School Quality Measures Dashboard

School Quality Measures Dashboard

A school quality framework with multiple measures that offers a fair and comprehensive picture of school performance

School Quality Framework Wheel

The School Quality Measures Framework aims to describe the full measure of what makes a good school. The three outer categories are essential inputs to school quality that influence the center two key outcomes.

School Quality Measures Framework

Through a Research-Practice Partnership between Lowell Public Schools (LPS) and the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, the Holistic Assessment for Lowell Schools (HALS) project is reimagining how we measure the quality of LPS schools and the learning experiences of our students.

Starting in the 2022-2023 school year, LPS convened a team of educational leaders and teachers to build off of Lowell's long-time engagement with the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment (MCIEA). In the upcoming years, the HALS dashboard will operate as a space for Lowell school and district leaders to customize school quality measurement to their specific needs and continuous improvement goals.

The HALS school quality measurement framework retains the five-category structure of the MCIEA framework. The framework has been built around multiple measures, which include academic, social-emotional, and school culture indicators, in order to piece together a fairer and more comprehensive picture of school performance. It consists of five major categories.

Measures the relevant abilities of a school's teachers and the degree to which they are receiving the support they need to grow as professionals. It considers factors like teacher professional qualifications, effective classroom practices, and school-wide support for teaching development and growth.

Measures the degree to which the school environment is safe, caring, and academically-oriented. It considers factors like bullying, student-teacher relationships, and student valuing of learning.

Measures the adequacy of a school's facility, personnel, and curriculum, as well as the degree to which it is supported by the community. It considers factors like physical spaces and materials, class size, and family-school relationships.

Measures how much students are learning core academic content, developing their own academic identities, and progressing along positive trajectories. It considers factors like engagement in school, problem solving, and college-going rates.

Measures the development of traits relevant for students leading full and rewarding lives—in society, the workplace, and their private lives. It considers factors like perseverance and determination, participation in arts and literature, and social and emotional health.

About HALS

Lowell Public Schools (LPS) was an inaugural member of the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment (MCIEA) when it launched in 2016. The Holistic Assessment for Lowell Schools (HALS) dashboard builds on Lowell's work with MCIEA. Made possible by a Research-Practice Partnership between LPS and the School of Education at University of Massachusetts - Lowell, the HALS project will develop new approaches to school quality measurement and online data display, providing context-embedded data for LPS schools.

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