How to Support Teachers and Students When Using Daily Formative Assessments

How to Support Teachers and Students

When Using Daily Formative Assessments

Following the policy shift away from benchmark-heavy instruction—signaled by Texas HB 8 (2025) and Louisiana’s LEAP 360 (2018-Present)—districts now need effective routines for using daily progress data to drive student learning. Here’s how two districts are turning that challenge into real classroom support.

1. Houston ISD: Team Centers and Instructional Support

Under Superintendent Mike Miles, Houston ISD’s NES schools have leveraged Team Centers—support hubs staffed with paraprofessionals whose sole job is to prep lesson handouts and grade daily exit tickets. Here’s how it works:

Teachers deliver lessons aligned to a central curriculum.
Students take exit tickets at the end of each class.
Team Center staff grade them immediately.
Based on results, students are pulled aside for targeted reteach or acceleration, while teachers move forward with instruction.

This system ensures real-time intervention without derailing classroom flow—though it’s highly human-resource intensive.

2. Louisiana: Building Instructional Support Systems

Many of Louisiana’s school systems are using LEAP 360 to embed curriculum-aligned checks throughout the year. Reports highlight how daily formative practices, supported by coaching and supervision, have:

Helped teachers use anecdotal notes and exit products to guide daily lessons.
Created a culture of responsiveness focused on what students need that day, not just at grading checkpoints.
(rapidesfoundation.org)

Vernon Parish is one such district. In 2018, it had a low A rating (87.5%). As many know, the higher a school district’s rating, the harder it is to improve. Yet Vernon Parish (46% Title I) has continued to climb, thanks to using daily data to support students at the moment of learning.

Ranking: For the 2023–2024 school year, the Vernon Parish school district was ranked 7th out of 70 districts in Louisiana.
“A” Rating: In the 2023–2024 school year, the district received an “A” rating with a score of 92.1, an increase from 90.7 the previous year.
Academic Growth: Vernon Parish was recognized as the only “A”-rated district in Louisiana for its ACT index growth.
Top Gains Recognition: In 2023–2024, nine of the parish’s schools were designated “Top Gains” for their significant progress with students.

Louisiana’s practices mirror HISD—daily data fueling instruction—but rely more on teacher capacity-building and coaching rather than centralized grading teams

3. Best Practices for Using Daily Formative Data Efficiently

Here’s what effective systems share:

Structured Daily Routines
Exit tickets are quick, predictable, seamless—students know they happen at a consistent time, and teachers know they’re the groundwork for tomorrow’s instruction.
Clear Data Flow
Teachers receive feedback immediately and use it to guide tutorial groups or reteach at the start of the next lesson.
Strategic Reteach Moments
Many classrooms now begin with a 5–10-minute micro-reviews or warm-ups based on yesterday’s exit ticket outcomes.
Team Scoring and Discussion
In Louisiana, school leaders sit down with teachers to analyze exit ticket patterns and co-plan responses. HISD’s Team Centers accelerate the logistics of this process.
Scalable Technology
Platforms like Classwork.com digitize exit tickets. Students complete them online, their work is auto-graded, and data is immediately available by standard and student—making the process efficient and sustainable.

What This Means for Your District

Avoid getting bogged down in benchmarking logistics.
Focus on building or supporting exit ticket routines.
Train teams to use daily data for targeted and timely instruction.
Invest in tools (digital or staffing workflows) that make daily loops feasible.
Create structures—like Team Centers or data huddles—to act on formative results quickly.

Supporting Daily Formative Assessment: Best Practices

Practice	Implementation Example
Team Centers / Grading Support	Houston ISD: staff grade daily exit tickets during scheduled subject blocks
Teacher Coaching & Data Use	Louisiana: leaders facilitate instructional response using daily data (doe.louisiana.gov)
Daily Reteach Routines	Begin next lesson with targeted review groups
Scalable Systems (Tech)	Use platforms like Classwork.com for autograding and dashboards
Professional Collaboration	Regular team data meetings to plan based on student response

By combining the logistical efficiencies of HISD’s Team Centers with Louisiana’s coaching-centered culture, districts can create a powerful, scalable system: daily, actionable data that drives instruction fast and accurately.

Classwork.com can help your site support teachers and students daily.

Quick Summary & Common Questions

How does Houston ISD’s “Team Center” model alleviate the burden on teachers? In Houston ISD’s New Education System (NES), teachers are supported by Team Centers—hubs staffed by paraprofessionals and apprentices. These staff members handle the time-consuming logistics of prepping lesson materials and grading the daily Demonstrations of Learning (DOLs) or exit tickets. This allows teachers to focus entirely on delivering high-quality instruction and immediately moving into small-group reteaching based on the results provided by the Team Center staff.

What distinguishes Louisiana’s approach to daily formative data from the HISD model? While both systems prioritize daily data, Louisiana’s model (exemplified by LEAP 360) focuses more on teacher capacity-building and coaching. Instead of a centralized grading team, Louisiana districts often use instructional leaders and coaches to sit down with teachers, analyze “exit products” together, and co-plan the next day’s responsive instruction. This builds a culture where the teacher is trained to be the primary driver of data analysis.

Why is Vernon Parish a significant case study for this model? Vernon Parish demonstrates that daily data-driven instruction can drive growth even in high-performing districts where improvement is statistically harder to achieve. Despite already having an “A” rating, the district climbed from a score of 87.5 in 2018 to 92.1 in 2024. Ranked 7th in the state, it was the only “A”-rated district recognized for ACT index growth, proving that daily formative checks can elevate performance across all grade levels and demographics.

What are the “Four Pillars” of a successful daily formative routine? Effective systems generally share four core components:

Consistency: Exit tickets happen at the same time every day so students expect them.
Immediacy: Data is reviewed same-day so it can inform a “micro-review” or warm-up the next morning.
Actionable Grouping: Results are used to pull students into “reteach” or “acceleration” groups immediately.
Sustainability: The process is made efficient through staffing (like Team Centers) or technology (like autograding platforms).

How can technology like Classwork.com make the “Team Center” model scalable for districts without extra staffing? The HISD Team Center model is highly effective but expensive because it requires many additional staff members to grade paper quizzes. Classwork.com digitizes this process. By using digital exit tickets that are autograded instantly, the platform provides the same real-time data as a Team Center but without the overhead. It automatically organizes results by standard and mastery level, allowing teachers to regroup students in seconds rather than waiting for a manual grade.