INVESTIGATING MID-YEAR DATA – STANDARDS MASTERY

The numbers in your trackers are more than just numbers

They represent the achievements of the young men and women you teach. They represent people.

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As you use these data it is incumbent on you to think about what those numbers stand for

And as you act upon those data it is your obligation to take ethical and responsible actions

https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/enhancing-student-services-with-digital-engagement-11-jun-2015

In addition to treating your data with care, mid-year is a great time to step back and deepen your understanding of your data

How do you know your data are signaling the

right message?

Let’s keep looking at standards mastery data.But where did these data come from?

to understand your data is to understand the

quality of your assessment

A data-literate teacher may ask…

How well is my assessment aligned to my standards and instruction?

Only to find that…

assessment questions are aligned to the standard, but not the full rigor of the standard.

A data-literate teacher may ask…

What is the overall quality of my assessment questions?

Only to find that…

a few standards that have only been assessed with one item—likely not enough at-bats for a reliable measure of learning

A data-literate teacher uses this information to

improve his future assessments, and deepen his understanding of the

data in his tracker

Your assessment template provides guidance for how you can investigate the quality of your data

If we are trying to discern if our data are signaling the right message, we probably also want to

look beyond our trackers and assessments

Let’s look at some standards mastery data, focusing in on individual student performance

Mel is struggling. His average standards mastery is 36%. That’s pretty low.

A closer look shows that Mel’s performance isn’t consistent across standards

A particularly interesting trend is that Mel has low mastery for several standards. This is not a trend that exists for other students on these standards, nor is it a trend for the majority of the other standards Mel has been taught.

What could be going on here?

A closer look shows that Mel is struggling with four standards in particular

Sounds like Mel needs to be re-taught these

four standards…

Or does it?

Or does it?

Mel’s teacher decided to look at other assessment data to see what was going on

A review of Mel’s exit tickets from days when these four standards were taught show Mel was able to demonstrate understanding of the content. However, Mel’s teacher also discovered that he was missing several exit tickets from Mel. Mel’s teacher doesn’t track exit tickets, he simply uses them to inform the next day’s instruction, so he didn’t notice this before.

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His teacher also looked to other sources of quantitative data to learn more

This made Mel’s teacher look at his attendance log. Mel received a perfect attendance award in the first quarter, so Mel isn’t someone that he usually thinks of as having an attendance issue. That’s when Mel’s teacher noticed that Mel has been missing more and more school lately, and that he missed much of the instruction for the four standards where he is struggling the most.

https://www.vertex42.com/Files/pdfs/2/attendance-record.pdf

Finally, Mel’s teacher looked to qualitative data to better understand

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Mel’s teacher made it a point to observe Mel’s behavior closely over the next couple of days. He didn’t notice anything unusual except that Mel seemed to be rushing to class. Mel’s teacher noticed him running through the school courtyard each morning.

Mel’s teacher scheduled a conference with him the next day

During that conversation he learned that Mel recently took on the responsibility of walking his little sister to school each morning. Mel shared that he has a hard time getting her to school on time, and making his own first period class on time. Mel said he’s embarrassed to walk into the class late, so he has been sitting out first period if he can’t make it there by the bell.

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=123061&picture=glasses-on-a-school-desk

While Mel does need additional opportunities to master the four

standards where he is most struggling, the real intervention

Mel needs is a strategy and accountability system for

getting to school on time each day.

This is what we call triangulating data

Your tracker and assessment data are a great start. However, data-literate teachers also look to other sources of quantitative and qualitative data to understand what those data mean, and to use those findings to inform their instructional responses.

Now that you can answer the question how do I know? It’s

time to answer our next question:

What needs to happen to reach our goals by the end-

of-year?