Finding Gold at the End of the School Year  🌈
Tips for inching closer to the pot of gold as the end of school approaches!

You’re in the home stretch! They say Super Bowls are won in the fourth quarter– the end of the school year is an essential fourth quarter to clinch the win! As you inch closer to that pot of gold at the end of the school year rainbow, you need every color to plot your path to flourish next year. Data shows that students will need additional support this summer to enter the next school year prepared.

Let’s explore ways to utilize your data from this year to leap into next year brilliantly.

Vibrant Summer School Colors

Right now is the time to think about summer school. With interrupted learning and staffing challenges at the top of everyone's minds, it is a scramble to address this need before the year wraps up. Data shows that students will return next year with more learning gaps, and summer school is one-way districts can mitigate a potentially rocky start to the new year.

With any summer school implementation, your goals should be clear and specific. That means addressing any unfinished learning and mastery of essential standards for some and exposure to skills they will engage with next year for others. But, how can schools correctly identify which students should attend summer school and which standards should be prioritized? 

One way to identify students for summer school is by looking at their end-of-year growth data and checking if the student is performing below grade level. Be sure to confirm if there is enough skill growth for the student to be confident with next year’s material.

Seeing Clear in the New Year

Your end-of-year data can be used to get a jumpstart on your RTI planning and save you hours' worth of work ahead of the new year. Instead of waiting to begin identifying your RTI students until after a month-long testing process in the fall, use your current data to start making those decisions now.

In the classroom, comprehensive student reports that detail time-on-task, growth, and mastery are valuable resources for teachers with new students. This allows them to understand the learning gaps and plan daily instruction. Teachers can also use the new end-of-year data to form groups based on their domain proficiencies.‍

‍Kaleidoscopic Data

When ending the year, don’t just close the book and open a new one when the next year starts. It is vital to reflect on the data from the past school year so you can make any necessary changes in the new year. Using your screener data, you can identify domains across grade levels where students have struggled the most and uncover significant enhancements needed in the new year to help you close gaps in the curriculum. If you’re using an intervention or instructional data solution, reach out for dedicated support in analyzing reports and making impactful decisions. For example, Classworks school district partners have dedicated curriculum and instruction specialists who meet monthly to review data for individual students and class, group, and district-wide data. Together they create action plans for impacting student achievement based on insights and reports. If you have a resource like that, take advantage!  

When all colors are blended to make your brilliant end-of-the-year rainbow, the true pot of gold is knowing the path is laid out for next year!

For more information about using Classworks’ data to inform summer school or back-to-school, reach us at hello@classworks.com or chat with us on the bottom right of your screen.