Time for School

Person County School System graduates to SAS® for K-12

At one time, agriculture – largely tobacco farming – was the primary industry in Person County, North Carolina. In recent years, the county has experienced a period of industrial diversification as the economy there moves away from its dependence on the tobacco industry. Because of this, educators in the Person County School System believe that the importance of receiving a good education has never been as critical to the livelihood of the region and its population.

To help improve the quality of education and the academic outcomes of students, the Person County School System – comprising 13 schools with approximately 5,500 students and 650 staff members – is using SAS OnDemand for K-12 and SAS EVAAS for K-12. The software helps educators and administration staff manage and improve data-driven decision making to support teachers, student learning and collaborative success. In addition, it uses SAS Curriculum Pathways to engage students with exciting, online curriculum resources.

Progress report
"We used to pull information together manually, then put it into spreadsheets to monitor and report on such things as fiscal resources, student achievement, school enrollment – then along came SAS," says Dr. Larry Cartner, Superintendent of the Person County School System. "It was the right thing at the right time to help us move forward."

"We use SAS OnDemand for K-12 to support decisions related to student attendance and discipline," says Deanene Deaton, Director of Accountability and Media Services. "The portal's graphics give educators and staff a snapshot of what is going on related to student behavior in the schools, allowing them to find out why and make decisions based on data. It helps inform principals when talking to counselors and support staff about creating solutions."

SAS OnDemand for K-12 also gives school system management quick access to attendance data on teachers as well.

"We were analyzing teacher attendance and found that student attendance was better," explains Cartner. "Our kids deserve better and, whether our substitutes are the best in the world, students won't perform as well as with their teacher of record. The teachers were surprised by the findings and wanted to do better for the kids. In one year we were able to lower our substitute teaching costs by $25,000."

Applying for grants
According to Paula Chandler, Program Specialist for professional development, grant writing and public information, the SAS OnDemand for K-12 solution also helped the county apply for various educational grants, providing accurate data and reducing the amount of time it takes staff to pull the application information together.

"Data is always a determining factor in the need for grants," explains Chandler. "It's now very easy to obtain the data required to prove that we have a need for a grant, such as dropout prevention funding, which helps us improve attendance and behavior. The SAS OnDemand for K-12 dashboard helps us quickly see if student attendance and behavior are improving due to the grant-enabled programs we implement."

"I recently signed an application for a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) grant," Cartner adds. "In the application were charts and graphs pulled from the dashboard. With SAS, the information is at your fingertips. If we were writing that application before we had SAS, it would have taken weeks just to get our hands on the data. It's easy to see the amount of time you can save when you train people to use this technology. One hour of training gets you 10 hours back in effective work. Helping you save time is SAS' strength. People will always be frustrated by time and SAS is a solution that can help you accomplish more in the same time frame."

Becoming data-driven
"The SAS data warehouse and portal have helped us determine what is factual," says Deaton. "I'm ecstatic about the data we're pulling out and putting into a useable format through the portal. It's more accurate, timely and accessible. There's a discipline report that needs to be submitted to the state each year, which used to be cumbersome to generate. I will now be able to create it in a few hours instead of a few days. You get a much bigger picture and can make better decisions when you have that much data in just a click."

"The use of SAS has changed our governance structure also," Cartner continues. "At my quarterly superintendent's advisory council meeting, business community leaders want to know percentages for increases or decreases – they have become very data-driven. I can say that we've changed the use of time and the idea of what data can do for our community."

 “As a long-term member of the Person County Board of Education, I am proud of the progress that Person County Schools have made in adapting to the computer age,” says school board member Ronnie King. “Our current central office staff works very hard to make sure we are preparing our students for the real world, which is technology driven.”

"The service that SAS is providing is invaluable," Deaton adds. "We're able to pull information together, which SAS puts into a form that is easily usable. It's a picture, and people can read pictures and say 'Hmmm … that's an issue, what can we do about that? The information seems to be more accurate and a better representation than I could ever put together before. We get a monthly picture of where we are and I can't say enough about the value of that."

Improving student performance
In addition to SAS OnDemand for K-12, the school system is also using SAS EVAAS for K-12. According to Cartner, SAS EVAAS for K-12 is helping the county significantly improve student academic performance and graduation rates across the region.

"We've used SAS EVAAS for K-12 for over a year and it's probably made the most difference," he explains. "Our graduation rate is currently 70 percent and our goal in five years is to increase that to 95 percent. The data we're producing with SAS is helping us with that cause."

"We've had great success using SAS EVAAS for K-12 for student math placements," says Deaton. "We use student projections and longitudinal history for math placements in middle school and high school. Last year our math scores in those levels went from 39 percent proficiency to more than 80 percent."

Engaging students 
On the academic side, Person County has been using SAS Curriculum Pathways ­– a solution fully funded by SAS and designed to enhance student achievement and teacher effectiveness by providing Web-based curriculum resources in all core disciplines – for nearly a decade.

"SAS Curriculum Pathways has been a real help for us at the high school," explains Cartner. "We've seen that expanded recently and we plan to train more teachers on it because we're really convinced of its value. We plan to build on the teachers' happiness with the product.

"Overall, SAS is a wonderful education partner and doesn't get enough statewide and national recognition," concludes Cartner. It is one of those quiet, unsung heroes. SAS has really helped our district move ahead in ways that would not have been possible before."

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