updates of students’ strengths, weaknesses, and reading level, voluminous portfolios built for thesole purpose of Promotion in Doubt, and other documentation that you ask your teachers toprovide. The decision in each case is yours, but consider eliminating tasks that are not critical tothe functioning of your school. Whenever possible, use electronic records, many of which arealready available online.
2.
Evaluate the information you gather and reduce redundancy in reporting
. Consider whether information on student and school performance that is now being made available to your schoolthrough ARIS, your Progress Report, Quality Review, Learning Environment Survey, Inquiry TeamTool (ITT), and your Periodic Assessment reports makes it unnecessary for your school tocontinue gathering information in other, more time-consuming and less effective ways.In particular, consider whether it is effective to print out and assemble binders of assessmentresults. In many cases, assessment information is available in ARIS or in other places on theInternet, and can be more easily accessed and analyzed in an online format. And, as you know,you need not create any binders or other documents for the sole purpose of preparing for theQuality Review. Quality Reviewers focus only on data and reports that schools actually use in theregular course of the day and the school year. For example, you can show reviewers how youuse the “student groups” function in ARIS to track the progress of groups of your studentsthroughout the year.
3.
Examine your school’s goal setting process.
Goal setting is a powerful instructional andimprovement strategy, and setting clear goals and monitoring and evaluating progress is a centralelement of the inquiry process. As your teachers set goals and track progress towards their goals,consider how they can use ARIS to support the process, and whether the format and timelinethey’re using are realistic enough to help teachers keep their focus on student progress, not onpaperwork compliance.
4.
Consider other ways to reduce paperwork
. Another way schools have found to reducepaperwork is by using the “student group” function in ARIS. This function allows teachers tocreate a group of students to which they can return anytime, to track the students’ progressthroughout the year. This group is stored online, and updated with new information at the sametime as it enters the source system, so teachers do not have to hunt down or print out new data.And, other schools are using ARIS Connect to collaborate on documents and share information—keeping resources in one place, accessible anytime, from any computer.As you know, our schools have made great strides in using student data to make informed instructionaldecisions. And under your leadership, teachers are using powerful diagnostic tools to advance studentachievement. As we continue to introduce new data and tools to our schools, let’s work together minimizeunnecessary paperwork, and keep our focus where it belongs: on the children.Sincerely,Joel I. KleinChancellor Go back to the top
***REQUIRED/HIGH PRIORITY***
3
Leave a Comment