Disaggregated

Data Analysis
PLC 2
Julia Sansom
CaDric Moulton
Lindsey Harding
Rebecca Hastings

Data Analysis Category

Trace Crossings

Avondale Elementary

Elementary
Reading Scores

Chart

Chart

Math Scores

Chart

Chart

Strategies, Professional Trace has adopted the

Development, Resources, STEAM initiative, which
and Programs
includes specific
instruction in science,
technology, engineering,
art, and mathematics.
This includes an extensive
Marker Studio and STEAM
lab

Trace uses Math

Investigations
Trace engages in Problem
Based Learning across all
grade levels

Trace has three Title 1

teachers that work with
struggling students in
reading and math
Trace utilizes technology
through: chromebooks,
iPads, Smart boards,
computers, and Maker
Bots.
Trace supplies the teacher
with a leveled book room
for teachers to check out
book selections for guided
reading and literature
circles

Avondale is a Title I school

therefore there are
resources available for
the parents.
Avondale Elementary
School offers after school
care for students that
need it.
Each teacher had a
Promethean Board in his
or her classroom.
Go Math was the chosen
math curriculum.
Avondale Elementary
School has an extensive
garden that the students
are able to work in and
benefit from.
The teachers at Avondale
Elementary School had
Professional Development
opportunities available to
them.

Strengths

Trace is a STEAM school,

therefore they have many
opportunities for hands on
learning
Through the use of grants
and fundraising Trace has
many useful resources
available.
4th grade reading scores
have remained consistent
from 2010-2012

In 2010, Avondales 5th

grade math and reading
scores were above
benchmark.
The 4th grade all have
interactive whiteboards
The 4th grade shares a
set of chromebooks.

Weaknesses

Their test scores

In 2010, Avondales 4th

decreased in all areas

from the 2010-2011
school year to the next.
Continuing to learn how
to implement STEAM

Overcoming perspectives
of the community

grade math scores were

below benchmark.
Low expectations of
students
Do not have strong
support staff

Initiatives and School

Improvement Plans

STEAM
Response to Intervention
Professional Development (RTI)
Opportunities (EdCamp)

Parent Involvement

PTO
Parent Volunteers

Parent Improvement
Program

Accountability Resources Progress monitoring

Continuous Improvement
Plan (CIP)

Support Personnel

Three Title I teachers

ELL teacher
Two ESE Instructional
Support
Occupational Therapist
Speech Pathologist
School Counselor
Ms. Joyner
(Technology/STEAM
Leader)

Teacher Collaboration

Team grade level

meetings
Data meetings with
administration

Weekly grade level team

meetings

Reading and Math coach

Special Education Teacher
School Counselor
Technology Teacher

Data Analysis and Action Plan for Trace Crossings Elementary School
Trace Crossings Elementary is a Pre-K-4th grade Hoover City School. In 20102011, the school administered the ARMT standardized test. While reviewing Trace
Crossings data for 4th grade during the academic school year of 2010-2011, we
noticed several interesting observations in the reading and math scores. When
analyzing the 4th grade data, we recognized a few differences between Poverty and
Non-Poverty and White vs. Black students. Students from a poverty background
scored 42.9%, whereas Non-Poverty students scored 68.7%. Non-Poverty students
exceeded expectations greater than their peers from a less affluent background.
74.6% of white students scored about benchmark in regards to their math scores,
while 42.4% of black students were proficient. We found this difference interesting
between both race and socioeconomics, and we then looked further into the cause
of the different test scores. This data tells us that there is a distinct difference in the
performance at Trace Crossings with students who live in Poverty verses NonPoverty as well as a difference in test scores regarding race. We also noticed a
difference in reading test scores in these same sub-groups. Non-Poverty students
scored 80.6% and Poverty students scoring 57.1%. White students scores were
81.8%, and Black students scores were 63.6% proficient. Once again there is a
distinct difference in student test scores. Even though these scores were not below
benchmark, we questioned the cause of the difference in test scores. This data tells
us that students from lower income homes perform lower on standardized tests.
Students from lower income homes are generally minority students, explaining why
Black students had lower scores than their White peers. After viewing this data, we

