Fox Chapel Area School District
Allegheny County, PA
The Fox Chapel Area School District is a nationally recognized, award-winning school district that produces high achievement in students, with a motivated and professional faculty and an involved and caring administration. The district is located in a dynamic, suburban community about 12 miles northeast of downtown Pittsburgh.
It would be hard to overstate the considerable achievements of Fox Chapel Area School District (FCASD) under the leadership of Superintendent Gene Freeman. All six of the Pennsylvania district’s schools have been named national and state Blue Ribbon schools. Two have earned the designation twice. FCASD consistently receives an A+ overall niche grade on https://www.niche.com/ and is ranked among the top 50 districts in the nation.
Dr. Dan DiDesiderio, FCASD director of student achievement and instructional verification, says academic performance levels continue to increase across the board—despite a 2014 realignment of state assessments to more rigorous Pennsylvania Academic Core standards. “Like many districts, we experienced a decrease in assessed performance that first year. In response, our superintendent Dr. Gene Freeman developed a comprehensive, benchmark-based process for instructional planning. Fundamental to the process was the districtwide adoption of Renaissance Star 360® to help identify areas of need as well as opportunities for enrichment.”
According to Dr. Freeman, “Since we began using Star 360 and other student data to drive instruction, we’ve made steady and consistent achievement gains each year. Our recent top-ten spot on the Pittsburgh Business Times rankings of 500 school districts represents a one year, five-position gain.1 Across the district, our educators are committed to helping all students perform to their fullest potential, and Star 360 helps us deliver on that mission.”
Across the district, our educators are committed to helping all students perform to their fullest potential, and Star 360 helps us deliver on that mission.
Dr. Gene Freeman, Superintendent, FCASD
The challenge
Support and challenge students
FCASD encompasses a 36-square-mile area about 12 miles northeast of downtown Pittsburgh. The diverse community is made up of six municipalities and approximately 30,000 residents. Deputy Superintendent Dr. David McCommons says that this diversity is mirrored in the district’s population of some 4,000 students. “We want to make sure that our educators have the tools and training to meet the needs of every student—whether they’re coming into the classroom as advanced and in need of enrichment or experiencing learning challenges and in need of effective remediation to perform at grade level.”
To establish a baseline of student strengths and academic needs, FCASD educators conduct Star 360 assessments during the first week of each new school year. Thereafter, teachers assess K–11 students three to four times during the year. Star 360 data provides much of the basis for placing students into intervention or enrichment groups, developing individualized instruction plans, evaluating the effectiveness of curricular resources, and identifying opportunities for additional professional development.
The results
Higher levels of achievement
Identify, plan, check, and adjust
Dr. DiDesiderio’s responsibilities include districtwide compilation and interpretation of Star 360 data to facilitate both tactical and strategic planning. He says that Star 360 provides educators with a common language and protocols to encourage collaboration in selecting appropriate instructional methodologies. “Districtwide, we use Star 360 data to look holistically at buildings, identifying areas of need as well as areas of exceptional performance. We then share particularly successful instructional methods across schools.”
“The district office team invests substantial time and talent to support district principals and teachers,” according to Dr. Freeman. “The team meets several times each month to review student data at every level, from districtwide summaries to individual grade level reports. Every member—including myself, the deputy superintendent, executive directors of elementary, secondary and innovative education, literacy leaders, and pupil services administration—attends these data meetings.” In response to these meetings, the team routinely observes classrooms and meets with teacher teams to set goals and assess progress. Together, we identify areas of need and opportunity, develop individual plans, track progress against those plans, and recommend adjustments to instruction as needed.”
Together, we identify areas of need and opportunity, develop individual plans, track progress against those plans, and recommend adjustments to instruction as needed.
Dr. Gene Freeman, Superintendent, FCASD
Comprehensive data benchmarking and instructional response plans
“At the building level, principals and teachers meet quarterly to review their student data in detail,” states Superintendent Gene Freeman. “From those sessions, each principal creates an instructional response plan that is presented to the district office team. Over the course of every quarter, FCASD administrative staff and educators discuss the individual needs and instructional plans for our students in each cycle to monitor the effectiveness of those plans.”
Dr. Ashley Constantine, executive director of elementary education and instruction, states that Star 360 provides the accessible, high-quality data essential to the district’s instructional process. “On any given day, a teacher has to differentiate instruction and monitor learning for a classroom full of students, return calls and emails to parents and colleagues, meet with a curriculum committee, and after all that, head home to finish grading papers and prepare instruction for the next day. While student achievement data is vital to instructional planning, educators don’t have time to wait for reports or to dig through a lot of ancillary data to find the detailed diagnostic information they need. Star 360 lets us access data in real time in a teacher-friendly format. This allows teachers to focus more time on instruction and less on generating and interpreting student achievement data.”
Data-driven instruction is not new for Dr. DiDesiderio, but his use of Star 360 started just two years ago. “In my previous positions teaching and then as a school principal, I used a variety of assessment programs. Most were overly complex. I can remember handing out reports, trying to explain how to interpret the scores, and thinking, ‘I might just as well be asking teachers to go design a space shuttle.’ Star 360 is so much more user-friendly. I can tell you from firsthand experience that you don’t need to be a statistician to manipulate and use Star 360 data in a multitude of ways.”
Continually higher levels of achievement
Dr. Freeman says that positive results serve as a testament to the effectiveness of the district’s data-driven instructional process. “For the past four years, incoming students have entered each grade at a higher academic level than the previous year. We’ve never experienced a drop in achievement. In fact, for every grade every year, we’ve seen an increase in the number of students performing at or exceeding grade level and a decrease in the number of students below. A four-year longitudinal analysis of our elementary and middle schools shows achievement gains in every math and English language arts category. Furthermore, as an indication of our success in meeting the needs of all students, we placed fifth highest in the ‘Overachiever’ category of the Pittsburgh Business Times rankings—meaning that we consistently exceed expectations for schools with a similar population of economically disadvantaged students.”
Dr. Freeman asserts, “We have always been a high-achieving district, but we continue to improve and can attribute much of that success to our use of the Star 360-based assessment as part of the district’s comprehensive benchmarking and instructional planning process. Star 360 provides essential support to help FCASD educators maximize student learning, achievement, and development.”
Want to learn more about Star 360? Click the button below.
Explore Star Assessments