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District considers program to address learning gaps

T-R PHOTO BY TREVOR BABCOCK Marshalltown High School instructional coach Janelle Hawk (left) and Marshalltown High School Principal Jacque Wyant (right) present the MasteryConnect platform, which they say could help t learning gaps widened during the COVID-19 pandemic, to the Marshalltown Community School District Board of Education during their regular meeting Monday night.

To address learning gaps as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Marshalltown Community School District Board is considering a program to help teachers compile and interpret student data to improve learning outcomes.

Marshalltown High School Principal Jacque Wyant said after three semesters of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, a simple user-friendly process for assessing student data is imperative.

“We know we have gaps in learning and we need to get our students up to speed as quickly as possible without going backwards in learning,” Wyant said.

She and Marshalltown High School instructional coach Janelle Hawk presented the MasteryConnect platform for the high school at Monday night’s regular school board meeting. If approved, the total cost would be $91,641.80 and the school district would use Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds for the purchase.

Hawk said the MasteryConnect platform can help teachers identify the needs of students faster.

Previous efforts in compiling student data has been done manually by teachers in spreadsheets, and because so Wyant said interpretation of the data was not provided in a timely manner.

Board Member Jan McGinnis said she has heard from teachers within the district that feedback needs to come quicker in order to make decisions on students’ needs.

With integration with Canvas, the high school’s learning management system, teachers can immediately see in real-time what students are meeting content standards after an assessment is taken.

“This data is timely and purposeful,” Wyant said. “I think it’s aligned to the grades, to get students to pass.”

Content standards are what teachers expect students to learn from a course. The district has identified in each course what content standards are a top priority. Wyant said this allows teachers to be more diagnostic in their approach, by focusing on the specific concepts a student does or does not know as opposed to only focusing on a student’s full grade.

“We’ve already designed our curriculum, we’ve already identified our priority standards and we have formed assessments,” Hawk said. “What MasteryConnect allows us to do is see all of that working together. How has what we have created and what are we assessing acting out in real-time in the classroom.”

Teachers are able to decide when a student needs an intervention or an enrichment based on the data collected by MasteryConnect. Students and parents are also able to see how they are progressing through content standards for each class.

The school board will take action to approve or deny the purchase of the platform at their next regular meeting on June 21.

In other business

Superintendent Theron Schutte announced he will recommend a replacement to Lisa Stevenson’s position of director of instruction as she leaves her post on June 30. Schutte will recommend Shauna Smith, the director of curriculum and instruction at South Tama Community School District.

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Contact Trevor Babcock at 641-753-6611 or tbabcock@timesrepublican.com.

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