began to ask what is impacting these test scores and what can be done to make
improvements.
First, we concentrated on the attendance at Trace Crossings and the transient
student records. Overall, students are in class and present at school, but it cannot
be said that attendance is 100% every day of the year. There are also a lot of new
students throughout the year. In my time at Trace Crossings, I experienced three
students leave the school to move somewhere else, and I also witnessed two new
students join the classroom I was observing in March. While this is just one
classroom, it was present across the school. This change in attendance at the school
has an affect on the test scores that are achieved.
Next, we began to look at the poverty level of the school. As seen in the test
scores previously mentioned, poverty has an impact on the student growth and
achievement. Not only do we see this in the test scores, but it has also been proven
through research. ASCD says, Socioeconomic status forms a huge part of this
equation. Children raised in poverty rarely choose to behave differently, but they
are faced daily with overwhelming challenges that affluent children never have to
confront, and their brains have adapted to suboptimal conditions in ways that
undermine good school performance. Trace Crossings has a mixture of low income
families and families that are affluent. In 2011, this school had 34% of their
students on free and reduced lunches. Because this number is large enough to
make an impact on data, it can be observed how this amount of poverty will affect
the test scores of Trace Crossings. Living in a lower socioeconomic home can put
stress on children and influence the development of those children. While some
schools may use this information as an excuse, this knowledge should make

teachers and administration work that much harder to give these students more
opportunities to grow academically.
Not only do these students home lives affect their academic success, but the
morale of the teachers does as well. Currently, teacher morale is on the higher end
and in favor of the students. Teachers attend teacher workshops learning how to
better implement STEAM into their classroom and how to use new effective
strategies to benefit student learning. While teachers strive to use hands on
learning for their students, they still make excuses for certain students and could
improve in this area. Many times teachers do not give their students that are
struggling enough support in the classroom. Trace Crossings has an ELL teacher who
will pull students from the class in order to work with them. Some teachers tend to
rely on the ELL teacher to give these students the extra support they need, but in
reality, these students need that support in the classroom from their teachers as
well.
An initiative that has been recently implemented at Trace Crossings is STEAM
education. While this type of education has been able to spark an interest in
learning for students, there is still a lot more that needs to be done for this type of
learning to make the greatest impact it could make on student growth. While
teachers have attended STEAM workshops, there needs to be more guidance on
how they can implement this type of education into their classrooms and
curriculum. Trace has a STEAM teacher who works with the students during the
week as a Special, but it needs to be seen throughout the classrooms. While it is
continuing to be researched and tested, STEAM has the power to create deeper
thinking in students and spark a new love for education. Deron Cameron from TCSS
says, STEAM represents a paradigm shift from traditional education philosophy,

based on standardized test scores, to a modern ideal which focuses on valuing the
learning process as much as the results. In essence, we dare our students to be
wrong, to try multiple ideas, listen to alternate opinions and create a knowledge
base that is applicable to real life as opposed to simply an exam. If Trace Crossings
teachers will adapt this type of learning in their classrooms, they will be able to see
a more cohesive impact of STEAM in the school. Teachers need support and
resources from the administration in order to fully accomplish this task.
Overall, an action plan for Trace Crossings would consist of several elements.
In order to impact and improve student attendance, having communication with
parents could be a benefit for this issue. If parents feel involved and a part of their
childs classroom, they will have more motivation to make sure their child is
attending daily. Not only can parent communication improve attendance, but it
could also impact support from parents to children at home. In order to improve
teacher morale throughout the school, teachers need to be given more resources
and support in knowing how to improve their students growth in learning. With this
extra support, the teachers will have more motivation to be an effective teacher and
meet their students needs. Along with these resources and support, teachers need
to have enough guidance with STEAM education to know how to implement it well in
their classrooms. Giving teachers more opportunities to learn how to implement
STEAM into their classrooms and providing them with lessons or other problem
based learning activities would give the teachers more support that they need. If
the teachers of Trace Crossings will teach with effective strategies and resources
and care about each and every students success, there could be improvements in
the education of these students.
Trace Crossings Elementary School Parent Letter

