Data Assessment

I used Google Sheets to organize the data for an assessment given to a middle school math class. I hadn’t used Google Sheets before, so I had to look up how to do some things. However, I found that it worked very well. I especially like that it automatically saves to Google Drive and keeps a revision history. This came in handy when I didn’t like some changes that I had made and just wanted to revert back to what I originally had. In order to make the spreadsheets, I started by copying the data into one big chart and organized it by student name, question number, standard identifier, correct answer, and student response. I also included a column that stated whether the standard was met or not. With this data, I created a few pivot tables. One is a summary of all the data. It is color coded green if the student met the standard and red if the student did not meet the standard. Color-coding did help to identify problem areas. A column that is mainly colored red shows that a specific student did not meet many standards, and is struggling overall. A row that is mainly colored red shows that most students did not meet that standard. The table also gives, on the far right, the number of students and percent of students that met each standard. The other two tables give groups of students that met each standard and groups of students that did not meet each standard. Teachers are provided with data like this all the time. It is really important that they actually use it, especially since “data collection is essential to implementing any school-based intervention” (Helping Teachers to Structure, n.d).

A teacher could easily use this data to group students either heterogeneously or homogeneously. She could create groups of students of mixed abilities, and have students who met certain standards help those students who did not meet the standards. For example, when working on something that addresses standard M:01:NO:6.2 (S), she could group Zamsung and Zancy with Zoran, Zhield, Zirii, and Zon with Zuitar, and she could group Zoerelda, Zucy, and Zup with Zyntar. A teacher could also choose to keep students who met the standards together and students who did not meet the standards together. That way, she could focus on providing intervention to struggling students and provide students who are excelling with an opportunity to work together and extend their thinking on the content discussed in the standards.

This data also points to standards that the teacher may not have taught, may need to re-teach, and standards the teacher did a great job teaching. Only 8.33% of students met standard M:01:NO:6.4 (S): Accurately solves problems involving single or multiple operations on fractions (proper, improper, and mixed), or decimals; and addition or subtraction of integers; percent of a whole; or problems involving greatest common factor or least common multiple. With such a low number of students meeting this standard, it is highly possible that the teacher did not fully cover the material listed. I would recommend the teacher plan to cover more of these topics. Furthermore, only 41.67% of students met standards M:02:GM:6.6 (S) and M:03:FA:6.1 (S). I would recommend the teacher re-teach this material, using a different strategy than the one previously employed. For example, the teacher could try using Geometer’s Sketchpad to re-teach the geometry standard, or she could guide students through the material as they design their own house with certain area and volume requirements on Google SketchUp. On the other hand, 91.67% of students met standard M:03:FA:6.2 (S). I’d tell the teacher she should keep using whatever strategies she used to teach this material! Finally, I’d recommend the teacher make sure to share “identified strengths and weaknesses with the teacher who will be working with those students in the next grade level” (Logan, 2014). It is always a good idea to keep an open line of communication with other teachers. It is also important to remember that these are just suggestions! The teacher should get “multiple sources of data validating a pattern of need” before drastically changing their instructional practices (Logan, 2014).

References

Helping teachers to structure their classroom (tier 1) data collection. (n.d.). Retrieved December 21, 2014 from http://www.interventioncentral.org/response_to_intervention _structuring _teacher_ data_collection.

Logan, L. (2014). 5 ways to use data to improve your teaching. Retrieved December 21, 2014 from http://www.amplify.com/viewpoints/5-ways-to-use-data-to-improve-yourteaching.