Case Studies: Overview | Battelle for Kids | Williamsport
After participating in Pennsylvania’s Value-Added Assessment System (PVAAS) pilot program in 2004, the Williamsport Area School District in Pennsylvania discovered that value-added reports offered teachers, schools, and districts valuable insight about student growth that could be used to inform instruction. However, district leaders became convinced that to successfully implement value-added analysis they first needed a comprehensive value-added professional development plan. To accomplish this goal, Williamsport created a multi-step training model to engage teachers and provide support around PVAAS. This report provides an overview of the use of PVAAS data in the Williamsport Area School District.
The Williamsport Area School District (WASD) created a comprehensive professional development plan for the 2005-2006 school year as part of their goal to effectively implement value-added analysis. As a result, Williamsport found that teachers became more receptive to using PVAAS and other real-time data, such as 4Sight benchmark assessments, as tools to reflect on their instructional practices. In creating the plan, Williamsport officials took the following key steps.
Commit to Using Data
In this stage, WASD worked with external consultants and attended national conferences on value-added models to develop a data-analysis framework. They also created a central office position charged with overseeing the use of educational data.
Institute Data Teams
Using what they learned, WASD developed a PVAAS professional development plan aimed at educating all teachers on value-added methodology and its application in the classroom. The plan created district and building data teams to implement professional development and assist teachers in utilizing PVAAS effectively.
- The district data team is composed of the superintendent, assistant superintendent, data director, curriculum supervisors, director of special education, a teacher representative from each school building, and a union representative.
- Building data teams are composed of principals, assistant principals, IST teachers, and at least three additional teachers.
Provide Ongoing Professional Development
Members of the data teams attended district-wide and building data team training sessions. During these sessions, members of the data team analyzed PVAAS results and identified strengths and weaknesses using a guide for interpreting data. The main goal of the training was to develop members’ capacity to access, interpret, and use value-added progress information to promote higher student achievement.
Keep Moving Forward
After the initial training, the district continued to have yearly data team training sessions. Each fall the data director leads data team sessions to review achievement, growth, and process data. Parents are also provided with an overview of the program and a report detailing their student’s achievement.
The following resources contain additional information about Williamsport’s value-added training model, including specific training tools used by Williamsport as well resources provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
- Webinar Training Schedule and Descriptions: Examples of PVAAS-specific professional development webinars offered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, as well as descriptions of one-day PVAAS professional development seminars.
- Creating a Data-Driven Decision-Making School Culture Power Point. This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of Williamsport’s approach to using data to drive professional development and instructional improvement.
- Resource Guide for Interpreting Data Reports: A comprehensive guide provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education that details both technical processes for PVAAS (logging in, accessing, and navigating reports) and guidelines for interpreting data.
Additional information about training teachers to use data to drive instruction can be found on the Value Added Training page.