Background

In 2021, Elk Grove Unified School District took proactive measures to address the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. A collaborative and outcomes-focused group of district leaders devised an ambitious plan to enhance the pathways available to secondary students to better prepare them for the demands of postsecondary education.

With a steadfast commitment to the district’s mission of targeted universalism and ensuring that every student receives a comprehensive education across all subjects, Elk Grove formulated a strategic plan that included specific objectives to increase the participation of underrepresented students in advanced courses. This plan also laid out two explicit goals that Elk Grove could tackle directly through the implementation of new scheduling practices:

• High-Quality Classroom Instruction and Curriculum: All students will receive high-quality classroom instruction and curriculum to promote college and career readiness and close the achievement gap.
• Assessment, Data Analysis and Action: All students will benefit from instruction guided by assessment results (formative, interim and summative) and continuous programmatic evaluation.

The Challenge

Elk Grove’s leadership was highly skilled in utilizing data analysis to establish and track goals, much like many other school districts. Over the course of previous data cycles and improvement efforts, the team had developed a thorough understanding of the critical role that student schedules play in promoting college and career readiness.

However, leadership recognized that relying solely on student outcomes was insufficient to pinpoint the root causes of challenges and drive meaningful change. To fully understand why certain student groups were not accessing or successfully completing rigorous postsecondary preparatory coursework, the team required more precise data about enrollment patterns, course offerings, and teacher assignments and how those factors related to student outcomes.

Additionally, Elk Grove wanted a faster feedback loop than the yearly data cycles provided. The team wanted to monitor and make changes multiple times throughout the scheduling process and not wait an additional year to see how it was progressing against its goals.

“The master schedule is your community, school, teacher, and student culture. It is one of the most important things you can do as a site administrator to ensure success for your students. And it’s also the one thing that may not get enough attention. As a result most master schedules are teacher centric. We’ve changed that in Elk Grove and have built a community of practice where we have committed to building schedules that prioritize our students’ needs.”
Sue Hubbard, Director of College and Career Connections

Abl and Elk Grove Partnership

Elk Grove partnered with Abl to access actionable data and empower district and school leaders to create consistent outcomes for all students. Abl’s unique analytics disaggregate data at every step of the scheduling process, providing Elk Grove with precise information to focus its efforts on achieving its college and career readiness goals. By utilizing Abl’s data visualizations, the district identified areas for improvement and personalized solutions for each student group, leading to remarkable gains in advanced course enrollment for underrepresented students. Through its partnership with Abl, Elk Grove has developed the capacity to:

Elk Grove’s district and school leadership teams received a dynamic dataset that included the following:

• Student multidimensional college readiness including detailed breakdowns of course intensity, GPA, and test scores.
• Course intensity profiles of students including readiness for postsecondary success in a range of postsecondary pathways.
• Detailed analysis of each subject area including persistence data, advanced coursework, and equity data.

Step One: Evaluate

In Elk Grove, close to 50% of students were enrolled in intense coursework. However, the team recognized that progress was not consistent across all student groups. Specifically, only 27% of Black students and 39% of Hispanic students were taking highly intense coursework.

Additionally, the team identified that math was the subject area in which the least amount of students were accessing intense coursework across the district at 29%.

Step Two: Analyze

After identifying underrepresented student groups and math course intensity as areas of opportunity, the Elk Grove team conducted further analysis to validate these patterns. They examined enrollment trends and their correlation with persistence and advanced course-taking, which both contribute to academic intensity in a subject area.

Their analysis revealed that while 58% of Elk Grove students took four years of math, only 42% of Black students and 47% of Hispanic students did so, indicating a persistence gap. Similarly, while 40% of Elk Grove students completed at least one advanced math course, only 19% of Black students and 26% of Hispanic students did so, highlighting an advanced course taking gap.

The team was able to drill down even further by analyzing course progression pathways for specific student groups within each school. This approach enabled individual schools to gain a deeper understanding of how these trends played out in their own student populations.

Step Three: Standardize

As Elk Grove schools began the process of building schedules for the 2022-2023 school year, the district established clear priorities and targets for schools to address the gaps identified during the analysis phase.

The district set a goal of increasing course intensity for Black and Hispanic students by 10%, and the school teams were united in their commitment to achieving this goal.

To develop detailed action plans, school teams leveraged the data available in Abl Analytics. These plans interrogated the root causes of the disparities in course intensity, identified specific areas of focus for math and Black and Hispanic students, and outlined strategies and next steps to reach those goals. The plans were tailored to each school’s needs and took into account the unique circumstances and challenges facing each student group.

Before scheduling activity began, the district standardized course offerings to create more consistent student outcomes. Elk Grove ensured that offerings were aligned with postsecondary success and consistent across schools.

With these foundational steps complete, schools were ready to take action and start building student-centric schedules.

Step Four: Build and Monitor

School teams in Elk Grove had plans in place to address the gaps in advanced course enrollment even before collecting course requests. By leveraging strategies identified during the action planning phase, schools focused on recruiting students and identifying those who would benefit from leveling up. Utilizing Abl’s advanced course recommendations, schools were able to see which students needed more course intensity and could speak with them prior to course requests. This helped schools evaluate requests and prioritize enrollment based on data-driven insights.

Throughout the scheduling process, school teams worked closely with district leaders to monitor progress and refine their plans leveraging Abl’s “Schedule Progress Report” and weekly progress-monitoring emails. District leadership identified and tracked key performance indicators to ensure progress towards the district’s goals. Schools also shared successes and challenges with each other, and best practices were standardized across the district to promote consistent outcomes for all students.

Overall, Elk Grove’s data-driven approach to scheduling and analysis enables schools to take a targeted and informed approach to increasing course intensity for Black and Hispanic students. By identifying areas of opportunity and developing detailed action plans, the district was able to create more equitable outcomes for all students.

The Results

In their first year of partnership with Abl, Elk Grove achieved remarkable results.

Districtwide Buy-In: One hundred percent of schools finished their schedules with Abl and set strategic scheduling goals.

• Seven schools set goals to complete more years of coursework in a target subject area.
• Six schools set goals to increase historically underserved enrollment in advanced courses.
• Five schools set goals to increase persistence in the advanced track.

Additionally, the district experienced a 2% positive difference between the cohorts of 2021 and 2022 in overall academic intensity.

Complete Schedules: Of the 10 schools that completed VisABL Scheduling, nine were successful in building complete schedules for the majority of their students. Additional areas of opportunity were uncovered when it was discovered that three schools were unable to honor the majority of students’ course requests while building complete schedules. They depended on alternate course requests, suggesting that section allocations and staff assignments were not responsive to student course selection. This highlighted iterative work that school leaders can do to adjust the structures in place at these schools to honor the student voice in the scheduling process.

Having the majority of student schedules finalized in June meant that when our counselors returned in August, they didn’t need to spend two weeks cleaning up schedules. Instead they were able to spend time checking in with students and providing social emotional support. Our counselors were ecstatic to regain the time to do what they love in service of our students.
Sue Hubbard, Director of College and Career Connections