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Planning to Assess Progress – Chapter 7

This step, planning to assess progress, is one of the toughest in this process.  It is often clear how we want our students to progress and how we will measure their progress; however, it is more difficult to assess ourselves and the systems that we’ve developed.  The chapter outlines five questions to aid in assessing progress:

1.  What assessments will be used to measure progress?

2.  When will each type of assessment data be collected?

3.  Who is responsible for collecting and keeping track of the data?

4.  How will the data be shared among faculty and administrators?

5.  What are the goals for student improvement and proficiency?

In choosing assessments to measure progress, there are three time frames that should be considered:  Short term, medium term, and long term data.  Short term data examples are classwork, homework, and conferences with students.  Medium term data are like benchmark tests and data that is gathered at wider intervals than short term data.  Long term data would likely be the state’s standardized tests.

When a team sets progress goals, two types should be created:  improvement and proficiency.  Improvement goals are goals for students’ growth on a given assessment.  Proficiency goals are targets for how many students will achieve a certain level of performance.  I am very familiar with these two types of measurement.  All of my teaching experience has been in Special Education and ESL.  Both of these subgroups are always discussing ways that we can show improvement or progress and proficiency.  This is where I have a hard time with NCLB and that ALL students are expected to be on grade level in 2014.  This goal leaves no room for students with disabilities and newly arrived ELLs.  I completely agree with measuring improvement, but at times measuring proficiency seems unfair.  Each student should improve, but when you look at this year’s 3rd graders and compare them with last year’s for proficiency it is as if you are comparing apples and oranges.  The federal government assumes that each year’s batch of kids is similar in abilities.

Deciding how a school will measure progress is essential to completing the school improvement plan.  The goals that are put in place should not be permanent, but be allowed some flexibility with experience.  I have yet to work in a school that does this effectively.  Either the goals are mandated and are not appropriate or the goals are never created.  A plan without this step will not succeed or if it does, no one will even know.

Developing an Action Plan – Chapter 6

After all the hard work of data analysis and examining the instruction, it is time to develop an action plan.  Four steps are given to guide successful action planning:

1.  Decide on an instructional strategy or multiple strategies that will solve the problem of practice that was identified previously.

2.  Agree on what the plan will look like in classrooms.  What will team members expect to see teachers and students doing?

3.  Put the plan down on paper.  This way team members are sure of their roles and responsibilities and which steps are needed to implement the plan.

4.  Plan how you will know if the plan is working.  There must be a way to measure how well the plan is working to address the learner-centered problem.

These four steps would help put the plan into action and define how its efficacy will be measured.  If all the work done in Chapters 1-5 are done excellently and there is never a plan developed all the previous efforts were in vain.  I believe the two most important pieces of this chapter are to agree on what the plan will look like in classrooms and the final step in planning how to measure success.  At times, interventions and strategies are introduced and mandated to teachers, but rarely do those leading these discussions explain how this would look in practice in an everyday classroom setting.  This type of talk and breaking things down is generally overlooked because the presenter understands and knows in their mind exactly what they think this intervention would look like and assumes those who he/she is talking to does as well.

The final step is crucial because if a plan is put into place without planning ahead on how to measure its effectiveness, the plan could continue without really addressing the learner-centered problem or the problem of practice.  Teachers must understand how they and their students’ success will be measured.

This would be great for all school programs and interventions.  It would take time and effort, but so do the programs.  So, why not take the extra time to see if they are actually working.  I really love how these chapters have broken everything down into step-by-step instructions.  The authors have really thought about the challenges that may surface in these settings and addressed how to avert or deal with them when they come.

Examining Instruction – Chapter 5

This chapter focused on linking teaching and learning and then examining the instruction to find the inadequacies as related to the learner-centered problem.   The connection should be clear, but many teachers feel overwhelmed and unable to make change happen.  This is largely due to external factors like funding, poverty, previous learning experiences, and parental education.  However, teachers can change what is happening in their classroom, the quality of their teaching.

