When we asked two special education teachers in Fresno what they loved about using Polaris with Unique Learning System (ULS), they were excited to talk about student data.
Anjelica Orosco and Lacey Stone found it was much easier to monitor progress, write IEPs, and communicate with families.
Fresno Unified School District has 106 schools and 68,246 students, 14% of whom are considered students with disabilities.
The challenge
For many special education teachers, monitoring student progress and writing IEPs can be a time-consuming task. Having multiple reports in different places makes it difficult to collate data and create goals for impactful results. It can also be a challenge sharing data from multiple places with colleagues and students’ parents.
Time-saving technology
With Polaris, teachers can easily create, implement and monitor IEPs tailored to each student’s needs. It saves time by generating present level statements and suggesting goals based on assessments.
“I can write an IEP now in two to three hours instead of five or six,” said Lacey.
I can write an IEP now in two to three hours instead of five or six."
Seamless data syncing
Polaris integrates seamlessly with our curriculum builder ULS. Teachers can take student data from ULS and use it to make detailed, reliable IEPs. Polaris also suggests ULS lessons aligned with IEP goals, syncing data for easy progress tracking.
“We were already using all the components that we have access to through our district for ULS and we noticed it takes all the information we have in ULS and imports it into Polaris,” remarked Anjelica.
“When we had no idea about Polaris,” she added. “We were automatically doing what Polaris does, not knowing that there was another tool that we could use.”
She noted how ULS and Polaris took all the work out of moving and managing student data. Speaking about the tools she said: “They’re doing it for us and they’re putting it all in one place for us!”
We’re always wanting to involve our parents and outside people that aren’t in the classroom more into our students’ lives and their education.”
Sharing student performance
Polaris also makes it easy to find and share reports on students’ performance. It generates colorful, easy-to-read charts that help everyone involved in a learners’ life follow their progress.
“You don’t have to search for data anymore. You can pull it immediately out of the student’s daily performance,” said Lacey. “So I don’t have to pull paper, after paper, after paper, out of a students file to show parents data, or show my colleagues a student.”
Anjelica added: “We’re always wanting to involve our parents and outside people that aren’t in the classroom more into our students’ lives and their education.”
With Polaris, it’s quick and easy for Anjelica to involve families. “You can see charts and all the colors and everything… We can send [those] progress reports home with our kids.”
“The parents can go ahead and check-in and see how their kid is doing over time. Once we’ve [done] that I’m done!”
Watch the full interview with Lacey and Anjelica in this video.
