Data Wise

Mary Rooney Thorp teaches 8th graders at John Welsh School, but up until two years ago, it seemed like she was trying to reach a room full of moving targets. Rampant truancy and family transience at the north Philadelphia school made it exceedingly hard for her to keep track of how well her students were doing.

Then a new piece of technology put her and other teachers at the K-8 school in the driver’s seat. Now, with a few keystrokes on the “teacher dashboard” displayed on her district-issued laptop computer, Thorp can instantly tell exactly how many days of school individual students missed that month, review their academic histories, see whether they are at risk for academic failure, and gauge how they scored on state tests and the benchmark assessments the district administers every six weeks. She can also parse the data to see the collective strengths and weaknesses of each of the...