Strategies for Student Success 2014 | Page 7

At Highland Park, Students Own Their Achievement Data There’s a scoreboard in every fourth-grade classroom at 2014 SCORE Prize finalist Highland Park Elementary in Lenoir City. Sure, the displays could also be called data boards. But Principal David Clinton, a former high school football coach, likes to infuse the school’s data-rich culture with language that is both motivating and meaningful. Highland Park staff and students are reminded to think like a team with a three-game season. There are three comprehensive benchmark assessments throughout the year, with progress mapped by the data boards. And finally, there’s the TCAP Super Bowl just before summer break. “When the whole team advances, the whole team wins,” Mr. Clinton said. “Now it’s part of our culture. Kids who make progress are all winners. Inches by inches make yard by yard.” Yardage has certainly been gained by Highland Park’s nearly 400 students in grade pre-K through four, about 55 percent of whom are economically disadvantaged. Students score well above average on TCAP tests, and Highland Park has narrowed the TCAP achievement gap between low-income and higher-income students in reading over the last few years. The school also shows strong growth in math and reading. These results have been achieved by teaching students to understand and articulate levels of proficiency – and to determine and reach their own achievable goals. Classrooms work on this together with the help of color-coded data boards. The boards include one card for each student for every subject area on the TCAP tests. The color of each card is determined by students’ third-grade TCAP proficiency levels: Blue signifies advanced, green proficient, yellow basic, and red below basic. While there is a card for each student, no names are listed on the cards – just a five-digit lunch number. The cards are clustered at the beginning of the school year in areas of the board based on TCAP proficiency. Then, as the kids progress through three comprehensive benchmark assessments, the cards advance to show progress. The card colors don’t change, so everyone remembers their starting points. Numbers in the bottom corners of the cards show how close students were to the higher and lower levels of proficiency, teaching the importance of individual questions. “The goal is to see all those cards pile up on the proficient and advanced side of the data board by the end of each year,” said Holly Hendricks, a fourth-grade teacher. “How we get there might look different for each kid, but our ultimate goal is the same for everybody.” 6