A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words:

1. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: USING GRAPHICAL DISPLAY by John Froelich www.lookingatlearing.org

2. Graphical Display Principles • Large amounts of data can be displayed in a small space • Relationships can easily be displayed and interpreted • Context for the displays is central to understanding • Displays should be centered around simple, well-understood concepts

3. Today: Graphical Displays… • Using change in percentile ranking to show actual growth vs expected growth. • MCA Strand for Reading and Math using state means and Standard Deviations for context. These data will provide information to help plan curricular emphasis • NWEA (CALT/NALT) Reading and Math as predictors for future MCA achievement. Using strand information to plan curricular emphasis. • Using Looking at Learning to display proportion of time devoted to various activities during instruction.

6. Strand Information • Different difficulty each year—you can not compare strand data from one year to another • Different # of items in each strand each year • The only possible analysis is to compare the % correct of the school to the % correct of state • Knowing the standard deviation add context to the meaning of the size of the difference • The standard error needs to be considered to know if the difference has some significance

16. NWEA CALT/NALT/MAP • NWEA tests include scale scores for overall and strands. The scale score for each has a similar meaning: that is a scale score of 206 for the overall or any strand has similar difficulty meaning. • NWEA norming study includes national norms for each grade level (percentile rankings) and growth norms. (A year’s growth keeps students at same %tile from year to year.) • Mpls schools have calculated correlations for fall scale scores to spring MCA in reading and math. (.87) • NWEA has sample problems for strands are various scale score levels—adding context for teachers.

17. NWEA CALT/NALT/MAPto use the conditional format • Put NWEA data into an Excel spreadsheet • Sort by grade level • Select cells for reading or math scale scores and strands • Open format spreadsheet – place cursor on appropriate cell and copy • Go back to NWEA data—choose “Paste Special” and then “Format”

18. is an innovative assessment tool used to measure and guide classroom-level instructional changes during school improvement efforts.

19. Looking at Learning • is an intuitive software program that automatically calculates duration and student participation for all activities • generates reports including graphs for individual observations or aggregate reports for any combination of observations • allows observers to add comments during observations • is effective when used by teachers observing each other • is a unique tool for staff development - not teacher appraisal

20. Looking at Learningmeasurement focus • Is based on the student’s point of view, not on the teacher’s point of view • Is based on constructivist learning strategies • Recognizes the importance of lesson design that emphasizes the cognitive purpose for activities • Recognizes that what happens in the classroom is the true indication of whether any reform effort has had the intended effect