The process for examining instruction includes:

- link learning and teaching

- develop the skill of examining practice

- develop a shared understanding of effective practice

- analyze current practices in your school

- articulate the problem of practice

The most revolutionary concept in this chapter, for me, is to develop the skill of examining practice.  In my school, teachers are not encouraged or given the opportunity to observe other teachers.  When I go in to general education classrooms, I always say up-front that I am there to observe my student and his or her interactions.  I do this because usually the general education teacher is looking at me and wondering why I’m coming in and not pulling out my student(s).  In schools, where I’ve worked before, we had to do observations of other teachers and everything I ever wrote down and everything that other teachers wrote down was “happy talk.”  We did not know how to effectively examine teachers’ practice.  The book outlined three qualities to consider when discussing instruction:  evidence, precise and shared vocabulary, and collaborative conversation with explicit norms.  Evidence includes words and data about teaching, such as classroom visits, video tapes, self-reports, and assessments.  Precise and shared vocabulary includes specifically stating what is happening like instead of saying students seemed confused, state that students didn’t start the assignment immediately.  The third component includes collaborative conversation with explicit norms.  Teachers should work together to set norms within their groups to guide teaching.  This is a new way of practice for me…

Digging Into Data – Chapter 4

Chapter 4 presents ways that school faculties can dig into the data of their students and discover the learner-centered problem.

The steps include:

1.  Look carefully at a single data source

2.  Understand student thinking

3.  Challenge assumptions

4.  Dig into other data sources

5.   Triangulate data sources

6.  Develop a shared understanding of the knowledge and skills students need

7.  Develop a common language

8.  Identify the learner-centered problem

These 8 steps are very practical to identifying the learner-centered problem.  The two steps that I feel are often left out are to develop a common language and to challenge assumptions.  Many times when we create a program or intervention or lesson, we feel very biased about its efficacy.  If we challenge the assumptions that not all interventions and programs that worked in the past will work now, we can bring about real change.  There is a quote that I heard a specialist in leadership say that addresses this feeling of attachment and biases to the things we’ve created.  He says, “If we got kicked out and the (school) board brought in a new CEO (or new teachers), what would he/she do?  Why shouldn’t we walk out the door and come back in and do it ourselves.”  Outsiders have a way of looking at programs and systems with unbiased and fresh eyes.  If as educators, we can detach our emotions from what we’ve always done, we will be more willing to do what is necessary in order to help our students.

Developing a common language is overlooked many times.  Many arguments and disagreements are spurred because of a misunderstanding directly related to not having a common language.  Most data is disaggregated into broad categories; these categories must be well-defined before addressing the learner-centered problem.  The BINGO game in our class has helped develop a common language and understand clearly what each term means.  This type of activity could be done in a faculty meeting to bring everyone to the same page.

These 8 steps will take work and force people to think differently, but in the end a specific learner-centered problem will emerge.

Creating a Data Overview – Chapter 3

This chapter goes one step further in deciding how to present and convey data that is comprehensible to all those involved.  The first step is to decide on the educational questions that will be the focus of the graphs and reports.  Using charts, graphs and tables are ways that numbers can create a picture and tell a story.  After the educational questions have been decided upon, the assessment data needs to be reorganized.  The graphs should:  draw attention to critical comparisons, compare the performances of groups, and display performance trends.  Components of good displays will:

1. Have explicit and informative titles for all figures used

2.  Have clearly labeled each axis, row, and column

3.  Make sensible use of available space

4.  Have uncluttered plots and no unnecessary detail

5.  Have clear information on student performance and indicators of the purpose of the graph

(Boudett, City, & Murnane, 2008)

Leading effective discussions is so key in maximizing the effectiveness and power of the data and purpose for the data work.  Essential components include providing opportunities for teachers to work with the data, encouraging teachers to ask questions, and allowing teachers to experience and discuss the actual test.  To me, this is the part that is always shafted.  Teachers aren’t given time to really get a grasp on the data.  Let alone is there time to process the data and return with questions.   This relates to the school processes and what resources including time are given to work with data.

