Truly Understanding Student Needs: A Data Journey at P.S. 230

Maria Della Ragione • Cahn Fellow 2020

When we began our Cahn project in the fall of 2020, we were focused on implementing a reading intervention system. The reading intervention system was intended to be supplemental to the school day and fully virtual, so that we could reach as many students as possible. After analyzing our K-5 attendance and running record data, we believed that we needed to target children that were both not attending or engaged in school, and were reading far below grade level. However, as that reading intervention group began to form, we ran into a roadblock of not being able to adequately connect the children that were falling into the engagement category due to connectivity (devices) or willingness to attend the intervention sessions.