The Key to Delivering Dynamic Student Support in Groton Central School District

For Groton Central School District (NY), supporting student learning means more than just academic instruction. As more students enter the district with social-emotional needs, school and district leaders have recognized the importance of addressing these developmental needs and building stronger connections among students, teachers, families, and the community.

Over the last year, Groton has partnered with Panorama to bring their “whole child” vision to life. With real-time data in Panorama Student Success, educators in Groton get a full picture of each student across academics, attendance, behavior, and social-emotional learning (SEL)—giving them the information they need to understand student progress and provide proactive supports.

“In New York, there are limits on the amount of time you can ask teachers to be at school,” said Kent Maslin, principal of Groton Elementary School. “Now our teachers have access to data in three clicks or less, which accelerates our ability to ask critical questions and move our staff forward.”

"We recognized that our students were coming to school with a lot of baggage that we didn’t know how to work around. If we wanted to turn our district around, we needed to address the entire picture of the student from academics, to behavior, to attendance, to social-emotional learning."

– Margo Martin, Superintendent, Groton Central School District

A Real-Time Picture of the Whole Child 

To understand how students are feeling about their experiences in school, Groton administers SEL assessments with the same regularity as academic benchmarks. Once a quarter, Groton uses Panorama's Social-Emotional Learning Survey to collect data on students’ social-emotional skills, such as grit and self-efficacy.

The SEL data paints a more holistic picture of each student, especially when combined with academic, behavior, and attendance data in Panorama Student Success. Teachers can begin to understand some of the underlying factors behind student misbehavior or chronic absenteeism.

“Our students were below the national average in grit, so we’ve been working on getting students to not give up when the going gets tough,” said Superintendent Margo Martin.

Changing Student Outcomes: How Groton Turns Awareness into Action

Because student information from SchoolTool and other systems is located in one place, Groton educators can make data-driven decisions catered to the needs of every student.

“Panorama has allowed us to make a quantum leap in our approach,” said Maslin. “We can ask, ‘How is this student responding to our instruction?’ in data meetings and instructional planning meetings. We’re becoming more responsive to the needs of our student body.”

"Panorama has allowed us to make a quantum leap in our approach to student support. We can ask, 'How is this student responding to our instruction?' in data meetings and instructional planning. We're becoming more responsive to the needs of our student body."

– Kent Maslin, Principal, Groton Elementary School

Educators look at the indicators to discuss what is and isn’t working and how they plan to tweak their instruction. They also review the data by student group—such as by gender or ethnicity—for another layer of insight into student progress.

It’s through this culture of data inquiry, action, and measurement that Groton has been able to deliver tailored, dynamic student supports that are improving student learning across multiple dimensions.

Interested in learning more about Panorama Student Success? Get in touch with our team to see a demo.

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