Dear Trace Crossings 4th grade Parents and Guardians,

We are sending you this letter to inform you of the results we have
received recently from the ACT Aspire. We find it important to keep all of our
parents and guardians informed on the results that have been collected
regarding the 2010-2011 ACT Aspire. The ACT Aspire is given to students to
assess student readiness in English, math, reading, science, and writing. This
assessment is given to students starting at the 3rd grade. After recently
looking at the school wide reading and math scores for the 4th grade we have
noticed that we are facing some challenges. Despite the decline in test
scores we are positive that this problem will be fixed and we are ready to
implement new strategies to help us improve student test scores for the next
year.
After reviewing the data, we as a school and administration have put
together a plan of action for this upcoming school year. We are aware that
the reading and math scores have decreased overall. We have also noticed a
difference between subgroups of economic levels and ethnicities. We want
you to know that we are looking and striving to improve these areas in order
to better our school and most importantly our students. Trace Crossings is a
school with an increasingly diverse population of learners and cultural
backgrounds. So, in order to serve the needs of our students we plan on
implementing instructional practices for our teachers in order to best serve
the students. In addition in order to increase reading and math scores a
reading and math coach will be more involved with helping the classroom

teacher in planning and working with students. We have been provided with
numerous resources in order to help make learning easier for students. In
order to do so we are able to provide students with hands-on opportunities.
By implementing a Maker studio and encouraging the use of STEAM in the
school we believe that we can make a great change in our students test
scores.
We want to encourage student learning not only inside the school but
at home as well. We would love to have all of our parents support. Thank you
for all that you do for our students. We are working very hard to ensure that
your students are getting the education they need. If you have any questions
or concerns please feel let us know and we will do our best to assist you. As
we progress through the school year we will continue to keep you updated
with the progress the students are making.
Sincerely,
Lindsey Harding, CaDric Moulton, Julia Sansom, and Rebecca Hastings
Data Analysis and Action Plan for Avondale Elementary School
Avondale Elementary School is a preschool through 5th grade Birmingham
City School located in downtown Birmingham. Their mission is to provide an
environment that accepts, teaches, challenges, and creatively inspires students.
There are approximately 530 of students that and attend and 34 teachers at
Avondale Elementary. The students that attend come from predominantly lowincome homes. Avondale is classified as a Title I school, and 87% of their population

is on free and reduced lunch. Avondale receives additional Title I funding from the
state of Alabama that is dedicated to specific areas of schools improvement.

One of the ways that Avondale Elementary seeks to improve their

school and test scores is having a specific attendance plan. This plan
includes incentives that are aimed to motivate the students to attend school
regularly. Attendance is a key piece to student achievement. Many issues can
be raised if the students do not attend school on a regular basis.
Inconsistency in school attendance can cause students to significantly fall
behind in their school work, lose motivation, and develop a dislike for school.
In extreme cases of low attendance, truancy could become an issue. Truancy
is when students are absent from school for a large number of days without
an excuse. When the students were taking the ACT Aspire tests, the teachers
asked the parents to have their child at school each day and have them
arrive on time. The childs absence or tardiness not only affected the
teachers but also other students. Avondale addresses the issue of
attendance through an attendance plan that provides rewards for students
that have a good attendance record. Students who showed up each day for
testing received candy that week and was praised for coming.
Avondale Elementary currently has 530 students enrolled in school. Of
these students, 87% qualify for free and reduced lunch. A large number of
the students at Avondale come from low-income backgrounds. Poverty can
cause extreme stress on whole families affecting the childs cognitive
development and therefore impacting test scores. Children who are born into

