District Administrators have a continuous need to analyze data and generate data for others.  They face the ongoing and ever-changing reporting requirements for the State Department of Education, as well as data associated with a vast array of local programs; teacher certification, IEP, ELL, school improvement plans, school board data inquiries, and so on.

Performance Matters™ is ideally suited for the needs of district administrators because our system simplifies the complexities and nuances of your state accountability system and NCLB;  incorporating them into an interactive interface that can be extended with customized features for each of our customers.  The following are two examples of how district administrators leverage Performance Matters™ to address their ongoing information needs.

District Administrator Scenario:  "I administer Response to Intervention (RTI) programs for our special needs students.  This year, we instituted a program at one of our middle schools designed specifically for autistic children.  The teachers enthusiastically embraced the program and adoption was very high.  We want to propose extending the program to the rest of the middle schools in our school district but it comes at a cost and our school board will rightfully expect proof of the success of the program before making the additional investment."

Guiding Question: Did the special needs students who benefited from this program demonstrate statistically significant growth when compared to their cohort in the rest of the school district?

Performance Matters™ in Action:  Performance Matters™ is designed to measure "growth" in learning.  In addition, it is very simple to disaggregate data to provide a focus on specific programs or populations and make comparisons for the growth in learning for that population to a true cohort.  The chart below would be an ideal supplement to add to the school board's consent agenda in support of expanding this RTI program.  It is clear that the RTI program had a substantial impact on student learning when compared to the cohort students who were not a part of the program.

District Administrator Scenario:  "Our school culture encourages a collaborative teaching and learning environment.  We have a dedicated teaching staff who are passionate about providing the best instruction for their students.  We want to identify instructional practices that are effective and enlist those teachers implementing them to share those practices so that we can continuously improve instruction and learning. 

Our English Language Learners (ELL) population is growing by 10% a year.  This is presenting challenges that are new to our school system.  Our Superintendent has tasked the curriculum team to identify those teachers who are experiencing success with ELL students and enlist them in a professional development program this summer to share their ELL teaching strategies with the entire curriculum staff." 

Guiding Question:  "Who among our teaching staff is demonstrating a consistent pattern of superior performance among their ELL students?"

Performance Matters™ in Action:  Comparing the performance of "like" students among teachers is an effective way to improve instruction systemically if there is a culture for sharing and collaborating within a school system.  Performance Matters™ enables administrators to make statistically valid comparisons of student performance among teachers.  Using this information as a backdrop for professional development activities opens up rich dialogues that lead to improvements in instruction and learning.  The reporting module below is used by many school systems for this purpose.