School Search

Interpreting the Data

When viewing a large number of schools in the reporting, you'll want to consider what local policies and school-level decisions affect academic growth in schools that serve similar populations of students. For example, among schools that serve a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students, you will likely see a wide range of Average Growth Index values. In some schools, there is strong evidence that students, on average, exceeded expected growth, while in other schools there is strong evidence that students fell short of the standard. Because the schools serve similar populations of students, we should consider the impact of other differences among the schools. Different programs, interventions, and instructional strategies might yield very different results. With these factors in mind, educators can network across schools to identify and share effective practices.

You'll want to consider these questions to generate meaningful discussion among schools:

• Does this report provide exemplars of high growth and/or high achievement that can be shared?
• Would it be valuable for schools to share these success stories so that connections and collaboration among schools can more easily occur?
• Are there structures in place to facilitate the communication across schools to share strategies and successes?