For too long, student and teacher data has been disconnected. Teachers need data to understand how their instruction is impacting student outcomes. And districts need data to measure the performance of their educators. But if their data sets aren’t connected, K-12 leaders and educators can’t make informed decisions that support teacher growth and increase student achievement.
What good is data if you can’t use it to make a difference?
At PowerSchool, we help schools and districts bring disconnected systems together—creating powerful opportunities to support success across your entire K-12 ecosystem. That’s why connected data is the foundation of our Student Success Formula, which debuted this year at ISTE.
The Student Success Formula is simple. Insights on student engagement and performance help inform teacher development and growth. When this student and teacher data is viewed together, you can make better strategic decisions and increase student success from every angle.
Each individual component of the formula is important, but combining them is the key to realizing student success in a modern K-12 school or district. And PowerSchool is the only partner unifying the edtech needed to successfully implement the formula and drive student achievement.
In this blog series, we’ll dive into exactly how our integrated edtech supports each piece of the formula. Read on to explore how PowerSchool contributes to part 1 of the formula: student engagement.
***
Part 1: Student Engagement
When students take a more active and engaged role in their learning, they are thinking, creating, sharing, and constructing new knowledge. In fact, active learning can increase student scores by an average of 6%.[1] And after reviewing 70+ studies, researchers from Stanford University concluded that technology can produce significant gains in student engagement and achievement—especially among those students who are most at risk.[2]
Better student engagement improves student learning. That’s why it’s the first part of our student success formula. With a better understanding of performance at the classroom level, you can understand where to make adjustments that will engage students more effectively.
Here are four ways our integrated solutions help K-12 educators improve how and when they engage students:
1. Bringing learning home.
The best predictor of student success is how much families encourage learning at home and involve themselves in their child’s education.[3] Reaching out to parents and students can eat up a lot of teacher time. But not if you adopt an edtech solution with multiple communication channels—including email, chat, and mobile messaging—that teachers can access from within the PowerSchool‘s classroom products.
And when families and students can access academic information on their own—either in the online portal or mobile app within PowerSchool SIS—teachers don’t waste time sending out alerts. Everything families and students need to stay informed and on track is available whenever and wherever they need it, in real-time.
All this open communication and access to student performance can result in more positive and informed dialogue between teachers, families, and students. It can change the conversation at the dinner table, keep families engaged, and bridge the gap between the classroom and home.
2. Saving teachers time.
Since PowerSchool’s classroom products integrate with PowerSchool SIS, teachers have secure access to student data right at their fingertips. And with single sign-on technology, there’s no more jumping between systems to find what you need. Any student information teachers may need from the front office—like attendance, scheduling, or demographics—is available right in their PowerSchool classroom dashboard. From there, they can drill down into each individual student’s performance on standards, assessments, early warning indicators, and more.
This all-in-one classroom management system reduces time spent managing instruction by more than 10%—leaving more time for engaging, 1:1 interactions with students and gauging student achievement.[4] And since teachers affect student outcomes 2-3 times more than any other school factor, that extra instruction time is crucial. [5]
3. Getting a clearer view of student performance.
Only 12% of teachers receive real-time updates from education software.[6] By combining PowerSchool SIS and PowerSchool Performance Matters, you can view all your student classroom performance data in a single, real-time view. You can finally stop running multiple reports and pulling data from multiple systems. Instead, our integrated edtech delivers the data you need to identify where student engagement is lacking and where more attention is needed. You can run reports to track student progress at the classroom, school, and district levels as well as compare student performance against baseline and benchmark assessments—all in just a few clicks.
Plus, you can use Performance Matters as an early warning system. So you can intervene sooner in areas like social and emotional learning and behavioral needs.
You can’t engage students if you can’t identify where they need help. When combined with PowerSchool SIS, Performance Matters enables you to drill down into what’s really happening in the classroom—so you can connect with students before they fall behind.
4. Personalizing each student’s learning journey.
Many studies show that projects involving content creation can increase engagement, self-efficacy, attitudes toward school, and skill development.[7] PowerSchool Schoology Learning offers a flexible, digital space where students can demonstrate their learning in their own way. They can interact with polls, discussions, and videos. They can hold a virtual study session or presentation with their peers. It’s their own space to explore, learn, and grow.
This system lets students unlock extra lessons or activities that go beyond the class curriculum. And since PowerSchool’s classroom products integrate with PowerSchool SIS, teachers can use relevant student data to develop inclusive, interactive, and personalized lessons—perfect for engaging all types of learners.
Personalizing assessments is another great way to keep students engaged. With Performance Matters, you can build and administer assessments that are unique to each student’s individual needs. Choose from a wide variety of item types, banks, and standards to give students the most tailored test-taking experience possible.
Once administered, you can analyze each item to track how students are engaging. Are they using the test-taking tools available to them? Are they performing better on drawing prompts than on matching items? If so, that data’s instantly available across our interoperable systems—so you can make better learning decisions and help teachers improve their instruction.
Learn More
Want to learn more about improving student engagement with classroom technology? Watch the on-demand classroom demo here.
Remember, student engagement is only part 1 of our Student Success Formula.
Remember, student engagement is only part 1 of our Student Success Formula.You still need teacher development and actionable insights to complete the formula. Read part 2 of this blog series to discover how student engagement informs teacher development and how only PowerSchool’s integrated solutions can bridge that gap.
1 https://www.pnas.org/content/111/23/8410.full↑
2 https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/scope-pub-using-technology-report.pdf↑
3 https://www.pta.org/home/run-your-pta/National-Standards-for-Family-School-Partnerships/Report-The-Positive-Relationship-Between-Family-Involvement-and-Student-Success↑
4 https://powerschoolstg.powerschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/PS-wp-002-042217-download.pdf↑
5 https://www.rand.org/education-and-labor/projects/measuring-teacher-effectiveness/teachers-matter.html↑
6 PowerSchool National Teacher Study: National Online Survey of 800 Teachers and Administrators,” Conducted by Finn Partners and sponsored by PowerSchool, May 2016.
7 https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/scope-pub-using-technology-report.pdf↑
***