Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Assessment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
West York High highlights ‘data teaming’ approach to raise proficiency
Summary
High school staff described a year-long “data teaming” process aimed at aligning assessments and instruction to district proficiency targets; students and teachers said the practice improved collaboration, assessment quality and instructional adjustments.
Carrie Jones, principal at the high school in the West York Area SD, told the school board that teachers adopted a year-long “data teaming” process designed to focus instruction around major course concepts and an 80% proficiency target. “All teachers… analyzed four units or concepts each semester for deeper learning using these high quality assessments,” Jones said during the board meeting presentation.
The program, which Jones said the high school used on professional development days and half days, asked teachers to use a common-assessment planning guide, confirm what “really matters” in each unit, and then analyze results to plan reteaching or instructional changes. “They were able to really look back at what we did… maybe I didn't assess this as well as I should have along the way,” Jones said, describing teacher conversations that moved from test quality into instructional adjustments.
Teacher and student speakers who appeared in a short video shown to the board described practical benefits. TJ Meese, business education teacher and instructional leader, said data teaming helped teachers who otherwise design and grade “singleton” classes get a colleague’s perspective on assessments. In the video, student Stella Frida and classmate Darien Reimold helped demonstrate the approach: “Data teaming, improving student achievement since 2024,” Meese said in the recorded segment.
Teachers told the board the process produced concrete classroom changes: departments used assessment data to identify skills students were missing, reworked assessments to measure the targeted skills, and in some cases added new student work (for example, a persuasive speech unit) to address gaps discovered in the data. Jones said the high school has assembled a spreadsheet of assessment planning documents and results and will use that to determine what further supports teachers need.
The presentation emphasized collaboration, teacher accountability and transparency as intended outcomes. Jones said the approach was still in early stages: “We really just scratched the surface,” she told the board, noting the high school runs hundreds of courses and has begun data teaming in only a subset. She asked the board for questions and said administration would follow up about supports teachers requested.
The board did not take action on the presentation; the session served to inform trustees about the high school’s instructional work and next steps for administrative support.
