Florida School District Recognized for Innovative Data Assessment System

Tom Townsend believes we are limited only by our expectations. “Too many rural school districts suffer from apathy. We decided to be different. We took a hard look at what we’ve achieved academically and resolved to do better,” said Townsend, superintendent of the Putnam County School District (PCSD) in Palatka, Florida. “We are taking steps to help our students be as successful as possible.”

Tom Townsend

Townsend’s determination to improve academic achievement recently earned him the first-ever District Data Leader of the Year Award from the Florida Department of Education. The award highlights how leaders who support and encourage the use of data among their staff can change the culture of their classrooms. It also recognizes districts that are communicating the relevance of student data to teachers, administrators, parents, and community members.

The department chose Townsend based on his leadership in the creation of the Learning Gains Index, an innovative system that uses student achievement data to help Putnam County administrators and teachers evaluate their work to determine ways they can drive continued student improvement. The system uses data from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), which is administered to students in grades three through ten.

The district also administers EXPLORE^® for ninth graders, PLAN^® for tenth graders, and the ACT^® for eleventh graders, and plans to eventually also incorporate ACT data into the Learning Gains Index.

“Data is one of the most important tools we can use to evaluate ourselves and whether we’re instructing our students effectively,” said Eric J. Smith, Florida commissioner of education. “Superintendent Townsend has done fantastic work creating a culture where data is valued and teachers are empowered to give their students the best possible opportunities for success.”

The award validates the PCSD Data Driven Instruction Team’s collaborative efforts, said Townsend. “Within a year of my taking office, we were able to leverage the talents of the staff already here and combine them with those of some new people we brought on board to put Putnam County School District in a position to lead the state in terms of data assessment.”

The Learning Gains Index offers a way to measure teacher effectiveness based on student performance on the FCAT. “We know we do a good job on the FCAT, as far as taking students from nonproficient to proficient, but we let too many of the proficient kids slide backward. We developed a calculation that ties student growth, progression, and regression to our teachers to see which are responsible for growing our kids from year to year, “ said Townsend.

A teacher at Palatka High School leads a cooperative learning class. The high school is part of the Putnam County School District, which is located about 60 miles south of Jacksonville.

The ACT results give administrators another way to analyze student growth with a different kind of assessment. They expect the ACT results to help them identify the academic areas where students are scoring well and where they are not, so teachers can modify their curriculum accordingly. This is the district’s first year of administering EXPLORE, and the first year of administering the ACT on a weekday to all juniors district-wide through District Choice State Testing.

Data from the ACT tests also help the district’s guidance counselors assist students with college and career planning. They meet with students to explain their score reports and what the information means. “We help students see the relevance of the data as it relates to college and career readiness,” said Becci Motes, guidance counselor.

The north-central Florida district, which enrolls about 11,000 students, currently uses the Learning Gains Index with teachers in the core areas of reading and math, but plans to expand the system to include all teachers.

“The beauty of the Learning Gains Index is that we can be very specific with real data. If we’re not getting a year’s worth of growth for a particular student, we can figure out why and what we need to change. We are creating a culture of empowering each other—students, teachers, parents, and administrators,” said Townsend.