Rocky Ridge School Reaches SMART Goals Through Data-Driven Collaboration

Rocky Ridge Boarding School is celebrating a transformative year of student achievement, bolstered by focused Professional Learning Communities and data-informed instruction. During PLC meetings, teachers collaborate to analyze student learning data, plan instruction, and develop targeted interventions.  

Rocky Ridge Boarding School met all its SMART goals for the 2024–2025 school year, reflecting significant progress in student growth in reading, math and English language development. 

“When I arrived, I embraced the Bureau’s emphasis on accountability,” Principal Maria del Carmen Moffett, Ed.D., said. “We committed to building a data culture through our PLCs. Teachers now come prepared to analyze assessment results and plan targeted interventions. That transparency has been a game changer.”  

Teachers at Rocky Ridge meet weekly to track student mastery, using digital curriculum tools and common assessments to identify student needs. These practices led to 77% of students meeting their typical growth goals in math this year, a 35-point increase from the year prior. 

In reading, 65% of students met their typical growth target, up from 52%. Twenty-nine percent of students met their stretch growth goals. Moffett credits this progress to intentional small-group instruction and consistent teacher collaboration. 

“We had to shift from having strategies in lesson plans to having intentional strategies that respond to specific student needs,” she said. 

This was especially evident in the school’s support for English language learners. By training all teachers to administer assessments measuring English language acquisition and proficiency and analyze its domains, the school improved from 0% to 32% of English learners scoring 3.5 or higher on the assessment, exceeding their SMART goal. Proficiency levels are reported on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from Level 1 Entering to Level 6 Reaching.  

Students with individualized education programs experienced some of the strongest growth. In math, 57% of students with IEPs met typical growth benchmarks, and 50% did so in reading. 

“We saw how subgroups contributed to the overall success of the school. One of our highest-performing English learners was also a student with an IEP, and those individual stories reflect the power of this approach,” Moffett said 

“We focused on a few key goals and did them well. That’s how we made real progress.” 

As the school prepares for next year, Rocky Ridge plans to deepen alignment between lesson plans and instructional strategies and refine their curriculum pacing.