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Sep72021

Goal Setting for School Improvement

Analytics, School ImprovementBy John Gatta September 7, 2021

The fundamental purpose of setting school improvement goals is to assess the effectiveness of improvement efforts. The utility of the school improvement process rests on the inferences one can draw from meeting a goal. For example, a typical school improvement goal may be â€œincrease the percentage of students meeting standards in grade 4 reading by 5%. While this type of goal is specific and concise, the results will provide little to no information as to the effectiveness of improvement efforts. Why? Because increasing grade 4 reading by 5% is likely an arbitrary goal that is unrelated to school performance and not evidence-based.

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Jun142021

Learning loss or unfinished learning? ECRA Group releases preliminary findings on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on student academic growth

Growth Recovery, School ImprovementBy ECRA Group June 14, 2021

ECRA is amongst the first firms nationally to release scientific evidence quantifying learning rates over the 15 month pandemic period that began in the Winter of 2020 and culminated in the Spring of 2021.

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Dec32020

New Research shows Negative Effects from Remote Learning

Analytics, School Improvement, Strategic Monitoring, Student SuccessBy John Gatta December 3, 2020

ECRA Group CEO, John Gatta, was interviewed by WGN America’s NewsNation regarding the impact of COVID-19 on student learning.

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Oct12020

AASA What Works: Data Analytics to Assess Learning Loss and Recovery

Analytics, Growth Recovery, Partners, School Improvement, Student SuccessBy John Gatta October 1, 2020

Join AASA’s guest, data analytics expert Dr. John Gatta in examining how to quantify learning loss and develop personalized learning recovery plans

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Aug272020

Machine Learning Framework to Train a Learning Trajectory Model

Leveraging predictive models to measure learning loss and growth recovery during COVID-19 school closures

Analytics, Growth Recovery, School Improvement, Strategic Monitoring, Student SuccessBy John Gatta August 27, 2020

Measuring learning loss requires that we recognize that student growth is personal in the sense that every individual student’s learning trajectory leading up to the pandemic was different.

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Aug192020

Measuring and Recovering Learning Losses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Analytics, School Improvement, Strategic Monitoring, Student SuccessBy John Gatta August 19, 2020

Documenting learning loss is important as the effects of school closures on learning loss are likely differential and asymmetric, resulting in large losses for some students, and negligible or negative losses for other students.

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Dec202019

Case Study: Prioritizing Social & Emotional Learning at Barrington CUSD 220

Case Studies, School ImprovementBy Client Success Team December 20, 2019

Barrington District 220 did not set about their SEL journey looking for a quick win, but rather to foster a positive climate and culture.

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Nov262019

Case Study: Using Data to Improve Instruction at PBL CUSD 10

Case Studies, School ImprovementBy Client Success Team November 26, 2019

PBL CUSD 10 sought a platform that would allow them to compare their student data against both national, state, and local norms.

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Oct172019

Effect Sizes as Evidence – The single most important pitfall to avoid

Analytics, School ImprovementBy John Gatta October 17, 2019

Despite widespread use of effect sizes across industries as a standardized measure of impact, effect size calculations remain one of the most incorrectly applied and misinterpreted statistics. An effect size is nothing more than a standardized comparison, or “effect” , that captures the difference between an average value and a meaningful comparison in the metric of standard deviation.

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Oct162018

The single most important pitfall for Illinois schools to avoid when interpreting ISBE Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs)

Analytics, IL-Empower, School ImprovementBy John Gatta October 16, 2018

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) recently released student growth percentiles (SGPs) to Illinois school districts in preparation of the new school accountability system and the launch of the new Illinois school report card. While incorporating student growth into the school accountability system is a step in the right direction, it is important to recognize that ISBE SGP results are reported within an accountability context not a school improvement context.

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