This year we have modified the original academic advisory attendance system I created using increased access to data that fosters self-advocacy among students that enter our building each and everyday.
Our approach is three-fold: communicate via e-mail with parents on a daily basis about their specific students, provide educational leaders in the building the up-to-the minute data necessary to shape the stream of students using academic resource centers, and allow classroom teachers the ability to seamlessly recommend students to an academic advisory center for additional help outside the classroom. These tasks can be difficult without the use of technology.
Academic advisory is an important part of what we do at Neuqua Valley. During student free periods, department specific rooms with subject area teachers are available for students to seek additional assistance with their classes. Through the use of an in-house, custom-built web application, academic advisory teachers scan the barcodes on student id’s, which triggers a series of events to notify parents about their child’s attendance. This email is sent out daily and commends the student for making a good choice to seek additional help.
The collection and subsequent communication of this data point has shown to be powerful in helping students make good choices. Parents have been extremely grateful for the positive communication. In addition, the data provides them the tools and information to partner with the school while encouraging students to seek the help they need.
In addition, building leaders have real-time access to a data dashboard to parse the information and data gathered from student usage of the academic advisory centers. The access includes data that combines student standardized test scores, GPA, usage by time of day and day of week, and the course that a student is seeking help with. This information has proved extremely valuable in targeting smaller groups of students by encouraging them to seek additional help.
Finally, classroom teachers have the opportunity to recommend students to the academic resource centers when they feel a student requires additional help. This event also triggers a series of events that include automated parent communication regarding the teacher’s recommendation, as well as, whether the student has attended as recommended.
Neuqua Valley is a school of 4100 students, custom web applications built specifically to collect and analyze data have been a part of how we educate. Many collection points both traditional in manner and newly created have changed the way we look at data. Data at Neuqua Valley is not just a series of passive collection points about student achievement. Everything we gather enlightens how we teach and informs us about those who we are teaching. There is that Template Again :(
