SAS helps small school district net big gains in student performance

Beech Grove City Schools increases standardized test scores, ease of data reporting

ARLINGTON, VA   (Mar. 10, 2008)  –  Beech Grove City Schools is a small-town district surmounting big challenges. Nestled beside Indianapolis, it faced growing urbanization, static enrollment, limited state funding and increased accountability. To become a top performer and help its approximately 2,500 students succeed, Beech Grove embraced data driven decision making using software from SAS, the leader in business intelligence. 

“We’re not a big school district, and we could not afford to put much money into a data warehouse,” said Clayton Collins, Beech Grove’s Director of Instruction. “With SAS, we’ve learned much more about our students, improved their test scores and done it all with limited resources.” 

B2S Analytics, a leader in educational data analysis and management services, created a customized SAS^® data warehouse to help Beech Grove assemble, analyze and report on student data. 

“We needed a system teachers could use that didn’t require entering tons of data. B2S advised us to use SAS or nothing else,” said Collins.

Beech Grove’s data warehouse integrates grades and demographic data from the district’s student management system with test results from the Indiana Department of Education (ISTEP+) and Northwest Evaluation Association tests (NWEA). Using SAS, Beech Grove analyzes NWEA results to predict student performance on the ISTEP+. Instantaneous access to student information lets teachers and administrators deliver individualized student instruction. Remedial work or tutoring offered in advance helps struggling students pass. 

Beech Grove’s results are impressive. Aggregate state test scores have jumped 11 percent since 2002. Of the class of 2007, 80 percent enrolled in college – tying last year’s all-time high and a 20 percent increase since 2005. A record 40 percent of the class of 2008 is on the Academic Honors Diploma (college prep) track, with 95 percent on the CORE 40 (above basic requirements) track. In 2008, Beech Grove High School was the only high school named a Four Star School in Marion County.

Additionally, Beech Grove uses the data warehouse to compare its performance to the 11 other districts in its area and assemble data for state and federal reporting and grant proposals.  

“It used to take months to pull the data together. With the data warehouse I can usually write a grant in only two days,” said Collins. 

With more than 2,000 college, university and business-school customers in 109 countries and education specialists on every continent, SAS serves the education industry by delivering software solutions, strategic services and academic programs that spark innovation and expand educational opportunities. 

The announcement was made today at CoSN’s K-12 School Networking Conference.  

About B2S Analytics

With over twenty years of expertise in public education and many years combined experience in SAS programming, B2S Analytics is an industry leader in providing customized data warehousing and analysis solutions. The A+Stat data warehouse gives administrators, teachers, students, and parents user-friendly access to student data. B2S integrates multiple data sources that enable educators to discover, target, and serve the students who need help most. B2S services are fully supported and maintained with the best customer support services available. Innovative analysis solutions from B2S supplement school improvement and help students succeed. 

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