Dive Brief:

• Teachers in Long Beach Unified School District are beginning to receive training based on student and educator data.
• The district uses a digital professional development management system, and a student data dashboard has now been included in that program.
• The professional development program offers teachers personalized learning plans based on student data, past training, and teachers’ areas of weakness.

Dive Insight:

Using student data can be tricky. Many teachers don’t know how to interpret what they’re looking at and come up with valid interpretations that can actually change their teaching. As a result, many schools struggle to go beyond straight proficiency scores to adapt instruction. But discerning what students are doing can be more complicated than that. Long Beach’s approach is intended to close some of those gaps.

“Data informs every decision that we make,” Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser told eSchool News. “Data is not seen as a bad thing here, it’s actually seen as your friend.”