In my current school, I have not seen one graph of student performance.  Data is not a part of our school culture; there is no intentional planning to work towards being data wise.  However, if we move past that initial part this chapter’s information is crucial to effectively communicating the data information and goals.

Building Assessment Literacy – Chapter 2

This chapter focuses on the importance of understanding data reports.  They can be incredibly confusing.  The standard score, scaled score, range of scores, how the data is displayed, the terminology used to explain the data, all of which can make for a very frustrating experience.  This is why it is so important to build assessment literacy and to create a common and comprehensible language when discussing data.  When interpreting scores, the following should be considered:  a sampling principle of testing, discrimination, measurement error, reliability and score inflation.  There is a degree of sampling error and measurement.  Also student test scores should be kept in perspective, assessments are not the begin and end all for the quality of education for our students.

The different types of assessments addressed include:  norm-referenced, criterion-referenced and standards-referenced tests.  The norm-referenced test would be like the Stanford 9.  The criterion-referenced test is used to determine whether a student has mastered a specific set of skills, like the minimum-competency tests used for graduation and promotion.  Standards-referenced tests focus on specific content standards like the SOLs in Virginia and the T-CAPS in Tennessee.

Creating graphs and details from the data must tell a story.  If there is only one year of data presented, it is hard to see the trends and where these students were last year.  What type of progress has been made?  It is essential not to sacrifice reliability for detail.  Deciding how to present the data and to make it meaningful is key to building assessment literacy.

This is a huge problem with my position as an ESL teacher.  Last year, Virginia joined the WIDA consortium and we adapted the ACCESS for ELLs as the new LEP test.  This required a vast learning curve for all ESL teachers.  I represented Charlottesville City at the state-wide training and came back to train the other teachers and our ESL coordinator.  We discussed the terminology of the test, what a score report and the actual test would look like and other factors of the assessment.  Administrators and School Testing Coordinators (STCs) were given training as well.  However, the information did not become a part of their schema.  My administrator and STC relied completely on me to order appropriate materials, give the assessments, access score reports, distribute score reports to stake-holders, and interpret the scores to them.  They did not understand the terminology, what the test would be like, or who should be tested and at which tier. This was very frustrating for me because I felt that they should have played more of a part in this new assessment.  Special Education assessments and SOLs are not treated this way at my school.  So this experience left me feeling like this assessment and as a by-product my ELLs were not important to them.  Building their assessment literacy was a goal of mine and I tried to do that, but every time we discussed the ACCESS I had to go back and re-teach the important elements.  Reading this chapter affirms to me the importance of building assessment literacy.

Organizing for Collaborative Work – Chapter 1

Chapter 1 of Data Wise provides clear instruction in how to prepare your school and teachers for becoming a part of a school culture that uses data to affect instruction.  The steps include:  Create a data team, Guide the data team (create a data inventory, take stock of data organization, develop an inventory of instructional initiatives), Enable collaborative work (build a strong system of teams, create a schedule that allows for collaborative work), Plan productive meetings, and Establish group norms (use protocols, adopt an improvement process, lesson plan for meetings).  The strongest concept for me, in this chapter, is the intentional planning for data to become an integral part of the school.  An administrator could not simply say, “Make a spreadsheet, maintain and revisit the data” and produce something of great quality with lasting effects.  Especially if a concentrated look at data is something unfamiliar to a teacher.  If a school is to become data wise it will only happen when these overt strategies are put into place.  This takes a real commitment on everyone’s part.  By creating a schedule that allows for collaborative work, it means teachers must give up time that they may have considered precious to themselves.

