Leading With Data
Ever since I graduated from college, I have always taught grade level students who are required to do state-mandated tests. Because of teaching those grade levels, I have always been working with test data. However, I have never given much taught has to how powerful, effective use data can be, in improving my students’ academic performance until working in an elementary school in the United States of America. In my country, Jamaica, I have taught students in grade six. Students in grade six complete a national examination called the Grade Six Achievement Text (GSAT). The students are tested in English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. The students’ test percentages in each subject determine the high
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Moreover, how to use academic data to aid students’ performance. Based on my students’ scores in the GSAT, one would assume that I am an excellent teacher but I cannot help questioning how much better my students’ scores could have been if I had then, a greater awareness on how to use data effectively.
On the contrary, here at my current school in the United State of America, data talks, and data usage is the plan of the school day. All teachers at my school meet at least twice a week to examine our students test data and to use this data in developing our lesson plans. I believe this use of data is very effective as we the teacher take more ownership for our student’s academic performance.
Certainly, the book entitled, Leading with Data: Pathways to Improve your School (Goldring, 2008) speak to the advantages of using data. Goldring (2008) provide logical and concrete approaches for using data to influence school practices. Personally, I like the use of the vignette used in the text. The use of the vignette stimulated my curiosity and ignited my critical
Applying Figure 1.1 from Victoria Bernhardt’s (2013) book Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement it is this evaluator’s opinion that Portage High School is at a crossroads as a school of compliance and a school of continuous improvement (p. 4). Of the nine area of evaluation, Portage marks five in the area of compliance and four in the area of continuous improvement. Hence, the assessment is that Portage High School sits firmly as a school focused on compliance. This is a strong reflection of the building principal that feels that the use of data is wasteful endeavor. According the principal, “The experts in our building guide our processes; data does not drive our school. It’s only purpose is to determine
Every year students in each grade level are required to take standardized testing to determine their level of competency in the course. The schools use it as a tool for passing students to the next grade level and ensuring they have been taught adequately. The Texas Education Agency or TEA supplies and monitors these tests given to students each year. According to the results received this past year, in 2013, 35 schools out of 456 campuses in Texas performed poorly on the STAAR test. The 35 campuses belongs to Dallas Independent School District which is 8% of the total and more than half of Houston’s sc...
Raw scores are converted into percentiles since they have little clinical value. They are the original numerical values associated with the subject’s test performance which are converted into standard scores (Jarosewich, Pfeiffer, & Morris, 2002). The percentile rankings are normally used in scholastic and psychosomatic evaluation. Percentages illustrate ranking of those assessed performance as compared to the current student. Standard scores are the most useful of the test scores. These scores are normalized against the predetermined mean and standard deviation to detail the score’s distance from the average student. The greater one’s standard scores the better. Standard scores also enable better tailored-skill’s education for the individual’s continued growth. Standard scores are also defined against the standard error of measurement for each scale, which about three points. This produces a range within the student’s true score will fall.
...achieving high scores on standardized tests” (Solley).Because of this, teachers take more time to teach test preparation skills than valuable information (Neill, 165). Although standardized tests have been trusted for years to assess the progress of students, there is little evidence that they measure progress accurately.
It has been seen that factors like one’s economic and racial background can heavily influence one’s performance on a tests, as they are not given the same opportunities as those given to more affluent students. A student’s emotional well-being is also at stake as many students come out of tests doubting their overall intelligence, even though they were quite confident in the material and so much is hinged on test scores that it places a great deal of pressure on students to do well. Standardized tests also restrict teacher’s ability to learn due to the restrictions that standardized test place on the material being taught, which makes it very hard for teachers to go beyond the required and teach more interesting things. Due to the issues that have arisen from standardized tests many alternative solutions have been used and have been proven to be successful. Some good alternative solutions have been limiting the amount of standardized tests given by sampling a few students, shortening the length of exams, and allotting more time to complete these tests. Other alternatives look to more qualitative approaches in learning by implementing things like projects and portfolios that give an excellent insight to a student’s performance and
Even with material being taught incessantly, standardized tests can not accurately measure a student’s ability. The tests are “single-target—meaning that every student, no matter what level of achievement or ability, course selection, or cu...
