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Worthington City Schools

Coordinated use of interim growth data facilitates an Ohio district's Common Core transition

Worthington City Schools is one of the top-performing districts in the Columbus, Ohio area. Though a quarter of its 9,500 students qualify for free and reduced lunch, 30% are identied as Gifted and Talented, and 90% go to college. Since 2007, Worthington City Schools has used Measures of Academic Progress? (MAP?) interim assessments to both track K ? 12 student achievement and growth and to inform decisions at every level. Once Ohio chose to adopt the Common Core State Standards, the district transitioned to Common Core MAP and MAP for Primary Grades to support the needs of students, teachers, and administrators.

Challenge

When Worthington City Schools rst began assessing students with MAP, teachers were already employing several interim tools to inform instruction, including self-designed formative assessments and individually-administered fluency measures.

Worthington's Director of Academic Achievement, Jennifer Wene, explains, "We believe there's value in multiple data points and we've been using MAP for years as a starting point. Our state's adoption of Common Core standards and new policies around teacher evaluation only further reinforced our need for an assessment tool that could reliably measure performance and growth."

Solution

Worthington uses Common Core MAP in kindergarten through high school; the district's teachers, instructional teams, and administrators all rely on the interim data to inform decision making.

Our principals are just as involved in the use of MAP as our teachers. We believe that if a principal is hands off with data, teachers will be too. But our principals immerse in data, understand it, get excited, and ask to hear the stories behind it--and that can be incredibly motivating for the whole team.

Jennifer Wene Director of Academic Achievement

Kindergarteners start with MAP for Primary Grades (MPG). In 1st through 10th grade, all students are assessed three times a year: fall, winter and spring. In 11th and 12th grade, MAP is used specically with students who are at risk, including those who have not passed the state tests required for graduation.

Jennifer Wene says, "MAP serves as our universal screener. It's like a funnel ? we start with MAP at the top. Our data teams then use those scores and other data to make recommendations for Tier I, II and III. Depending on how kids perform, we address their needs with more targeted interventions further down the funnel."

Wene notes that while MAP data serves as a key source of information for all educators, staff roles determine exactly how they apply that information.

At the classroom level: "Teachers use MAP reports to look for growth, set goals with students, and identify patterns. They pay attention to both the bright spots and the gaps in order to determine where to focus more deeply," says Wene. "For example, if they see six students struggling in a particular area, they can create a small group to work on it." Grouping for interventions also occurs across classrooms and grades, and instructional teams collaborate to dig deeper into largescale patterns.

At the school level: Principals play a critical role, explains Wene. "Our principals are just as involved in the use of MAP as our teachers. We believe that if a principal is hands off with data, teachers will be too. But our principals immerse in data, understand it, get excited, and ask to hear the stories behind it--and that can be incredibly motivating for the whole team."

At the district level: Wene and her colleagues analyze longitudinal MAP data to determine how each group of students is growing over time, as well as how each year's students are faring compared to the norms and the previous year's class. "With MAP, we can track the journey students have taken, starting in elementary school. It's very informative," says Wene. In 1st grade and above, the district uses MAP growth data as one of several factors that inform teacher evaluation discussions.

Impact

Demonstrating that the Proof is in the Progress For the last three years, Worthington's kindergarteners have entered school performing below the national norm in mathematics. However, each spring they nished the grade performing well above the norm. Across all grades in which Worthington's entire student population is assessed with MAP (K-10), students met or exceeded the mathematics growth norms in all but one grade and the reading growth norms all but two grades.

"For us, value added is calculated against the mean of the group. So it's not enough to know whether students have met their growth scores. We also track if they're keeping up with the group," explains Wene. The close focus on both

performance and growth is paying off. Compared to two years ago, Worthington's spring performance scores have risen in all but two grades in mathematics and in every grade (K-10) in reading.

Taking Student Goals from Dream to Reality

"At the high school level we're excited to able to use MAP data to motivate students. Using the longitudinal graphs, educators can say things like `I understand you want to go to a Tier I college. Let's look at your trend line. It seems you were on the right trfafick but fell behind in 7th grade. Based on thfisf data, let's talk about what you can do to achieve your goals,'" Wene says. "This way, students see their own picture. The norms have been really helpful for engaging students and allowing them to understand how their performance compares to the district and the nation."

Facilitating a Smoother Transition to the Common Core State Standards

Wene recounts, "As we started implementing a new curriculum and new materials aligned with the Common Core, we couldn't just look at one piece of data and say whether or not we were getting better. When we saw performance gaps, it was owinfestertrenutdchtieifofirnceuasllutflottocouifmsaanmnaedldisgitanutmedleyenndttenitseesreumdes,i,naoemrwsiohsmmetaehttechrhintbhgeoetswleseege."anps

Since the grade-independent MAP Rasch Unit (RIT) score is stable across all versions of the MAP assessment, Worthington's educators knew they could rely on Common Core MAP scores to signify the same thing before and after switching to the Common Core version of the test. This scale continuity helped the district keep a close eye on both performance and growth through the transition.

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students are keeping up with the Common Core MAP reports to closely

monitor their growth and target instruction and intervention.

When we see outliers,fwf e direct our attention to them and ask

teachers questions instead of trying to make broad strokes.

If many students in a class seem to be struggling, we discuss

with the teacher whether they're using the new curriculum

materials and what additional support they may need."

The district has made great gains and has a strategy and the tools to continue to guide all students toward Common Core success.

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?2013 Northwest Evaluation Association. MAP and Measures of Academic Progress are registered trademarks and Northwest Evaluation Association and NWEA are trademarks of Northwest Evaluation Association in the U.S. and other countries. The names of other companies and their products mentioned in this document are the trademarks of their respective owners.

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