The state of Georgia has set the bar high for its students. Georgia Performance Standards define rigorous goals. In Jones County, north of Macon, the public school system has responded to these heightened expectations by placing student data at the fingertips of every educator. DataDirector online data and assessment management solutions provide teachers with fast, easy-to-understand information, from high-stakes assessment and district benchmark scores, to daily classroom reports and Response To Intervention (RTI) program results.

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"Our ultimate goal is to track children from birth to graduation regardless of whether they move around within the county," said Jennifer DeGrie, Coordinator for Technology Applications at Lenawee Intermediate School District (ISD) in southern, central Michigan. Educators in the consortium want a full, rounded picture of all children from the day they enter their first early education program at six months through the end of their high school career.

Lenawee ISD provides service, support and leadership to the schools and districts in Lenawee County. Two years ago, the ISD acquired the DataDirector data and assessment management solution to provide its member districts access to local assessment data, track student information, and view individual program results without having to ask the central office to run reports. Recently, the ISD enhanced the system with the Assess2Know item bank and is working to create common benchmark assessments for all the schools throughout the county.

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Ten years ago, reaching the state average in student achievement seemed a lofty goal for the Niles Community School District. "Today, we're blowing the state average out of the water," said Jim Craig, Executive Director of Curriculum. In the Fall of 2009, the district exceeded the state average in all twenty-one Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) tests.

This progress didn't occur because of improvement in socio-economic factors. The number of minorities and free-and-reduced lunch students remained high. In addition, Niles became the seat of the county's special ed programs, as the number of special ed students increased from 20% to 40%. "The challenge has grown greater," said Craig, "Still, our achievement growth has far outstripped the challenge."

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"Our goal is to raise proficiency and reduce achievement gaps," said Ron Rode. It's an objective echoed in school districts around the country. But how do you convert a goal into reality? At the San Diego Unified School District, DataDirector is a big part of the answer.

This district, the second largest in California, uses DataDirector in every school. The online data and assessment management system provides feedback to administrators, principals, and classroom teachers, giving them a greater awareness of which programs and students are succeeding—and those that need more work. "It helps us make sense of a huge range of data," said Rode, the district's Executive Director of Research and Evaluation.

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