mission for the weak-hearted. It requires vision, perseverance and a strategic plan that includes a systemic approach to identifying the low-performing schools in the district and infusing them with the tools and resources they need to succeed.

Under the leadership of Superintendent Jerry D. Weast, the Montgomery County, Md., system launched several strategic reform initiatives that have raised math, reading and comprehension scores to above grade level for all grades and schools in the district. These reform initiatives have included full integration of organizational development, information technology management and data assessment under one office: The Office of Information and Organizational Systems. This alignment has strengthened the district's ability to use technology to gather and analyze the data necessary to better inform decision making and improve student achievement.

One of the key technology initiatives to support teaching and learning simplifies access to relevant student achievement data through an integrated quality management system. This system consists of a data warehouse, instructional management system and student information system. Teachers now have immediate access to student performance data so they can assess student knowledge and ability and tailor instruction accordingly.

Multiple Directions

The data warehouse organizes longitudinal data from multiple sources, providing reports and data extracts to support data analysis and strategic decision making across the district. Educators use this data to support school improvement plans, identify focus areas for instruction and monitor academic achievement trends.

The web-based instructional management system, or IMS, manages and delivers curricula, monitors student performance on formative and summative assessments and gifted and talented screenings and provides data required to support No Child Left Behind. IMS also enables administrators and teachers to make data-based decisions to modify instruction and develop individual learning plans.

The student information system manages all student administrative data, including enrollment, attendance, special education information, grades, scheduling and course management.

The technology-based management system affords the school district a unified approach to information management, timely and differentiated professional development, evaluative research and quality control to support school system priorities. We are focused on helping teachers improve instruction, enhance student learning, remove institutional barriers to academic success and build operational capacity for greater change through technology-based processes.

The importance of information technology in the reform initiatives under way in Montgomery County parallels the technology advances in private industry that make critical real-time information available anytime and anywhere. As more is expected from students, teachers and principals without a concomitant increase in instructional time, technology accelerates our ability to meet increased expectations through streamlined student assessment and professional development.

The use of online and hand-held-based assessments streamlines the process and accuracy of providing diagnostic information to teachers and principals. Student performance data are available in real time from technology-enhanced reading assessments and through the school district's instructional management systems, enabling teachers to diagnose what students know and are able to do each day throughout the school year.

This early identification and application of interventions help prevent students from falling below grade level and also provide more challenging opportunities for students who are performing at higher levels. By streamlining the process of collecting diagnostic information, teachers have more and better information quickly.

Online Training

Staff development is an essential component of the superintendent's and board of education's efforts to build the capacity of staff to implement improvement initiatives. The data gathered from monitoring student achievement help administrators identify teachers who are implementing best practices, identify opportunities for differentiated professional development for struggling teachers and provide appropriate support and resources for the entire district instructional staff.

The effectiveness of the professional development activities themselves also is easily assessed using technology. For example, at face-to-face trainings, we are piloting the collection of observation data on staff mastery of the professional development outcomes using hand-held devices. Administrators use this information, available through a secure website, to determine what training strategies are effective and what additional support teachers may need.

Montgomery County administrators also use new technology-enhanced strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of staff development in developing the capacity of our educators to implement the district's goals and academic priorities. Each year, hundreds of teachers new to our school district or new to teaching a particular course or grade-level require training and support from their experienced colleagues to develop content and instruction expertise. Technology solutions focus on facilitating "anywhere, anytime" access to timely data, instructional models and best practices, as well as professional development offerings to meet the needs of a large and changing teaching force.

Through a partnership with Classroom Connect, an online learning provider, the district developed modules to support administrative and supervisory staff. These modules focus on the standards for these staff members by providing real-world examples and research in each of the performance standards. We also are developing an online course on data-driven decision making. This course, designed for administrators, staff development teachers and other school leaders who work with data, will train staff to turn student performance data into information they can use to inform instruction. Online modules also are being created to support diversity training initiatives.

