New data system gives Chesterfield teachers quick access to student records

Sarah Fraher, principal at Elizabeth Davis Middle School, and her teachers used to consume hours going through Standards of Learning test data manually to figure out students' performance.

"That was a laborious task and took so much time," she said.

That is about to become a thing of the past. This year, all of Chesterfield County's core teachers and central office instructional leaders have students' class grades, test scores, attendance, discipline and other data at their fingertips through Dashboards, a digital information management data warehouse.

"Now all teachers have to do is log in to Dashboards and the data is right there," Fraher said. "What that does is free up time for teachers to engage in powerful discussions in their learning communities about what interventions may fit the needs of students."

Henrico County schools are in the process of making this system available to teachers, said spokesman Mychael Dickerson. Hanover County doesn't have such a system, and Richmond did not respond to an inquiry requesting information on the use of Dashboards in schools.

The data warehouse was introduced into some Chesterfield schools in March, said Lynda Gillespie, director of technology. All teachers were trained during the spring, she said.

The Dashboards system automatically updates student information.

"Anything that we keep records on about a student is available in the warehouse," she said.

Before this data warehouse came online, teachers had to go to the vault at their schools and go through students' individual files.

"Basically, they didn't do it because it was too much trouble," Gillespie said.

Teachers, too, previously wouldn't be able to know a student's abilities until after three or four assessments, said Mark Driscoll, an application support analyst for Chesterfield schools.

"Dashboards gives them that information at the beginning of the year for them to make some decisions," he said.

Teachers can see scores of any test where schools reported it, Gillespie said.

"I can do a search of what they got on their grade compared to the test score," she said. "For example, if you have a child who failed the test but got a C, you might question how did that child get a C? Did he have a bad day in testing? Is the grade inflated? We hope that doesn't happen, but there's a question there."

The system also allows teachers to individualize students' instruction, Gillespie said. If a child performs well on day-to-day classroom activities but his performance is poor on a test, maybe he needs test-taking strategies, she said.

"So it really allows the teacher to sort of have a bigger view of a student besides what they see sitting in front of them," she said.

The data also give teachers a chance to evaluate their teaching abilities by looking at the students' scores and identify what things they need to work on, Gillespie said.

"Maybe I'm a math teacher and you know probability is great and geometric shapes is great, but in number sense, my students take a dip on," she said. "It gives a teacher a broader picture of how they're doing . . . and also how students are doing in the classroom."

A principal can identify a teacher's weaknesses and suggest that the teacher work with someone who performs well on that subject, Driscoll said

Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or .