This type of planning and school culture is not a part of my school yet.  My principal has recruited UVA 488 students to help us  organize several components of data, so that is a start.  Teachers do keep a body of evidence on each child and reassess several times throughout the year to measure progress.  One reason I feel that our school has not taken a more overt approach to data is because our students have typically done very well on SOLs.  We have many bright students; our Quest program represents nearly 40% of our school.  It seems that other schools may take a more aggressive look at data for purposes such as achievement gaps, low achievement, or schools that have not met AYP.  However, becoming a data wise school could be as beneficial for a school like mine as it is for the other schools aforementioned.  This type of planning would help us to streamline our current initiatives, discover which ones are not working, and adjust to the found knowledge.  We at Venable have some ground to cover.

I created a mind map using webspiration.  I wanted to streamline the tools that I have learned so I can remember them better.  Graphic organizers are excellent tools for those of us who need to see the big picture and how each part relates to the others.  I hyperlinked each site, so someone could easily access the sites.  I also used some definitions to enhance the purpose and value of the map.  I am proud of this map and will refer back to it often.

http://www.mywebspiration.com/publish.php?i=156093a29392

I attended a GPBL session at TappedIn.  Global Project-based learning refers to connecting teachers and students to collaboratively work together on curriculum based real-world projects.  The leader was Linda she is a PBL-Technology Integration teacher trainer/curriculum coach for the NewTech Foundation.   She works with teachers in NewTech High Schools in NC.  They are small (400 students or less) project-based learning high schools with a 1:1 student:computer ration.  Linda actually didn’t make it to the session, but there was another person who took over and the conversation and collaboration was great.  So, the actual leader was BJ Berquist.  BJ retired from the Loysville Youth Development Center, a residential male juvenile correctional facility in central Pennsylvania where she taught remedial communications and art for 24 years. She was involved in the planning of the Civil Rights Forum held in TAPPED IN in May, 1998, leads several discussions at TAPPED IN, and is a Help Desk volunteer.  The other attendees were all teachers, from Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

All of the teachers had ELLs in their classrooms.  They had students from Burma, Ukraine, Iraq, Brazil and others.  Everyone wanted to know more about the global projects that they could do and ways to foster cultural understanding and appreciation.  There was a teacher who taught in Israel and did online book reviews with other students in America.  Another teacher referenced a middle school in Tennessee that tried to collect 6 million paperclips to represent the 6 MILLION Jews that were killed in the Holocaust.  POWERFUL!  Here’s a link for a little more information:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380615/ Of course, there were suggestions to have an International Night and Culture Festivals.  Another teacher had her class analyze the lyrics of “Waiting on the World to Change,” by John Mayer.  This link was shared: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y96He0tlSoM

I really enjoyed this session.  It was applicable to my teaching environment.  I left with new ideas and an excitement to try something new.  This type of learning as a medium for professional development works for me!  I learned something new in my PJs!  I enjoyed it and will be going back for more!

Due to the highly visually stimulating world our students live in, the majority of them are visual learners.  Therefore, the traditional lecture approach will not engage our students fully without the integration of visuals.  I have found that my students are even more engaged watching a lecture on our smartboard, than a live one given by me!  There’s something fascinating and maybe even mysterious about watching and listening to someone you don’t know on the internet.

I dived into the befunky.com website and it was pretty cool.  Somewhat similar to picnik, but I can see how students may like to edit photos with this program.  This would also be neat for yearbooks and other publication projects.

I also looked at http://k-8visual.info/.  This site was really helpful in offering different ways teachers can pursue visual literacy integration in their classrooms.  There are several applications on this site that I think I could use in my classroom.  Storyboard is a tool used to show different pictures to demonstrate change or a type of procedural event.  This would be advantageous for timelines, sequencing story events, or to explain a process.

I am a visual learner and really thrive in a class where visuals are used.  Graphs, charts, graphic organizers, maps, etc. help me to see the connections of the content.  For English Language Learners, visuals are key because pictures are universal and the less words that are used the more comprehensible input is going in.

Must use more visuals…

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