Almost every person who has graduated from high school has taken the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), which is generally used for college admissions. We all remember the stress of taking a test that could affect our future educational plans. Now due to the “No Child Left Behind Act” of 2001, this kind of test is now being administered to children from the 3rd to 8th grades as a way to determine if the school or teachers are educating them properly. High-stakes standardized tests of this nature should not be used to determine the educational abilities of either schools or the teachers.
Current educational policy and practice asserts that increased standardized student testing is the key to improving student learning and is the most appropriate means for holding individual schools and teachers accountable for student learning. Instead, it has become a tool solely for summarizing what students have learned and for ranking students and schools. The problem is standardized tests cannot provide the information about student achievement that teachers and students need day-to-day. Classroom assessment can provide this kind of information.
Standardized testing scores proficiencies in most generally accepted curricular areas. The margin of error is too great to call this method effective. “High test scores are generally related to things other than the actual quality of education students are receiving” (Kohn 7). “Only recently have test scores been published in the news-paper and used as the primary criteria for judging children, teachers, and schools.”(2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed upon the American Public School system.
Parents and advocates of education can all agree that they want their students to be in the best hands possible in regards to education. They want the best teachers, staffs, and schools to ensure their student’s success. By looking at the score results from standardized testing, teachers can evaluate effectively they are doing their job. On the other side, a proponent for eliminating standardized testing would argue that not all students care passionately about their education and will likely not perform to expectations on the test. However, receiving the numerical data back, teachers can construe the student’s performances and eliminate the outliers of the negligent kids. Teachers can then look at the individual scores and assign those outliers to get the help they need in school. This helps every student getting an equal chance at education. Overall, taking a practice standardized test can let a teacher look at individual questions and scores and interpret what they need to spend more time on teaching. A school also can reap the benefits from standard testing to ensure they are providing the best possible education they can. The school can look at the average scores from a group and hold the teacher accountable for the student’s results on the test. The school can then determine the best course of action to pursuit regarding the teacher’s career at the school. By offering teachers and schools the opportunity to grow and prosper, standardized testing is a benefit for the entire education
According to (Hollowell, n.d.), “schools that administer these tests use the results to inform teacher about student progress and skills that need to be re-taught.” Once the teacher receives the scores, he or she can lesson plan accordingly. The teacher can decide whether she needs to incorporate differentiated instruction to grab the students’ attention. The teacher can also begin grouping students together based on their scores. For instance, students with low reading scores will be in one group, students with average reading scores will be in another group, and students with high reading scores will be in the last group.
As child growing up some of the frightful memories include a visit to the dentist; an evil man with scary drill whose solve purpose is to hurt you or the first day in elementary school you finally leave all behind the cozy classrooms and nap times of kindergarten and enter the big leagues. All of these are considered a cakewalk compared to standardize testing. Since the start of elementary school students in the United States are taught to test. In many instances students are held back or placed in remedial classes because of lower grades. But many don’t realize that some students are not great at testing taking and because of the lower grades some educators believe that these students are lower achievers. This leads to lower self-esteem and encourage students to drop out in later years. Also students are forced to memorize information merely as facts without sparking their creativity or enhancing their knowledge.
Popham, W. James. “Standardized Achievement Tests: Misnamed and Misleading.” Education Week. September 2001. Web. 28 June 2015.
Regular use of formative assessment improves student learning as instruction can be adjusted based on students’ progress and teachers are able to modify instructions to cater to students’ individual needs (Black & Wiliam, 2010; Taylor-Cox, & Oberdorf, 2013). Various forms of informal and formal formative assessment methods are conducted as learning takes place, continuously through teacher observations, questioning through individual interactions, group discussions and open-ended tasks (McMillan, 2011). tests can tell us a lot about students and be used to inform and guide teaching, rather than simply to determine grades. Teachers can learn a lot from test results if they analyse the data generated to inform their teaching and learning programs (Perso, 2009). However, high stakes tests may result in students becoming stressed, leading to misreading questions, careless working and incomplete answers (Booker et al., 2010).
Standardized Achievement tests are often administered to give a perspective on how well students perform, however, most educators fail to understand that they are only limited to a certain r...