Marysville Schools creates Tableau data culture to personalize learning and reduce dependency on state funds
Reduced per-student intervention expenses by more than 50%
Increased third-grade assessment passing scores from 71% to 81%
Reduced 25-year reliance on state funding by up to a projected $18 million
Marysville Exempted Village School District outside Columbus, Ohio, is a "standards mastery" institution with a mission to achieve better intervention and supplemental enrichment outcomes for all students, particularly those at risk for underperforming. Using Tableau Cloud, the district created dashboards that for the first time show critical student data—including data about diagnostics, formative assessment performance, and competence in various disciplines—all in a consolidated, easily filtered format.
Teachers and administrators interact with the dashboards to see academic and behavioral characteristics of each individual student at a glance, helping them track key performance indicators and drive focused, intentional intervention discussions on a student-by-student basis.
The dashboards, along with Tableau-based personalized learning profiles that provide self-reported data about each student's interests, skills, and learning preferences, have transformed the way Marysville Schools achieves better student equity. The holistic view of relevant data tells a story about each student that teachers and other staff can immediately use to plan and evaluate intervention strategies.
In addition to empowering teachers and improving morale, the new dashboard-driven workflows also save the district time and money. By more accurately identifying at-risk students, administrators were able to effectively allocate resources and meet student needs with a more personalized, yet precise multi-tier approach. Through these efforts, the district has dramatically reduced its dependence on state and federal funds. Per-student intervention expenses have decreased by more than 50% from approximately $10,000 to $4,400 per student, and the projected savings from reduced special education requirements is between $6 million and $18 million over 25 years.
Marysville Schools has also seen measurable gains in academic assessment performance in the four years since it began its data literacy journey, including a lift from 71% to 81% passing scores on third-grade year-end standardized language arts assessments. It's also one of the few Ohio districts to score a hard-won B on its statewide K-3 literacy report card two years in a row. The district largely attributes this success to Tableau as well.
When a teacher comes in, we pull up their homeroom on the Tableau dashboard, and we go student by student, looking at specific guidance and workflows to get each student through the assessment period and achieve their learning goals. We're helping our teachers succeed by making student-level data easily available and using it to do what's best for each kid.