Konstantin Vengerowsky/Clarendon Citizen - Summerton Early Childhood Center teacher Rachel Ramsey with K-4 students Janiah Gibson, Najee Allen and Antanique Lang in front of their data wall.
CSD1 data wall encourages student success
Clarendon School District 1 is trying something different this school year to encourage their students to be successful. In the fall of 2011, the administration implemented a district-wide effort for a data wall to be set up in every classroom. The data wall is part of a continuous improvement model that gives teachers feedback on students’ success, and gives students encouragement to improve. The data wall has improved students test scores, as well as boosting their desire to do better.
“This was implemented to allow students to take some of the responsibility for their own success,” said Barbara Ragin, assistant superintendent for CSD1.
The data walls allow students to be more engaged by monitoring and improving on their performances, weekly or monthly and by having the classrooms grades posted anonymously on a bulletin board as a bar graph. The data walls provide feedback for both teachers and students.
“We’re trying to change the way students and teachers think about the use of their classroom,” said Robert Petrulis, an independent consultant for education evaluation and research, who works with CSD1. “The goal is to motivate students and help determine what they’re doing well and what they need to improve on.”
The data walls are in classrooms from the Summerton Early Childhood Center through Scott’s Branch Middle-High School. In Rachel Ramsey’s K-4 class, the students’ goals are written out such as to have everyone learn A-Z’s, and to count 1-20. In Diandra Smith’s first grade, students take a pre-test in spelling, reading and math at the beginning of the week. They see their scores on a bar graph at the start of the week, and aim to improve them when they take the actual test at week’s end, said Smith.
“They all get excited when that bar goes up,” Smith said.
At the middle/high school level, students are encouraged with such acronyms on their data walls such as PDSA, Plan-Do-Study-Act, and slogans such as “What do I need to do?” and “When will this be accomplished?”
“I can reference this wall all the time to show the students where we are and where we are striving to be,” said Emily Teaford, ninth grade English I teacher.
Dr. Pauline Bryant, SBMHS ninth grade Algebra I teacher, takes the data wall concept a step further, displaying her students projects on the wall, as well as listing her “A” students on her “Awesome” wall, and her “B” students on her “Brilliant” wall.
Students also have a “data” notebook in which the student writes where they are, and where they are striving to be.
The initiative in CSD1 is based on the Concept of Educational Reform, developed by Malcom Baldridge, who served as Secretary of Commerce under President Ronald Reagan. Baldridge’s concept addresses leadership, change in school culture, climate and data-driven decision-making, said Ragin.
The data walls have helped students progress in their classroom tests, middle school Palmetto Assessments of State Standards (PASS) examinations, the High School Assessment Program (HSAP) examinations, as well as district testing, Ragin said.