Additionally, in partnership with TruNorthLogic, the school district has developed a comprehensive, centralized system for registering, maintaining, tracking, monitoring and reporting professional development information for teachers and administrators. This new professional development online system is web-based and provides staff with information and tools to manage their own professional growth. It also provides our district with a mechanism to align training with staff needs and correlate professional development data with student data.

The professional development management system allows administrators to target announcements, information and content to professional staff members according to position. Administrators also are able to highlight required and recommended courses tailored to each individual; generate individual transcripts of all completed courses; view and monitor individual certification information, salary and highly qualified information; expedite payroll processes; create and edit personal professional development plans; and improve the tuition reimbursement processes.

Accelerating Achievement

The continued growth of the global economy and marketplace is increasing the expectations of what students need to know and do. Teachers, principals and parents need access to the same essential performance data that supports accountability monitoring and identifies where improvements can be made in teaching and learning.

Information technology has played a key role in helping the district realize its goals by providing teachers with supports to enhance teaching and learning, improve content mastery and deliver professional development using different modes. Under the superintendent's leadership, the other members of the school district's executive leadership team and I are designing and deploying reform initiatives that leverage information technology to use instructional time more efficiently and effectively to increase achievement for all students.

RELATED ARTICLE: The real-time merits of hand-held access.

"Are you ready for the spring benchmark?" That's the question teachers in Montgomery County Public Schools encountered when they accessed the mCLASS: Reading 3D[TM] link on the school district's website last spring to review their students' achievement data. Teachers administer the reading assessment to children in grades K-2 during scheduled testing windows, using handheld devices to capture their students' answers. The assessment data is available almost immediately on a secure Internet site for teachers and administrators to use for programming individual student instruction.

This is educational technology at its best. As Superintendent Jerry Weast reported to the Montgomery County Board of Education: "The automation being used here is similar to the technology advances in the medical industry and other private and public enterprises that require immediate access to records and other data. The main improvement is the availability of student performance data in real-time as a teacher diagnoses what a student knows and is able to do throughout the school year."

Through the collaborative efforts of school district staff and nationally renowned external partners, Montgomery County schools began integrating advanced forms of classroom-level technology and automated assessments in spring 2004. The goals of these efforts were to capture more real-time student assessment data while working to reduce the time that educators spent preparing for, administering and summarizing the data from these assessments, thus streamlining the work of teachers and principals in diagnosing and monitoring the academic progress of students. We wanted to improve access to individual student performance data on a wider scale across the county.

The reading assessment, created through a partnership between MCPS and Wireless Generation[R], allows teachers to capture students' oral answers on a hand-held device. Data is synchronized and quickly viewable on the district's website. Principals and teachers can review student performance assessment data almost immediately online in their offices and classrooms.

These benchmark assessments improve the process and accuracy of providing diagnostic information to staff who are able to make quick data-driven decisions to guide the implementation of their balanced literacy program. Interventions, support, enhancements and additional resources can be provided to individual students based on this real-time data, not based on data from a month or more ago.

The Montgomery County schools can point to significant gains in student achievement on summative reading assessments for elementary grade students. These gains are evidence of student learning and of the impact of the collaborative efforts to assess, plan, instruct and reassess student progress. Other indicators include a rigorous curriculum along with formative and summative assessments aligned with local and state standards and the integration and support of advanced technology use in classrooms.

Teachers and principals use these handheld devices with ease to monitor student progress. The impact of time-saving benefits for teachers as they move away from the tedious pencil/paper assessments to using advanced technology for diagnostic and instructional purposes has been great.

School systems need to provide teachers with tools that allow them to collect, analyze and disseminate data quickly. We are able to provide this for our teachers. This enables them to identify students who are at risk in reading in order to provide them with immediate support and interventions.

--John Porter

John Porter is deputy superintendent for information and organizational systems in the Montgomery County Public Schools, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, MD 20850. E-mail: [e-mail]