Principal Arneice Renwick presented on how data is used to improve student achievement at Joanna-Woodson Elementary during the Oct. 14 EOC's full committee meeting.

Joanna-Woodson Elementary was awarded the EOC's Data Trailblazer Award for exemplary use of data to improve student outcomes, help families and caregivers understand student data, maintain a culture of school-wide data informed decision making, and incorporate practices that prioritize data privacy.

Principal Renwick discussed analyzing data from teacher assessments, attendance rates, student assessments and parent surveys to help determine what areas of improvement need to be addressed.

"If you don't know where you are, then you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you are going, you are probably going wrong." Principal Arneice said quoting author Terry Pratchett. "I told the teachers, if we don't analyze our data and look at it, then we might be on the wrong track."

During her presentation, Principal Renwick showed how teachers and staff respond to the different data points. For example, after parent feedback indicated that parents did not understand how to help their students with homework, the school created a plan.

"We are going to start offering classes throughout the day for parents to show up to learn strategies, then they can visit the classrooms to see it in action."

She also addressed data on chronic absenteeism.

"When we looked at our attendance, we noticed that our kids who were missing a lot of days were not performing well in school. Parents did not think attendance was necessary, kids did not think it was necessary. We started having conversations with parents about how their lack of attendance was hindering their grades and scores," Principal Renwick said.