Loyal Heights Elementary School
Loyal Heights Elementary School is a high performance learning system that runs on feedback. It is one of the top 5 performing schools in Seattle Public Schools, serving a variety of learners from highly gifted and academically advanced to students requiring remediation. This variation presents Loyal Heights educators with the challenge of ensuring that every child is appropriately challenged to maximize opportunities for growth.
“Several years ago we decided to implement a standards and competency based learning system because of the range of our students’ capabilities,” says Principal Wayne Floyd. “We were analyzing the MAP testing data (Measures of Academic Progress) to place students in small learning groups that personalized instruction based on individual learning needs.” But this proved to be challenging.
“The MAP scores came out only 3 times a year,” says Wayne, “and while our kids were performing well, there were still significant learning gaps that weren’t addressed because that assessment didn’t directly correlate with standards or specific skills. This muddied the waters. We needed feedback that was timelier and clearer.”
That’s why Wayne and the staff at Loyal Heights chose to partner with MasterTrack. MasterTrack makes it easy to monitor and report student learning performance on Common Core State Standards in real time.
“All of our students are capable,” says Loyal Heights teacher Brandon Vaagsland. “But even our most gifted students have gaps in their foundational learning. MasterTrack’s reports give us a laser focus to zone in on specific skills gaps. Now we know exactly how every student is performing. Timely feedback data that’s clear and concise is the secret to our success.”
With MasterTrack reports, Loyal Heights teachers are now better able to implement small group instructional strategies. “Our teachers use MasterTrack’s real time data reports to form small groups,” says Wayne. “This makes it much easier to have an effective standards and competency based learning system in an inclusion model.”
“The reports are also a great communication tool for our parents,” says Brandon. “We send individual student progress reports every 6 weeks. The data speaks volumes, and now parents have a clearer idea of how they can help their children. The student progress reports also help our students think and talk about their own data. They even started setting their own mastery goals!”
MasterTrack is proud to help the dedicated educators of Loyal Heights Elementary School maximize student growth. How can we help you increase student achievement?
