Participate and share: Poster 
Educational Situation:
Springfield Public Schools is the second largest district in New England, and is made up of a diverse population of over 24,000 students attending 70 different schools. Our student body is 91% students of color, 82% students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and 30% students for whom English is a new language. Currently, Springfield is implementing a strategic plan titled “Portrait of a Graduate”, a six-year initiative that was developed in consultation with students, staff, and Springfield community members.
Members of Springfield’s Digital Learning and Assessment team, a team of five within Springfield’s Office of Information, Technology, and Accountability, participated in the development of the strategic plan as members of the measurement working group. This group was focused on reimaging the way students’ progress was measured and assessed. The group determined that two methods were necessary to support the larger goals of the plan: a transition in schools to standards-based grading and the use of a student portfolio to assess mastery over the course of a student’s school career. Through a combination of standards-based grading and portfolios, the group determined that we would be able to better assess student growth and the development of authentic learning of students in the district.
With those goals in mind, Springfield’s Digital Learning and Assessment team began work to ensure the successful implementation of standards-based learning and student portfolios. This process included:
• Researching new platforms that could facilitate standards-based grading and/or development of student portfolios. As a team, we researched multiple platforms, developed a clear set of standards for any potential platform, narrowed down the list based on that platforms, and began meeting with representatives of the programs on the final list.
• Soliciting feedback from teachers and staff. As a team, we participated in the continued Portrait of a Graduate working groups, which afforded us the opportunity to listen to teachers’ feedback on current grading and assessment systems, in addition to their ideas for the possibilities for standards-based grading and student portfolios. Our department was then able to incorporate that feedback as we researched new platforms and implementation strategies
• Assessing current platforms and systems to determine both limitations and untapped potential. As a team, the digital learning and assessment team analyzed current platforms in use and discovered that our learning management system, Schoology, has standards-based grading capability. With our district’s information systems team, we are in the early stages of a pilot program for standards-based grading with a single school in the district, with the intention of determining best practices for district-wide implementation in the future
• Establishing connections with school districts that have experience in standards-based grading and student portfolios. The Digital Learning and assessment team was able to meet with the Director of Digital Learning at Coppell ISD, a mid-sized school district in Texas. Coppell has successfully implemented student portfolios as an assessment system, and we were able to gain insight into our own implementation processes and into potential digital platforms to serve as homes for students’ portfolios.
Purpose:
The purpose of this session is to provide one District’s strategy to integrate a digital student portfolio and re-imagine mastery-based grading functionality within existing information systems platforms. We hope that district staff can use our example to better support the continuous improvement of their districts.
Objectives :
• Participants will leave with an understanding of how Springfield Public Schools Digital Learning and Assessment Department has supported the work of the district’s current Portrait of a Graduate Strategic Plan through researching and integrating a digital student portfolio tool and reimagining uses of current technology to support schools in implementing mastery-based grading.
• Participants will leave with strategies to apply to the work of their own support as Digital Learning and Technology specialists at their schools and districts.
Introduction and Context (5 Minutes):
• Springfield Public Schools began planning a new District Strategic Plan, titled Portrait of a Graduate”, during the 2021-2022 School year .
• This process included monthly working group meetings and engagement with students, parents, teachers, staff, and members of the community in feedback .
• The strategic plan is following a cohort model, with groups of schools beginning the process of adapting the plan on a rolling basis
• Our department, Digital Learning and Assessment, had to consider how we could best support the work of implementing the Portrait of a Graduate.
Overview of principles of support (10 Minutes):
As we began to support the work of Portrait of a Graduate, we’ve determined four principles that help ensure we are optimally supporting the district:
• Participate – It is important that Digital Learning and Technology specialists make their voices heard in the development of a strategic plan, in addition to listening to the other stakeholders who are part of the development. At Springfield Public Schools, the Digital Learning and Assessment team participated in the Measurement working group, which included conversations about reimagining grading and assessments.
• Research New Technology – During the development of the strategic plan, Digital Learning and Technology Specialists should look for strategies within the plan that cannot be facilitated with technology currently in the district. For example, our Digital Learning and Assessment Department researched e-portfolio platforms in preparation for the district’s implementation of student portfolios as a means of assessment across the district.
• Establish Contacts – As the priorities of the strategic plan develop, it is important to reach out to school districts that have similar priorities and may have insight to the ways tech and digital learning specialists can best support the strategic plan. Our Digital Learning and Assessment Department met with the Director of Digital Learning at Coppell ISD to learn about Coppell’s implementation of portfolios in their district, and how their digital learning team support that initiative. Through this, DLA was able to both establish contact with a “mentor district”, but also generate a list of best practices for portfolio implementation based on our meeting.
• Leverage Current Technology – As the strategic plan is implemented, it is important to look at the current resources in the district and how they can be utilized in new or novel ways in support of that implementation. Springfield’s Digital Learning and Assessment team performed an analysis of our current digital learning platforms, and is currently undergoing planning of a pilot program with a school in the district in which we will use Schoology, our current LMS, as a tool to implement standards-based learning within the school.
Questions (5 Minutes)
After presenting the context and principles, we will give participants the opportunity to ask questions about our process and goals.
Springfield Public Schools Strategic Plan Information: Summary of Strategic Plan.pdf (sharpschool.com)
Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education EdTech Strategic Planning Guide: Sustaining Progress in Access and Equity: EdTech Strategic Planning Guide (mass.edu)
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