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Long Beach Unified highlights Power BI as staff weigh narrowing assessment windows
Summary
At a special board workshop, research staff showcased Power BI dashboards and explained public and internal assessment calendars. Board members raised concerns about perceived "over‑testing"; staff said assessments are the same but administered in windows (e.g., i‑Ready three‑week window) and are exploring changes to limits and interim goals.
Long Beach Unified staff demonstrated new data tools and explained how the district measures student progress, while board members pressed for changes to assessment timing.
Dr. Madrigal of the district research office walked the board through the district’s assessment practice and a recently developed internal assessment calendar and Power BI landing pages designed to make site‑ and student‑level data accessible to principals and teachers. She said the district moved toward end‑of‑quarter required assessments and added an internal calendar that shows when data are available for site‑level data dives.
“The platform provides high‑level summaries and allows us to drill down all the way to the student level,” Dr. Madrigal said, describing dashboards built from data beginning May 2023. She noted the public calendar is available in nine languages and that the district added internal indicators showing which assessments tie directly to board goals.
Board members said they hear concern from parents and teachers that students are taking too many assessments. In response, board members asked whether the public calendar matches what happens in classrooms and what the district is doing about assessment burden.
Dr. Madrigal and Superintendent Dr. Baker said the set of required assessments is the same for public and internal calendars, but the district often gives a multi‑day window—for example, i‑Ready currently has a three‑week administration window—so different sites may schedule testing on different days within that window. “We give them three weeks so that they can determine as a site when is the best time to administer,” Dr. Madrigal said, adding that i‑Ready is designed to be administered in about 45 minutes.
District leaders told the board they are discussing narrowing some windows (from three weeks to two) and reviewing interim goals to reduce redundant assessments. “We are always asking ourselves, what is the fewest number of assessments that we can have our students take that will give us the information we need to be actionable?” Dr. Baker said.
Staff emphasized that some assessments are required by state or accountability processes, and any reduction in assessments would require aligning monitoring needs with board interim goals. The board also asked staff to analyze instructional minutes lost to assessment and to continue work with teacher councils and level offices.
The workshop materials and Power BI views will be part of this evening’s monitoring discussion on Interim Goal 3B, staff said. The board did not take formal action at the workshop; staff said they will present potential calendar adjustments and impacts in future meetings.
