APS using data system designed by Harvard to analyze grades, problems

Albuquerque Public Schools administrators are taking a scientific approach to improvement.

This summer, the district began using Data Wise, a Harvard University system that guides teachers and principals through a series of steps to assess test scores, attendance and other areas. The process culminates with an action plan targeting a specific concern.

“It is very school driven — the work is really undertaken at the school site,” said Beata Thorstensen, APS school data support manager. “Each school sets their own goals.”

APS is spending $84,000 on the program, which includes three multiday sessions led by Harvard trainers, ongoing technical assistance and materials.

Thorstensen said that, while the effort is focused on schools with low grades, the entire district is getting access to Data Wise tools. Four APS staff will become experts on the system and help teachers use it during regular professional development meetings.

“We’re very hopeful about this process,” Thorstensen said. “I don’t anticipate that we will see meteoric rises, but our hope is that we see steady improvement over the next several years.”

Boston and New York City have already had good results with Data Wise, which was developed by Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in 2012.

Kathryn Parker Boudett, director of the Data Wise Project, explained that districts can take “piles and piles of data” and narrow it down to something actionable.

“One of our missions is to raise awareness of what thoughtful data use looks like,” she said in a Harvard podcast interview.

For APS, much of the data is bad news.

Standardized test scores are low, and graduation rates and school grades worsened over the past year.

Last month, 89 APS schools received D’s and F’s, up from 65 in 2015, and the number of A and B schools fell from 55 to 37.

New Mexico languishes near the bottom of the nation on most measures of educational success, often coming in 49th, just ahead of Mississippi.