Monthly Checkups

A new principal works with teachers to get the most out of a district's benchmark assessments.

By Mary Ann Zehr

DeKalb, Ill.

Charlotte Kreuder, in her first year as the principal of Littlejohn Elementary School here, has a track record of helping teachers make changes in instruction based on analysis of students’ test scores.

In her previous job, as the principal at Taylor Park Elementary School in Freeport, Ill., she helped teachers and students set learning goals derived from data analysis. That effort, she believes, helped the school narrow a large gap in test performance between African-American and white students and significantly raise the state-test scores of all its students.

“We got teachers wrestling with the data,” she says. “Those areas they decided to focus on, students almost...