The California Charter Schools Association has received a $3 million grant for a new data system that will allow teachers to track individual student performance with the goal of improving instructional practices, the group announced today.
The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation donated the amount -- the association's largest single gift -- for a program called ZOOM! Data Source. The program was pilot-tested by a group of 30 schools. Staring this fall, 189 charters statewide will use the program, including four local campuses -- Port of Los Angeles High School in San Pedro, Crescendo Charter Academy (a K-5) in Gardena, Animo Venice Charter High School in Westchester and Animo Leadership Charter High School in Inglewood.
"The idea is to create data-driven best practices that can then be shared," said CCSA head Caprice Young, who will leave the association at the end of the month.
Young gave a few examples of ways the web-based program will be able to track individual student performance in ways that teachers can use to make adjustments in the classroom.
The program could track weekly elementary school spelling tests and be able to see patterns -- such as problems with "ei" or "ie" words, or if the majority of students got a specific question wrong. That would show -- much more quickly -- if a certain student needed more help in one area, or if potentially a subject wasn't being taught in a way that was helpful to most students.
Essentially, the idea is that the data could be turned around much more quickly to change things day-to-day in the classroom (as opposed to statewide standardized tests, which take much too long to be processed to change daily instruction).
The difference with this program and other data programs is that it's teacher-developed, Young said. She noted that there's a philosophical opposition in some quarters (traditionally from teachers unions) to data that could be broken out teacher by teacher. She said "our teachers" want this kind of program, however.
The data won't be publicly available, Young said, but the association expects to use it in future reports.
And, in case you wondered: the data of course won't show student names or social security numbers when being used for research purposes. It would ID a student by race or ethnic group, if they're at a Title I-funded school, if they get free or reduced lunch and the zip code in which they live, Young said.
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