Everett’s Data System at Your Fingertips
For teachers, parents and administrators in the Everett school system, knowing what’s expected of students, how they’re progressing and various assessments are but a click away on a computer.
The Instructional Management System (IMS), a Web-based management and information tool, was created in-house only a few years ago, according to Ric Williams, Director of Curriculum and Assessment for Everett Public Schools, but is making huge strides in data collection and reporting.
“It was initially designed to integrate classroom and administrative needs while simplifying student data so we wouldn’t have to archive assessment results in folders,” he said. “But it’s grown to be a tool to monitor student progress, graduation requirements, curriculum resources, state standards, assignment calendars and online progress reports, all of which parents can monitor.
“We call it our favorite way to ruin a kid’s weekend,” Williams quips.
Screenshot from the IMS Interface
(click to enlarge)
Key developer of the system was Duane Duxbury, the Jackson High School band teacher who has since gone on to form his own business venture. Duxbury took the lead from the Curriculum and Assessment Department, which devised the program’s architecture and has built on that over two years.
The information system can analyze an individual student’s performance, update grades, predict success or failure on the WASL, even measure current achievement against life goals, including college and career.
“Parents can monitor attendance as well,” Williams points out.
One way IMS has proven useful as an educational planning tool is by sizing up students as they move on from school to school within the district.
“As they transition from fifth to sixth or eighth to ninth, we can look at the student’s data profile and recommend which classes are most appropriate on the next level,” Williams notes. “Later, teachers can go in and see how well they predicted progress and achievement.”
Even students have access to some of the data and through secure log-in passwords can track their own progress.
According to Williams, IMS helps students also achieve the four-part, state-mandated, Culminating Project components — reflective letter, argumentative paper, a self-directed project and culminating presentation — required for graduation. Through IMS, “the students can access the information, teachers can monitor progress and give feedback, and parents can track what their children are doing,” he says.
Administrators also find the tool useful in providing a glimpse at the broader picture, taking the individual snapshots in the database to look at the whole school, which helps in assessing overall performance levels and placing students.
Everett also uses SunGard Pentamation, an integrated student system along the lines of WESTPaC/Skyward, which facilitates data management for the district. The IMS, Williams explains, “is designed to put data at your fingertips.”