Using Classroom Data to Advance Equity

Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are once again in the news—this time under attack. While specific initiatives face challenges, we believe that every student can succeed in our schools and that gender, income, race, or geography should not predict a student’s success. We may not all agree on how to reach that vision, but it remains a core part of the American psyche.

Education as a Reflection of Society

Education builds culture. Public education is a microcosm of society playing out in classrooms across the country. Schools monitor student performance through state tests, benchmark assessments, and other high-stakes measures, but at Forefront, we believe the most powerful tool for improving instruction and student outcomes is classroom assessment data.

That’s why we advocate for schools and districts to systemically collect unit assessment data to track student progress. Just as state and interim assessments allow leaders to monitor student achievement by demographic groups, we encourage schools using our tools to conduct periodic equity audits—reviewing student performance with an eye on equal outcomes. The goal? To help ensure that all students are receiving opportunities and support they need.

The Limits of Education

Before we dive into what an equity audit could look like, we have to recognize the limits of what teachers and administrators can address. So many factors influence student achievement that are completely outside the control of schools—parental involvement, socio-economic status, access to technology, medical and mental health care, and more. A recent EdSurge article highlights just how much parental engagement can make or break efforts to close learning gaps. These are critical issues, but educators have to focus on what they can control.

Individual decision-making impacts outcomes for students. For this equity audit, we are looking at the combined impact of instructional practices that lead to equitable outcomes for all students at the class, school, and district levels.

Keeping an Eye on Outcomes

As of February 2025, 71% of our district partners monitor at least one demographic category in Forefront. The most commonly tracked include:

• • Gender
  • Census Ethnicity
  • Census Race
  • English Language Proficiency

Other factors, such as free and reduced lunch status, IEPs, or 504 plans, can also be monitored in Forefront. However, for these protected statuses, only a limited number of users with special permissions may view student records with these statuses or run reports that include them.

Within Forefront, educators can break down student performance by demographic category across various assessments and standards. These insights help answer key questions like:

• • How do boys and girls compare in math? How do these trends shift over time and across subjects?
  • Where do gaps in performance across racial groups widen or narrow? Which schools and teachers are making the most progress in closing those gaps?
  • For English Language Learners receiving ESL support, how does their performance on unit assessments trend over time? What subjects require the most attention, and how can subject-area specialists, classroom teachers, and ESL instructors collaborate to improve outcomes?

Forefront’s President and Founder, David Woodward, often emphasizes that change shouldn’t be measured year over year—it should happen unit by unit. By setting up systems to track opportunity gaps in real time, schools can make more timely and manageable adjustments that better serve students.

How to Conduct an Equity Audit

An equity audit takes data from classroom assessments and looks at student performance trends through different demographic lenses. Here’s what that process can look like:

• • Identify the Key Demographic Factors to Examine: Schools and districts should begin by determining which student groups they want to analyze. At the district level, this often includes race, ethnicity, gender, language proficiency, and economic status. But schools might also want to examine other factors like IEPs, 504 status, or participation in gifted programs.
  • Analyze the Data for Trends and Gaps: The goal is to see where disparities exist in student performance across different groups. Do performance gaps start early, or do they widen over time? Are there specific grade levels or subjects where gaps are more pronounced? Are there teachers or schools that are outperforming others in closing gaps?
  • Use the Data to Inform Instructional Decisions: If certain student groups are struggling in math, for example, that might mean adjusting interventions, professional learning, or curriculum supports in that subject. If certain schools or teachers are consistently closing gaps, their practices can be shared across the district.
  • Monitor Progress Regularly: Equity audits aren’t one-time reports—they should be revisited multiple times throughout the year. The goal is to create a feedback loop where schools identify gaps, implement strategies, and measure whether those strategies are working.

Looking at Equity Beyond a One-Year Lens

One of the biggest challenges of equity work in education is that it often gets framed as either an individual teacher issue (bias training) or a long-term goal (systemic inequities). But focusing on classroom assessment data allows educators to take a different approach—one that leads to real, measurable change in the short term.

Instead of looking at data once a year, schools that embed equity-focused monitoring into their routine assessment practices can make continuous improvements. Tracking data at the unit level allows for more responsive interventions. Instead of waiting until the end of the year to realize that a particular group of students struggled in math, teachers, and administrators can identify and address those gaps as they emerge.

This is why, at Forefront, we advocate for a data-driven approach to equity—one that moves beyond compliance and reporting and into real instructional shifts.

For more on how this approach works in practice, check out our previous post: A Data-Driven Approach to Equity