Chandler Unified presents balanced-assessment framework and Tableau dashboards; principals and teachers show classroom uses

Chandler Unified District staff presented a high-level review of the district's balanced-assessment framework and demonstrated how Tableau data visualizations are being used by principals and teachers to guide classroom interventions and schoolwide actions.

The presentation, given to the Chandler Unified school board during a study session, explained the district's assessment ladder ' from daily formative checks through end-of-year statewide tests ' and showed site- and student-level Tableau views used for monitoring attendance, academics and targeted supports. "The balanced assessment framework, is basically just that all assessment has a purpose. That is it," said Dino Katsiras, assistant director of assessment, during the overview.

Why it matters: Board members and school leaders said the dashboards help staff act quickly on students flagged for attendance, behavior or academic risk, and allow teams to coordinate supports. District research staff said the system brings multiple sources of information together so teachers can intervene earlier and principals can monitor trends across schools.

District overview and Tableau capacity Dr. Fletcher (presenter) opened the session and introduced the assessment team' which reviewed the framework and then handed the meeting to school principals and teachers to show practical classroom uses. Kenton Woods, who leads the district's research team, said the district maintains an extensive Tableau environment tied primarily to Infinite Campus and other assessment sources. "Tableau is often recognized as a leader in the space in data analytics," Woods said, adding the district currently maintains about 1,100 visualizations across roughly 275 workbooks and 50 projects. Woods noted statewide assessment files for 2025 were not yet available.

Types of assessments and how the district uses them Assessment staff summarized the district's layered approach: frequent student-level checks and formative tools, teacher-level formative checks, classroom summatives, screeners and diagnostics done multiple times per year, and less-frequent programmatic and statewide assessments. Katsiras described benchmark and screener timing (for example, DIBELS are administered three times per year, followed by CORE diagnostics) and said the district uses protocols and templates to ensure the data are analyzed and used in a continuous cycle of curriculum, instruction and assessment.

Classroom and school showcases: attendance and student monitoring Principals and teachers then demonstrated how they use Tableau. Amanda Cook, principal of Bogle Junior High School, described a student-monitor view used to decide whether a student should be placed in a study-skills class and to follow progress across quarters. "The student is thriving. The student is doing very well," Cook said of a pupil who moved from extreme to moderate concerns after placement and supports.

At Conley, principal Lisa Shore and third-grade teacher Lauren Mosier showed a schoolwide and classroom-level attendance workflow that pulls Tableau lists into spreadsheets for conferences and targeted outreach. Shore said Conley identifies chronically absent students at conference time, segments them (in-boundary vs. out-of-boundary) and assigns school staff as "attendance heroes" to check in weekly, set goals and celebrate progress. Shore said the school's absence rate was 7.13% in 2024, then declined after the program began and was dropping again this school year.

Mosier said her classroom dashboard currently shows 36.8% of students with moderate or extreme attendance concerns and a 4.2% absence rate for her class. "This is lower than the school average, but it's also lower than the district average. So we are in the green," Mosier said, describing daily tracking, family outreach at conferences and classroom incentives tied to attendance goals.

Teachers at the secondary level described teacher dashboards for grading and early-flag identification. A history teacher (name unclear in the transcript) said dashboards let teachers act in the moment during parent or support meetings and compare section-level performance to district and peer groups. Emma Straz, a math teacher who is also a CUSD alum, showed a student-level "baseball card" view with assessments, program enrollments, home language and out-of-boundary status that teachers use to anticipate support needs.

Coordination and follow-up Board members asked about roles and notifications. District staff said counselors and site leaders have access to many of the same views and can set weekly alerts when students move from moderate to extreme risk; social workers and counselors join site teams for intervention planning. The district emphasized the process is collaborative among teachers, counselors, administrators and families.

Equity and subgroup reporting During board Q&A, member Mr. Roars criticized what he described as an "obsession with ethnicity." Board members and staff responded that disaggregation by subgroup is required by state and federal law and used to identify and address gaps for marginalized subgroups. "It's not the ethnicity that's driving the behavior. By state and federal law, though, we do have to evaluate data by our subgroups," a district presenter said.

What the presentation did not change or decide The session was informational: no board motions or votes occurred. Staff presented current tools and school examples and described routines for monitoring and intervention; board members requested follow-up demonstrations and access to specific visualizations.

Tapering note Presenters asked that audience questions be held until the end of the session. The district team thanked principals and teachers for extending their day to present real-school examples of how data visualizations are used to support student attendance and academic growth.