“One Town, One School, One Community”
Recently, KCSOS Management Analysts, Chip Wilson and Michael Hernandez, sat down with Hiedi Witcher, Assistant Superintendent/Principal with the Buttonwillow Union School District to discuss the district's unique application of the KIDS platform.
Buttonwillow Union School District serves approximately 400 students and has an unduplicated rate of about 95 percent. “In a smaller district, you have a lot of moving parts, with fewer people to do the work, so a tool like KIDS makes meaningful data instantly accessible”, said Mrs. Witcher. She further explained there have been many other benefits in utilizing the various dashboard reports and data visualizations from within the KIDS platform which has benefited Buttonwillow’s system for continuous improvement. Mrs. Witcher stated, “KIDS has become more helpful over our existing student information system. We can readily generate a variety of dashboards and other graphics which are simple to understand and very meaningful to different groups of stakeholders.”
Teachers and the school board are two specific groups the Buttonwillow leadership team has shared this information with thus far. “The visualizations can be quickly generated within KIDS which enables us to show year over year trends in areas of interest such as behavior, attendance, and test scores, including both state and local results.”
Buttonwillow is taking full advantage of the capacity of KIDS to allow for immediate and comprehensive analysis of local data, such as CAASPP Interim Assessment Blocks (IAB). Instead of traditional benchmarks, Buttonwillow has shifted to utilizing the Smarter Balanced IABs to assess smaller bundles of content in a way consistent with what students see for state testing. The IABs provide teachers and other stakeholder groups the ability to check where students are currently performing, and to utilize those results in determining next steps for instruction and intervention. The KIDS platform can upload data files for all students- allowing teachers and other stakeholders to immediately see which students are excelling, which students need additional support, and in which areas. On the KIDS platform, IAB results are displayed graphically in an easy to understand customizable format so teachers and school staff can respond to individual students, as well as, groups of students’ needs, rather than struggling to grade and organize the critical information themselves over many hours and days. Additionally, Heidi stated they are preparing for next steps. She is going to have all curriculum based measures (CBM) data uploaded into KIDS to further bolster the district's ability to meet the needs of their student. Heidi went on to state, “When you add local assessments into the KIDS platform, the capacity of the platform really starts to come to life. Users and stakeholders are empowered to provide better teaching and learning. This is exactly what is happening in Buttonwillow!”
KIDS Support Team is Growing!
KCSOS is excited to share the KIDS Support Team is expanding! As we have launched Pilot #2 with Fruitvale School District and KCSOS Alternative Education in April, and look forward to launching Cohort #1 (19 districts, in January 2021) we are building a dedicated KIDS Support Team that can successfully achieve the countywide implementation by 2023.
The KIDS Support Team will be expanding to include 9 dedicated positions solely focused on the work of on-boarding and professional learning support. This added layer of support will provide training and implementation for District Administrators, Principals, Teachers, and Counselors.
Greg West
KIDS Director II
Greg West is joining the KIDS team as KIDS Director II, with extensive leadership experience from around Kern County. His most recent position has been as the Director of School Services for Grimmway Schools. Greg has also served as a Principal and Vice Principal for Grimmway schools and in a variety of leadership, support and instructional roles throughout Kern County. Greg earned his B.A in Psychology from California State University, Bakersfield, M.S. in School Counseling from the University of LaVerne and an M.Ed in Curriculum & Instruction, Educational Leadership Emphasis, from Fresno Pacific University.
Jennifer Anzalone
KIDS Coordinator III, Professional Learning & Support
Jennifer Anzalone is joining the KCSOS KIDS team as the KIDS Coordinator III, Professional Learning & Support after having served as Vice Principal in the Bakersfield City School District. throughout her career, Jennifer has also served as an Academic Coach, History Teacher, Summer School Principal and Substitute Teacher. Jennifer earned her Bachelor of Arts- History, and teaching credential from California State University, Bakersfield, and her Master of Arts, Educational Leadership ans Administrative Services credential from Point Loma Nazarene University.
