Genoa-Hugo School
Credits MAP data for dramatic
academic performance improvement
in just two years
®
Genoa-Hugo is a one-building, one-school district
located on the eastern plains of Colorado in the
seat of Lincoln County. In this low-income ranching
community with an agriculture-based economy,
houses sell for $30,000. The county’s three primary
employers are the school district, a hospital, and a
prison.
The district’s school is divided into four quadrants:
elementary school, middle school, high school,
and an athletic wing. Approximately 70 elementary
students, 40 middle school students, and 60 high
school students attend this K-12 school, which will
graduate 12 seniors this year. Forty-nine percent of
Genoa-Hugo School students receive free or reduced
price lunches. Kindergarteners start school with a
vocabulary base of 300-400 words, compared to a
typical 11,000 words in wealthier communities. Such
gaps are likely to triple by 4th grade.
Creating a culture of success through an
aligned, data-driven curriculum
When Dave Finley, K-12 Principal and Counselor,
came to Genoa-Hugo in 2009, academic achievement
was so low that the school was on the brink of being
taken over by the state. Without an aligned, clear
curriculum, teachers simply taught what they knew.
The district had Title I students but no RTI plan. It
was not using data to measure growth and therefore
was unable to monitor progress or benchmarks. Staff
morale and student performance were low.
With a long history of successfully using NWEA’s
Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP) data in other
school districts, Finley introduced MAP to Genoa-Hugo
when his tenure began. The summer before the 2009
school year, he spent two hours individually with each
teacher to introduce the concept and application of
assessment data, with a goal of getting buy-in and
addressing any questions or apprehensions.
Teachers and board members of Genoa-Hugo were
ready for change. They passionately engaged in staff
development led by Finley in which they learned
the value of MAP academic data, how to interpret it,
and how to apply these insights to inform academic
planning such as levels of instruction and breakdown
of students by performance.
When academic growth is the goal,
roadblocks become opportunities
The district then expanded their assessment program
by introducing MAP for Primary Grades (MPG), and
incorporating DesCartes: A Continuum of Learning®
– an NWEA resource designed to help educators
translate the raw data from students’ assessments into
actionable plans for instruction, grouping, and more.
Teachers were divided into four professional learning
communities that worked together intensively to
make RIT data insights actionable by aligning student
learning groups and instruction with growth targets.
“Today, our whole school’s curriculum is aligned,” says
Finley. “Having a common assessment whose data we
trust and can leverage is key. I wouldn’t know what to
do without MAP. When teachers can design lessons to
match skill sets, that’s huge—both in terms of process
and results.”
When a second grader was struggling in an academic
area and stalled on her learning path, her teacher
used MAP data to pinpoint the concept that was most
challenging, and to help her move past the obstacle.
The student immediately bloomed, jumping more
than 30 RIT points by the next assessment. After
that, teachers in Genoa-Hugo started seeing similar
dramatic breakthroughs regularly.
Finley says these results galvanized teachers to search
out academic gaps. “Our teachers used to get excited
when the kids ‘got it’,” he explained. “Now they get
excited when they don’t get it—because they’ve found
the hole, and they are equipped to fix it.”
MAP’s alignment with CSAP helps predict
performance and drive success
Just two months after Genoa-Hugo completed its
first MAP assessment and introduced MAP-aligned
instruction, student scores grew 15-30 points. This
far surpassed educator expectations and Growth
Projection Calculator predictions. And while lower RIT
scores were the majority at first, in two short years
most Genoa-Hugo students now test at the high end,
with growth above their grade level. Even a significant
number of Special Education students have tested out
of this learning group.
Finley credits MAP not just for student performance
acceleration but also for dramatic improvement in
Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) scores.
He says, “MAP data and the CSAP align very nicely. You
can predict performance on CSAP if you know how to
read it right.”
In the last year alone, the school closed the gap by
six points, as reflected in juniors’ ACT scores. And, as
the district is hitting 100% proficiency on most CSAP
growth scores, they are now on par with the best
educational systems in the state. In fact, Finley has
been sought out by educators in other districts who
want to learn how they can create similar results using
academic data.
Academic gaps close and growth is
accelerated
Dramatic educational success has made everyone
in the Genoa-Hugo school district more positive.
Teachers feel more professional, and students are
invigorated to learn and grow. As more and more
educational gaps are filled, academic momentum
continues to build, and student growth continues to
accelerate.
Using MAP scores as a means of growth measurement
and goal setting has been widely embraced by the
students and parents of Genoa-Hugo School. Through
individual conferences with their teachers, students
know their scores and target goals for the next
assessment, and they understand what they need to
do to reach those goals. Parents are educated and
engaged through parent conferences—and through
their kids’ excitement about learning.
Today, students in Genoa-Hugo no longer worry about
the grade. Instead, they are invested in their MAP
score. They see how it correlates to CSAP, and they
see how it is enabling them to have unprecedented
success.
“In education, there is a tendency to focus on the
lower end, ignore the middle, and maybe give a bit
of attention to the high end. In Genoa-Hugo, we’re
focusing on growth for every single kid. Students at
every level get the attention they deserve, and that’s
why our scores are so high,” says Finley. “We could not
serve our kids as we have and get the results we’ve
accomplished so quickly without MAP’s invaluable data.”
NWEA partners with educators to help all kids learn.
Learn more at www.nwea.org or call 503-624-1951.
© Northwest
Evaluation Association 2011