| State: California | Number of Students: 920 |
| School Type: Charter Management Organization | Free and Reduced Lunch: N/A |
| Grade Level: 9-Adult | English Language Learners: N/A |
School Context
This charter management organization (CMO) supports six schools. They are unique in that there are three different school calendars and they have year-round school for their students. The non-traditional charter network supports students who do not find success in traditional schools, often leading them to dropping out. They usually end up in several schools prior to matriculating in this charter network. The CMO works with community organizations to help support students in their lives outside of school in order to help them maximize their learning in-school, with primary needs being met. They strive to support students in transitioning to postsecondary school and jobs as well. They have 97% of students on free and reduced lunch.
State of Technology
The schools in the charter network want to be able to upload tests to deliver online assessments and gather data in a robust and accurate way. They want a system that is complex but also friendly.
Their older data system is not user friendly and often has bugs. They are not able to analyze the data they would like to, with integrity. It does allow them a way to import and upload tests.
Tech Needs & Requirements
The data management system that this network is looking for several features and capabilities.
They would like to analyze as much data and disaggregate in many ways including by classroom, by demographic, by intervention need, by teacher, by strand/standard, and by subgroup (e.g., English Language Learners). Included they would like the tool to be able to show the data in a clear way for non-data analysts to understand. Heat maps would be a nice to have. If there was a teacher dashboard that highlight student trends, that would be a plus.
The network would like to have (either provided by the tool, or uploadable), Common Core aligned tests with questions (e.g., TEI) that they might see on state tests (e.g., SBAC). For example, the tool might have a digital protractor that students need to know how to use. Teachers should be able to upload tests as well. Hopefully, the tool also creates question banks (or has question banks) for teachers to create tests on demand. Perhaps there is an option for the tool to be able to purchase already created tests from other institutions. Teachers should be allowed to customize questions in pre-made tests. They would like the ability to include or not include a question. This is important because of the year-round model and three calendars they have will lead to some classes not covering certain topics at the same time as other students
They are comfortable paying or professional development, but since they are small, they would like to be able to have train the trainer model.
A student portal will be nice, but it is not a priority right now. As long as they can pull individual reports on students, that is all the need right now.
Teachers will be creating assessments together in content area teams. They would love to have a teacher dashboard that makes aggregating the data easy.
Teachers will be creating assessments together in content area teams. They would love to have a teacher dashboard that makes aggregating the data easy. The network provides students with Microsoft Surfaces and teachers with Lenovo Thinkpads. They would like to analyze as much data and disaggregate in many ways including, by classroom, by demographic, by intervention need, by teacher, by strand/standard, by subgroup (ELL), and by student. Included they want the tool to be able to show the data in a clear way for non-data analysts to understand. Heat maps would be a nice to have. If there was a teacher dashboard that highlight student trends, that would be a plus. The network ideally wants SIS integration with School Pathways. If the data management system provides an SIS, the CMO might consider migrating. A plus would be Google integration.