Surrey Schools has designed a creative, innovative and interactive online tool called Our Data Story as part of the Our Learning Story webpage established to share facts and stories with parents and the public about student success in the district.
“Over the past few years, the district has been supporting teachers to explore the use of digital portfolios as a means to share evidence of learning with parents and students,” says Surrey Schools superintendent Dr. Jordan Tinney. “In many ways, Our Learning Story is mirroring a student digital portfolio approach by providing parents and the community with the advantages and convenience of online district performance reports.”
“Visitors to the Our Data Story site can explore by clicking almost anywhere to find many simple ways to view, organize and reorganize information about how our district is doing in meeting student learning goals,” says deputy superintendent Rick Ryan, who has guided the Learning by Design website.
The website resources reflect Ministry of Education changes to district reporting requirements and is a significant change to the traditional “compliance” reporting to the public and ministry.
Besides basic info such as enrolment numbers, there are also detailed statistics about six-year completion rates, Foundation Skills Assessment results, and figures about core subject results for Grade 10-12 students district-wide. Each category can be broken down into the five district regions and their secondary schools and family of feeder elementary schools in each area.
User-friendly graphics include swimming fish that represent schools—scaled in size proportionately to the size of the school—that can be clicked on for further information.
The Our Learning Story and Our Data Story online resources are part of district’s Learning by Design website that details the district’s goals and approach to student learning. The comprehensive site includes many videos involving not only educators, but student voices as well.
As always, a student’s teacher is the best resource for parents looking for detailed information about their child’s learning. The Learning by Design website is another great example of the online learning and reporting tools provided by the district.
BCSTA thanks to Surrey School District’s Communication Services Manager, Doug Strachan. Read more on the Surrey School District website.