low-income homes hear one third fewer words than children who are raised
in higher income home. Decades of research concludes that children in lowincome families typically enter school with poorer language skills the
language gap and they often score more than two years behind on
standardized language development tests by the time they enter school
(Urban Child Institute,2014).
One of the ways that Avondale Elementary works to include parents
into their students education is through the use of the Parent Improvement
Plan. This plan is purposed to include students into the daily functions of the
school. Many times parents do not get involved in the school that their child
attends due to a lack of understanding of where help and assistance is
needed. Parents also have a limited amount of time to dedicate because of
busy work schedules, and managing family life. This plan provides practical
ways for families to get involved in a realistic way. For example, part of the
Avondale Parent Improvement Plan is the implementation of Parents
University. Parents University is comprised of a series of parent seminars on
topics concerning education. For instance, the second seminar provided on
October 24th was entitled Math Taking Tips. The seminar was led by the
3rd grade teacher team. Parent involvement is a key piece to student
achievement. A journal entitled Parent Involvement and Student Academic
Achievement by Xitao Fan and Michael Chen confirmed through their studies
that when students whose parents are actively involved in their education
are overwhelmingly more successful in school (Fan, 2001).

Teachers are one the main factors that impact student achievement.
One consistent finding of academic research is that high expectations are
the most reliable driver of high student achievement, even in students who
do not have a history of successful achievement (Lemov, 2010). At
Avondale we saw low teacher morale due to the behavior of students and
lack of support staff. We believe this is one reason why students test scores
are low. When teachers take the time to intentionally praise and encourage
students achievement has been shown to heighten.
Through our research and observations we have created an action plan
that will seek to provide professional development for the teachers at
Avondale Elementary. We also think that additional funding for more support
staff would be beneficial in improving the student achievement rate and
supporting the teachers. We plan to implement effective professional
development at Avondale Elementary through the use of online seminars
such as NASSP. This online resource will provide a cost effective option for
teachers to further their knowledge of instruction. This website also provides
a wide variety of professional development options therefore teachers will be
able to select helpful resources that are specific to their needs. We believe
that the implementation of professional development with impact overall
student achievement at Avondale Elementary. We plan to receive funding
through the use of grants to provide the needed funds to hire an additional
reading and math teacher at Avondale. There is a wide variety of grants
available for Title I schools that we would utilize to provide this additional

support. We believe that they the additional intervention and instruction

that would be provided through the use of a reading and math coach would
greatly impact students overall achievement in math and reading.
Avondale Elementary School Parent Letter

Hello Avondale 4th Grade Parents and Guardians,

Avondale Elementary School recently completed that Alabama Reading
and Math test (ARMT). After analyzing the data we have determined our
schools strengths and weaknesses. Students test scores in reading and
math between the 2010-2011 school year and the 2011-2012 school year
increased. Although they improved we are pleased with the achievements of
our fourth grade students, we feel that there are areas that need
improvement in order to boost standardized test scores. We have created a
practical and effective action plan to strengthen areas that need
improvement.
After consulting the administration, we have decided to implement
additional professional development and plan to bring on more support staff.
We believe that if teachers are more equipped, they will be able to better
instruct students and that student achievement will rise. We wanted to
inform you all of this decision and ask for your support. Our teachers work
hard to educate your children and we want to see them reach their highest
potential. We look forward to implementing a new online professional

development program and begin writing grants for funds to hire additional
math and reading coaches to work with students.
We want to say a big thank you to each of you. We believe that the
most effective form of education occurs when teachers and parents
collaborate together. Thank you for collaborating with us and working
together to keep the students our focus and priority.
Sincerely,
Lindsey Harding, CaDric Moulton, Julia Sansom, and Rebecca Hastings

References:

Cameron, D. (n.d.). Retrieved May 11, 2016, from http://steamedu.com/

Jenson, E. (n.d.). Membership. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-AffectsBehavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx
Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students
on The Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Parental Involvement and Students' Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analys.
(n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2016, from
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1009048817385
Professional Learning | NASSP. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2016, from
https://www.nassp.org/professional-learning?SSO=true
The Opportunity Gap: Avondale Elementary School. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10,
2016, from http://projects.propublica.org/schools/schools/10039000103
Trace Crossings Elementary School. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2016, from
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/AL/schools/0000700091/school.aspx
Urban Child Institute. (2014, February 3). Is Your Child Worth an Investment
of 30 Million? Retrieved May 10, 2016, from
http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/articles/perceptions/is-your-childworth-an-investment-of-30-million