Lorenzo Rizzi, Ed.D, Assistant Superintendent of School Improvement
Belton Director of School Improvement Lorenzo Rizzi needed a way to keep up with what was happening across all of his schools. Using KickUp, he was able to determine which aspects of Belton’s strategic plan needed more attention, and create an improvement methodology that he could monitor using teacher feedback, classroom walkthroughs, and community input.
Belton School District is a suburban, public school district located south of Kansas City, Missouri. It serves approximately 4,400 students and has twice been selected by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) as one of 21 Model Districts.
Working with 150 citizens and staff members in a year-long review of programs and services, Belton School District had recently updated a five-year strategic plan around three key pillars: a transformation of learning experiences, a culture of safety, and a comprehensive system of support. But although the pillars provided clear direction, the central office staff needed specific, measurable metrics to maintain a pulse on the district — and keep the school board informed on the plan’s progress. Belton came to KickUp with the goal of translating the overall vision into improvement data that focused professional learning support around technology integration, literacy, and college-and-career-ready learning.
"As an instructional coach, I can look at specific buildings and identify what everyone saw. I can tailor in and see how I can support that building."
Instructional Coach
KickUp’s Client Success team worked with Belton staff to break down each pillar into several leading indicator metrics, and developed a tailored system to consolidate, triangulate, and activate the information for continuous improvement. Now, the district is working with three years of rich data from sources like teacher needs assessments, classroom walkthroughs, peer observations, post-event feedback and stakeholder surveys. School improvement staff regularly use KickUp’s filtering and analysis features to break the results down even further to make data-backed decisions on day-to-day operations. The original plan architects and Belton administrators then come together for monthly meetings to make real-time adjustments.
Belton has since adapted and accelerated their professional learning strategy thanks to the wealth of data now available. Overall, the district has found that KickUp is more than a tool for strategic plan compliance — simply having large-scale trends accessible at a glance means that administrators can make decisions knowing exactly where and how their actions harmonize with the district-wide vision.
“Now, even though we work in the central office, we don’t feel disconnected. I know what’s actually happening in our classrooms and we’re more strategic in our approach to instruction.”
Assistant Superintendent of School Improvement
Overall, Belton has found that not only does KickUp give them better instruments for assessing school improvement, the data also increases an administrator’s productivity. Professional learning programming is streamlined and aligned to district goals. In the future, Belton will be expanding their use of KickUp to include the new professional learning events management system.