New Academic Tracking System Coming

By the time this year's kindergarteners graduate from the Las Virgenes Unified  district, a single digital file will contain all of their STAR and other assessment results--and parents and teachers will be able to view it online.

This new academic tracking system, known as Datawise, will be in place when school is back in session in the fall.  Teachers will be able to filter and populate data that will help them improve their courses and track students' progress, a LVUSD news release said.

Teachers and administrators will be able to view an individual student's scores or show patterns throughout classes, schools and the district as a whole.

"Datawise expands our ability to collect and analyze not only STAR scores, but also teacher-generated formative assessments and publisher-generated benchmark assessments," Mary Schillinger, assistant superintendent of education, said in the news release. "This will provide ongoing information for teachers to use in planning."

Teachers will more easily be able to see whether their students grasped the material and if not, to quickly make changes to the curriculum.

Because the data will be aggregated beginning in elementary school, educators will be better able to anticipate the needs and strengths of their incoming classes.

Redding, CA-based Datawise's system is already being used by some California campuses such as Amelia Earhart School in Alameda.

But local parent Jill Chechter doesn't believe that compiling test scores is the best way to gauge student performance.

"You can't compare children," Chechter said. "Teachers place too much emphasis on the test because they want the school to look good."

LVUSD representatives from each campus, including the principal and one staff member, attended training sessions on the new program and will eventually help teach other employees at their respective schools.

More training will be conducted next year in addition to webinars and instructional videos provided by Datawise.

"It's a good idea," said Liat Leiderman, who has two kids attending school in the district. "Because that's how the schools know what they need to improve on."