Elementary Teachers Put Data to Use with Creative Intervention Solutions

WAITSBURG – Data is only as good as what you do with it, and Waitsburg Elementary School teachers are working hard to put their data to the best use helping students.

At the March school board meeting, elementary teachers Deanna Coulston and Gabe Kiefel shared some of the creative ways Waitsburg is putting student achievement data to work in the classroom.

Coulston said one of the factors driving success in the elementary school is the PLCs, or professional learning communities. She said the third and fifth grade teachers work closely with one another, as do the K-2 grade teachers.

“We spend so much time collaborating all through the day, every day, all the time. And we work together to figure out what our kids need and how we can address their needs collaboratively. In some schools your classroom is your island. It’s not like that in our building at all, and we all love that,” she said.

Coulston showed examples of testing reports and explained how teachers use that data to intervene on behalf of the students. Keifel gave an example of how teachers are using math data creatively – dubbed the “Switch-a-Roomie” by the students – that has been working well.

He said best practices suggest students receive one hour of math instruction along with an additional half hour of RTI (response to intervention) time. Because Waitsburg has no full-time RTI instructor, Keifel said teachers have gotten creative with their RTI, which is geared to help those students who don’t understand a concept or haven’t met a standard.

After lunch each day, third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers determine which students come to the fifth-grade classroom, where Kiefel works with them on targeted math skills. The other fifth grade students go to the other classrooms where they work with younger students on other skills, such as reading and writing.

“One of the secondary effects has been some cool community building. The fifth graders are excited because they are the masters, because no matter what their level is, they’re the experts in the eyes of the third and fourth graders,” Kiefel said.

“We’re seeing really cool things. One student, who isn’t strong in fifth grade math, was able to thrive and be a teacher for a fourth grade student and teach him a concept that no one else had been able to get through to him,” he said.

“The confidence has soared. It’s been positive all around,” Coulston said.

Kiefel said teachers have also created a “focus wall” in the hallway which lists the standards for each grade. The students, themselves, identify what they want to work on and place their names on that standard. Kiefel said the method provides a bit of anonymity regarding which students require intervention since the entire class is participating.

“Everybody is equal. It doesn’t set those kids that are low, apart from those kids who are high. I’m excited to see how this progresses and I’m really excited about the Switch-a-Roomie. And none of it would have been possible without the assessments and data that we’ve been using,” he said.