SCHOOLS SEEK WAYS TO EFFICIENTLY ANALYZE STUDENT DATA.

Byline: Eugene Tong  Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - For Saugus schools administrator Joan Lucid, it's been a case of too much data and not enough time.

``I've had principals spend two solid weeks during her summertime, on her own time, putting together the data in a way that could help inform the instructional program,'' said Lucid, assistant superintendent of instruction for the Saugus Union School District, referring to the reams of raw student data garnered each year from standardized test results.

For some educators, technology is the answer. Under the glare of standardized testing and government accountability, schools are reinforcing classroom instruction with sophisticated systems to translate student performance data into better performance.

``People want to know the numbers,'' said Lucid, whose school district - along with the William S. Hart High School District - is testing such a database system. ``It's what parents ask about. It's what the public recognizes. What we try to do is doing the right thing by our children.''

Since the enactment of legislation such as the 2001 federal No Child Left Behind Act and California's own school accountability laws, school districts are legally bound to meet set standards in a decade or risk losing funding.

It's also created a multimillion-dollar industry for products targeted at educators to help students make the grade. Some firms have seized on data management, claiming the battery of exams and assessments generates information on student performance that could help educators diagnose - even treat - problems if properly harnessed.

``There is a lot of panic in the marketplace, and there is this No Child Left Behind microeconomy,'' said Lou Pugliese, chief executive at ETS Pulliam. ``Everyone and their brother has jumped in to help school districts with data.''

The Redlands-based education consultant - a subsidiary of standardized- test provider Education Testing Service - makes the database software for clients including Hart and Saugus school districts.

The program, which could cost $50,000 to more than $200,000 depending on the size of the district, boasts a centralized hub for student data. Teachers can access everything from grades, test results and standards proficiency, and even perform a detailed analysis of a child's strengths and weaknesses based on the data.

``It's one thing to report on it, but it's another to make that data actionable,'' Pugliese said. ``We decided to go beyond testing and into the diagnostic arena - turn that data into detailed reports and turn that data into action.''

Hart district officials believe the software could provide teachers with a complete database on individual students at their fingertips - an enduring technological challenge.

``Instructional leaders need transparent access,'' said Terry Deloria, Hart's special programs director. ``They need to look up a student without going through a lot of hurdles. It's for instructional improvement ... Up to now, we haven't had that kind of information for teachers to make that decision.''

``It's a difference of doing work on a typewriter or doing work in a word processor,'' Saugus' Lucid said.

But Orval Garrison, president of the Hart District Teachers Association, is not completely sold.

``The conceptual idea of doing that is not bad,'' he said. ``But it presumes teachers have an enormous amount of free time available to go into the databanks and do comparative studies of students.''

David Marsh, associate dean at University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, said educators need to look beyond tools and assessment if they want to see actual student improvement.

``It doesn't matter how many times you weigh a pig,'' he said. ``Weighing a pig doesn't make it grow. ... What business providers have are ways to analyze data, which is a good idea. But it's not linked to classrooms.

``We need a combination,'' Marsh said. ``We need at the school level a lot of work to connecting the student engagement, the standards and the teaching and the way schools are organized. There is a lot an individual school can do to make that better.''

Both Deloria and Lucid agreed that any solution requires the input of teachers to be successful.

``We really need to be more data-driven than we've been,'' Lucid said. ``It gives us a common language. But I would hate for it to be the end-all and be-all. I would hate for our teachers not to be creative. I want a balance.''

Eugene Tong, [phone]

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com