Every year, school districts in California are required to prepare a public plan known as an LCAP (Local Control and Accountability Plan.) The LCAP is a three-year plan, updated annually, that describes what the district plans to do to support student outcomes. It’s a document with a required structure built around ten priority areas. A district’s LCAP must include information about how it serves students with different backgrounds, particularly those living in poverty, foster youth, and students learning English.
Many school districts, when planning their LCAP goals, focus on strategies to improve student learning, support students’ social and emotional wellbeing, and reduce chronic absenteeism. When creating an LCAP plan, having the right data is critical. In a recent on-demand webinar, “Reaching LCAP Goals: A Data-Driven Approach to Student Learning, Wellbeing and Attendance,” we discussed some of the LCAP requirements and shared examples of how the right types of data can help California districts meet their LCAP goals. Here are some of the highlights:
Student Voice
LCAP requires districts to engage with the community to obtain insight. This includes getting input from students. Giving students a chance to share their voice has many benefits. It empowers the students, helps the district better understand what students need, and determines whether the district is meeting those needs. Surveys are a great way to get students’ viewpoints and insights. PASS (Pupil Attitudes toward Self and School) provides an easy-to-administer, research-based survey that helps districts understand what students need individually and by classroom or grade level. This data can be used to help inform LCAP plans.
Case in point: One California district identified a need for more social workers to provide Tier III services to students based on their PASS student survey data. Another school district realized, based on their data, that students didn’t have positive feelings about school. Once these needs are identified, solutions can be identified and planned. The first district, for instance, hired more social workers. The second district designed a day for teachers to “flaunt their passion.” Teachers do mini-lessons on that day about things they enjoy. One does a class on knitting. One does a workshop on learning German, etc. Students select what session they want to attend. It allows the students to see their teachers in a new light and builds stronger, more positive relationships.Supporting Specific Student Groups
Supporting Specific Student Groups
One of the required components of LCAP is to describe plans for improved services for foster youth, English learners, and low-income students. It’s important to be able to identify gaps for these specific groups of students. To do that, districts need data on the subgroup-level. PASS allows districts to survey students and drill down to up to 8 different subgroups including those required for LCAP.
Case in point: In one school district that serves a significant number of English language learners, data revealed that those students don’t see themselves in the curriculum. That data helped inform the district’s plans for purchasing instructional materials and ultimately will help it better serve that group of students.
Universal Screeners to Identify Barriers
LCAP is all about ensuring districts have strategies and are utilizing resources appropriately to support students. Universal screeners like PASS can provide actionable data on everything from attendance to wellbeing. And data is power.
- In the above cases, having the right data helps school districts:
- Reveal the underlying reasons for academic struggles, challenging behavior, and poor attendance.
- Identify students who are at-risk before they fall off track.
- Save time and money by directing the right supports to the students who need them.
Simply put, having the right data allows districts to make better decisions about how to allocate their resources. They can spend more time putting the interventions in place, rather than guessing who might need it, which not only helps with LCAP planning, it also helps provide a better learning environment to support ALL students.
Learn More About PASS as a Universal Screener
During the webinar, the PASS Team shared examples of the color-coded reports from PASS to show how to analyze the PASS data to make it actionable.
Watch the webinar recording or schedule a demo with our PASS team to learn more about how PASS can support your district’s LCAP plans. We would love to partner with you to help the students within your district achieve more by overcoming non-academic barriers.