Analytics Influencers: 5 Districts That Use Data to Transform Outcomes 

Troy Community Consolidated School District 30C 

Gaining Deeper Discipline Insights 

Dr. Paul Schrik, Superintendent, Dr. Jill Tsoukalas, Assistant Superintendent, and Dr. Michelle Laird, Executive Director of Student Services used data to identify discipline trends and make logging future offenses and subsequent actions uniform across the district’s seven schools. 

“One of our focuses was to gain deeper insights into discipline referrals and incidents district wide.”
– Liz Boyles, Director of Information Services

Data Challenge 

Troy Community Consolidated District 30C leaders understand that quality data entry produces superior insights. There were some variations in how the incidents and actions data was logged. These subtle differences were impacting district leaders’ analysis of the data to effectively identify discipline trends and address them.  

Standardize Data Logging

Guided by their Analytics Advisor, the district’s strategy began with developing a standard classification system and reporting process for all discipline data.

Pinpoint Areas That Demand Greater Attention

Auditing their discipline classification system helped the district to reduce the number of discipline codes which resulted in a more precise picture of the most challenging behaviors and a clearer path for intervention.

Lockhart Independent School District

Boosting Attendance for Academic Success

Principal, Cynthia Vasquez, Assistant Principal, Juan Orozco, and the staff at Lockhart High School understand the critical importance of regular attendance for student success.  Committed to increasing the school’s attendance rate to at least 93%, they have implemented targeted, data-driven strategies to achieve this goal.  

“By fostering a culture of attendance awareness and engagement, the school endeavors to ensure that all students have the opportunity to maximize their learning potential and academic success.”

School leaders identified that absenteeism was significantly impacting student performance and overall outcomes. To effectively address this issue, they needed a comprehensive approach that considered both individual student needs and systemic challenges.

“Attendance is the key to unlocking our Lions’ potential on a daily basis. It reflects a commitment to being present and engaged, no matter the challenges. The use of Student Analytics Lab has allowed us to monitor attendance and close instructional gaps. Our students know that Missing School is Missing Out!” – Cynthia Vasquez, Principal 

Personalized Attendance Outreach

Guided by their data, the school developed a personalized outreach strategy. Direct communication with students and families helped in understanding and mitigating attendance barriers.

Incentivizing Regular Attendance

Recognition programs and rewards were established to encourage and celebrate regular attendance.

Support Services for Underlying Factors

Providing additional services, such as academic support and counseling, was essential in addressing absenteeism. These resources helped students overcome obstacles to regular attendance.Providing additional services, such as academic support and counseling, was essential in addressing absenteeism. These resources helped students overcome obstacles to regular attendance.

Fostering a Culture of Attendance Awareness

The school aims to create a culture of attendance awareness and student engagement. Community and district-wide efforts support this goal, ensuring that community partners, families, and students all understand that regular attendance equals uninterrupted access to learning.

“Through this initiative, our aim is to improve attendance rates, ensuring that students have the opportunity to maximize their learning potential and academic success.”
– Juan Orozco, Assistant Principal, Lockhart High School

Baldwin Union Free School District

Boosting Civic Readiness

“We want to ensure that every student has every possibility of achieving the New York State Seal of Civic Readiness.”
– Leslie Duffy, District Data Coordinator

New York State’s Seal of Civic Readiness is awarded to students who demonstrate exceptional civic knowledge, skills, mindset, and experiences through coursework and community involvement. Baldwin School District stakeholders consider civic readiness crucial as it prepares students to be informed and engaged citizens.  

Baldwin School District leaders recognized the need for a streamlined process to monitor and support students’ progress toward achieving the Seal of Civic Readiness. The district wanted to ensure consistent tracking methods for earning the Seal and that all who qualified were reported to the state and recognized.  

Streamline Data Tracking and Reporting Processes

The district used data from their student information system and Frontline’s Student Analytics Lab to develop a comprehensive tracking system, enabling real-time monitoring of students’ progress toward the Seal of Civic Readiness, ensuring no student was overlooked. 

By using advanced data tools and a cohesive strategy, Baldwin School District is empowering its students to reach their full potential and making sure that their efforts are rewarded.

“At the end of the year for grade 12, we are able to take an extract from Student Analytics to report Seal recipients to New York State.” – Leslie Duffy, District Data Coordinator

Millcreek Township School District 

Fostering Staff Data Literacy and Collaboration 

Assistant Principals, Brigitta Anthony and Kellee Beresic spearheaded an initiative to develop a building-based data team, highlighting their critical role in driving educational success. 

“One of the focuses was to demonstrate how data can be utilized to make informed decisions, improve teaching methods, and support student success.”
– Dr. John Cavanagh, Superintendent 

Millcreek Township School District leaders recognized the potential of data-driven insights to transform educational practices. However, they identified a need for comprehensive data education and collaboration. Without cohesive data teams in each school, staff members were working in isolation to analyze data and leverage it effectively for student improvement.

Data Education

Anthony and Beresic created a presentation titled “More than Just Numbers: A Journey Toward School-Based Data-Driven Excellence” to share their story on why creating data teams are crucial to data-informed decision making, improving student outcomes, and teaching methods. They went on to present it at the Pennsylvania Department of Education Data Summit.  

Building-based Data Teams

 Following their presentation, they are continuing their work by supporting the other schools in the district to establish dedicated data teams. They are doing this through spearheading a district wide data team of teachers and administrators. The team’s goals include fostering collaboration and empowering staff to use data insights to drive educational excellence.  

These educators are looking forward to returning to the PDE Data Summit in 2025 to share their successes and learn more.  

Glen Ellyn CCSD 89

Empowering District Leaders with Student Data and Analytics Tools

District leaders at Glen Ellyn CCSD 89 understand that good data can improve decision-making, outcomes, transparency, and stakeholder support.  

When data sets are housed in disparate software systems, district leaders must toggle between screens and logins to view single data points at a time. Achieving a holistic picture of student, program, school, or district performance becomes unnecessarily complicated, like finishing a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

Integrating Disparate Data Sets in One Platform

Led by Jill Kingsfield, Assistant Superintendent for Learning, the district joined multiple data sets in Student Analytics Lab’s single platform. She explains,

“It has provided our district and school level administrators with one-stop data diving capabilities. We use the data extensively for our yearly data retreat, board presentations, and school improvement team goal setting and monitoring. Being able to dig into the granular nature of student achievement, attendance, and behavior data allows us to identify our areas of strength and growth to serve every single student in the district.”