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Organizational Approach to Measuring Student Growth

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AGENDA

I. Basics of our approach

II. The challenges

III. Three scenarios• NWEA• ACT• Non-benchmark-able assessment

IV. General principles

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Basics of Our Approach

• Significant gains / solid gains system

• Origins

• Shortcomings

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A Typical Situation

My first year in the classroom – 6th grade ELA

6th graders reading, on average, at a second grade level

My school’s approach: get more kids to pass the high stakes city test in February Infeasible for many students; feasible and challenging for a few; feasible,

but not challenging for a few – overall, not motivating or meaningful for me or my students

One short deal in the middle of the year with no reliable indication of progress leading up to the exam

Things my students and I needed and wanted in an approach to measuring student progress: An approach that makes sense, given where my students are starting Fair Inspiring Frequent, reliable proxies of progress

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Scenario 1 – 4th Grade Teacher Using NWEA

• Students start, at a mid 2nd grade level, based on NWEA diagnostic data at the beginning of the year

• Teach sets goal based on student starting point and expected gains – typical goal would be 1.5 years of average student growth on NWEA – this is ambitious because this is 1.5 times what would typically be expected in the course of a school year; this is feasible, though, because we know it’s been done by other teachers

• Teacher creates unit assessments that are aligned to NWEA standards, such that she gets a rough proxy of progress from the unit tests / assessments she is giving every 3 – 4 weeks

• Teacher administers mid-year NWEA, which indicates progress

• Teacher refines / adjusts strategy based on unit data and mid year data to ensure that she is constantly improving her efficacy

• Teacher administers end of year NWEA, which tells us how much growth students have made over the course of the year

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Scenario 2 – 9th Grade Math Teacher Using ACT

Students start, on average, with a 12 on the ACT, based on ACT diagnostic data

Teacher sets goal based on student starting point and expected gains – typical goal would be 3 points growth on ACT math exam – this is ambitious because it is more than would typically ocurr in the course of an academic year; it is feasible because we know that many teachers have done it before

Teacher creates unit assessments that are aligned to CRS standards and thus serve as a rough, but very helpful, proxy of progress throughout the year

Teacher administers mid-year ACT, which indicates progress

Teacher refines and adjusts strategy based on ongoing unit assessment data and mid-year ACT data to ensure he is continuously increasing effectiveness

Teacher administers ACT at end of year, which tells us how much growth students made over the course of the school year

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Scenario 3 – 2nd Grade Teacher Using Running Records

• Teacher completes diagnostics at the beginning of the year to determine starting point

• Teacher sets growth goal – usually something like 1.5 – 2.0 years of growth – based on starting point and what we’ve seen strong second grade teachers achieve in the past; at the same time, teacher determines assessment system and adopts aligned summative and unit assessments

• Teacher administers unit assessments and frequent running records to gauge growth

• Teacher uses unit and running record data to refine / adjust strategy to ensure she is continuously increasing effectiveness

• Teacher administers end of year assessment, which tells us how much growth the stuents made over the course of the school year

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General Principles

• Student outcomes matter most

• Growth measure, not absolute bar – this focuses us on the true work of the teacher, which is moving students from a starting point (point A) to an end of year destination (point B), which is inspiring, given the starting point and where students must ultimately end up

• Rigorous, benchmark-able assessments – Allow us to define an inspiring end point – Allow us to calculate expected gains

• Frequent, aligned, reliable measures of progress – Allows teacher and students to understand how they are doing– Allows teacher to refine / adjust strategy, which is critical to

empowerment