Our Director of Learning and Curriculum, Helene Hernandez-Caudron, explains our data-driven instruction approach and what that means in terms of outcomes for ISDenver learners.

The numbers don't lie.

In the education landscape, where differentiation and personalized learning are a must, data is a powerful ally. ISDenver started its journey with data-driven instruction seven years ago. Even though we are under no obligation to administer standardized tests as a private school, under Marzia Mauffrey's leadership, ISDenver started to use MAP Growth Assessment in the Fall of 2016 with two objectives: being held accountable in our teaching and learning, and to inform and drive our instruction. Our teachers are leveraging data-driven insights to foster more effective learning experiences. It is one teaching strategy that compliments others by helping identify the specific areas where our students need support or enrichment.

Leveraging data brings multiple benefits. 

• It provides teachers with great information on student learning and where they are in their learning journey. It, therefore, increases teachers' effectiveness in the classroom.
• Families now receive regular points of data throughout the year on their children's academic progress.
• At a leadership level, it provides us with the big picture of the school. We have accurate, tangible data to rely on to adjust our approaches to teaching and learning. Returning to ISDenver's journey with data, the insights our first couple of years of MAP Growth results brought were invaluable. It highlighted the need for a better vertical alignment in our curriculum and horizontally among our language programs. This led ISDenver to embrace the IB PYP framework and become an authorized IB PYP World School in 2022.

The burning question is, how are we doing now? The results from last Spring (both in the graphs below and detailed on our website) are quite compelling. 

ISDenver students are outperforming the norm of both public and private school peers for each grade level across language usage, reading, and math.

Our data on Kindergarten and Grade 1 learners are also indicative of this trend. Considering our students are, for the majority of their time, learning in the target language until the end of Grade 3, these results speak loudly to the quality of instruction our ISDenver teachers are providing to its community. 

Our children’s achievements ultimately validate the power and difference of our unique approach to immersion education - which promotes children transferring concepts between languages most strongly.

Helene Hernandez-Caudron
Director of Learning and Curriculum

We'd love to show you our educational model in action! Email us at admissions@isdenver.org to learn more and schedule a campus tour.