Every student deserves a learning environment that respects their lived experiences, recognizes their challenges and embraces them as unique and special individuals. It is how struggling students access resources to uncover their full potential and high-achieving students push learning to the next level.
In a district of almost 6,000 students in grades pre-K through 12, carving out specific pathways that honor each student’s journey is a massive undertaking, but a necessary one. At Westfield Public Schools in central New Jersey where I serve as superintendent, administrators and educators alike understand the importance of a culturally responsive school climate in elevating student outcomes. However, identifying different learning gaps and filling them in with proven, powerful solutions required more bandwidth than we had available. To succeed, we had to work beyond the anecdotal and uncover research-based, empirical evidence to map our next move.
Turning Passive Data into an Information Powerhouse Identifying areas for academic improvement requires a three-pronged approach to research – collecting, analyzing and leveraging student data. And at WPS, we were grappling with all three.
In New Jersey, there is no unified student information or data management system, so like most districts, we were using multiple data warehouses and solutions. The human resource capacity required to support the operation and management of siloed databases was at its breaking point, and analyzing the collected data became a lesson in frustration as we struggled to transform assessments into action steps.
WPS was drowning in data overload and needed to dig its way out, especially when it came to creating equitable learning environments for our students. As most districts do, we were alleviating problems in a way similar to treating chronic headaches with Tylenol – get by with a quick fix until there was time and funding available to diagnose the deeper underlying issue.
Ensuring every student feels a sense of belonging and revealing equity gaps in academics, discipline and attendance demanded we base our decisions on reliable data that could only be derived from a deep equity audit and a centralized platform to mine it.
Empowering Staff at Every Level At WPS, we knew a data and assessment management platform was integral in the successful implementation of a multi-tiered system of supports framework to provide differentiated support for students centered on their specific challenges and needs.
In late 2024, we adopted a new software platform to integrate our catalog of digital programs. Instead of having a single team manage and translate data, we engaged both administrators and educators in the work of administering our assessments. As a result, we are now implementing universal screeners, common assessments and reading inventories. Advanced capabilities will also allow us to set accessibility permissions for all staff, students and parents in the foreseeable future.
In addition, WPS is in the process of building data dashboards to identify real-time key markers that provide a clear picture of the whole child and identify trends over time, including chronic absenteeism, behavior patterns, academic issues and past interventions. These early alerts provide the foundation to have deeper conversations about the issues impeding our students’ success, deliver targeted support and foster a more inclusive learning environment.
Presenting Data Based on Educator Preferences Unless you are immersed in data day-after-day, analyzing and disaggregating the information on a classroom-level can feel overwhelming. Because everyone absorbs data differently, we wanted a data management system that would allow educators to access information in diverse, but impactful, ways.
If an educator gleans more insights from quantitative data, bar graphs and pie charts are essential to demonstrating the relationships between measurable variables. For qualitative learners, a system must produce dashboards that tell a detailed, coherent story of a student’s current education path. In the absence of a data management system that can do both, schools hinder their opportunities to mine early data insights effectively.
Embracing Artificial Intelligence to Create Personalized Plans of Action AI plays a crucial role in automating processes, collecting data and identifying patterns, but it’s also a powerful tool in helping educators and administrators explore different solutions based on the information gathered.
When we have an equity challenge, such as a reading and comprehensive gap among groups of students, AI provides us the ability to model different scenarios to determine the best course of action to take and engage in thoughtful explorations that allow us to craft curriculum around their diverse needs. We can move away from a trial-and-error approach to improving equity and move directly to a trial-and-succeed process that guarantees successful outcomes for our students.
Research shows that inequitable education systems contribute to student disengagement and elevate the academic achievement gap. At WPS, we are dedicated to ensuring every student has access to a learning environment that addresses their challenges and promotes their well-being. By restructuring how we gather, analyze and utilize data, WPS will be able to bring all staff together on a proven and substantiated course of action and track student progress from pre-kindergarten through graduation.
Dr. Raymond González is the superintendent of schools in the Westfield Public School District in Westfield, New Jersey.
