Data for Student Success Examining Student Work to Inform Instruction

1. Data for Student Success Examining Student Work to Inform Instruction “It is about focusing on building a culture of quality data through professional development and web based dynamic inquiries for school improvement.”

2. Investigating Module: Examining Student Work to Inform Instruction • Professional Development • Resources to support • Inquiry tool to support

3. Module: Examining Student Work to Inform Instruction • www.data4ss.org • Outcomes • Agenda • Work templates • Protocol • PowerPoint • Resources for ISDs to adapt to their audience for the module • Please cite Data 4SS for work used

4. Beyond the Surface Level You can’t “guarantee” what you don’t monitor Mike Schmoker Moving to the student level…

5. Activity Objectives • This activity shows us the power of examining student work. • This activity allows us to hear the professional dialogue that occurs as teachers come to agreement on criteria for proficiency. • This activity allows us to understand teachers misconceptions and the understanding of the GLCE assessed.

6. Protocol • Middle School – Teachers analyzing writing to a prompt • Segment 2 • Segment 3

7. Comparative Item Analysis • 6th grade • Reading • Is this GLCE assessed? If so, what has been our school performance? • How often is this GLCE assessed?

8. 6th Grade Reading Comprehension

9. Protocol • Middle School – Teachers analyzing writing to a prompt • Segment 2 • Segment 3 • As you watch Segment 3, take notes on the challenges faced by the teachers as they begin the protocol.

10. Student Learning Problem • How could the teachers have used this information to begin the school year to impact learning? • What questions do you have about the student learning problem, and what data will answer those questions? • Defining the learner-centered problem shifts away from the blame game.

11. 6th Grade Reading Comprehension

12. Student Achievement • Schmoker cites in Results Now • Instruction itself has the largest influence on achievement. • The two things that matter most: What is being taught and how well. • Regardless of what a state policy or district curriculum spells out, the classroom teacher decides…what topics to cover.” (Manzo, 2003)

13. Student Work • Examining student work is about teachers looking at individual student demonstration of learning – evaluating, determining instructional needs, planning for instruction, teaching to the objective determined as the next step in student learning • Student oral responses • Student writing • Student test results – answers to questions, multiple choice, short answers • Student performance

14. What Do Our Students Know And What Are They Able To Do? • What do our students know? • What is the next instructional need? • Based on student work, what is their next step in learning? What is the learning challenge? • Define the learner-centered problem – the problem or challenge in a student’s understanding or skills that interferes with the student’s performance • Focus must be on the learning

15. Moving Towards Knowing the Learner • Analyzing student responses • Understand • a student’s response is the end product of his/her thinking • there is a logic to the thinking process that the student used • Need to answer questions such as: • Do students have any skills or knowledge to build on? • Do we need a total reteaching of a content? • Are students lacking skills and/or content knowledge? • Is the design of the assessment itself an issue?

16. Examining Student Work • Examining student work • Neutral, observable data • Challenges assumptions • Helps build common understanding of knowledge and skills students need • Leads to discussions of work quality • What are we considering proficient? • Supports a culture of improvement

17. Examining Student Work Protocol • Resource book – Section 4 • Mathematics – Grade 6 MEAP Fall 2005 • What are we asking students to do? What is the mathematics behind the task? • Do the problem • Make a list of the skills/concepts/understandings

18. Examining Student Work Protocol continued • What would a proficient student need to do to be successful? • Make a list of the criteria for success • Prioritize the list – What is critical for the student to have in place to be proficient?

19. Examining Student Work Protocol continued • Examine the student work samples against the prioritized list • Sort into two piles – proficient, not proficient

20. Examining Student Work Protocol continued • What are the strengths of the proficient students? • What are the challenges of the non-proficient students?

21. Examining Student Work Protocol continued Based on this information – • What students need additional support? • What are the next learning steps for these students in the next 3-6 weeks?

22. Examining Student Work Protocol continued • How will you group them? • What resource will you use? How will you provide instruction? • How will you know they have learned it? What evidence will you collect? When?

23. Examining Student Work Protocol continued • For those students that are proficient, what are the next learning steps in the next 3-6 weeks? • How will you group them? • What resource will you use? How will you provide instruction?

24. Examining Student Work Protocol continued • How will you know they have learned it? What evidence will you collect? When?

25. Examining Student Work Protocol • Knowing your LEAs, is examining student work to this level common practice? • How would using this protocol on a regular basis impact student achievement?

26. We have been looking from a teacher’s point of view with the protocol, we need to shift the work to explore what administrators can do to support faculties so that examination of student work can become part of the school culture. • What would need to be in place to develop this culture, if we know that results happen at the student level?

27. Building the Culture to Examine Student Work • What are the systemic pieces needed in a school to measure student progress over time? What needs to occur? • Decisions are made to collect data. • Assessments are developed and given. • Data is collected in some format and provided by teachers. • Data is analyzed and used to make instructional decisions by teachers. • Data and student samples are discussed by grade level teams and administrators. • Student work is used to determine proficiency and the next learning steps.

28. A Principal’s Data Journey - An Evolution • Decision made three years ago to collect data in comprehension – retelling • Assessment given and data collected • Discoveries • Unable to determine what the data was measuring. • Conversations with teachers revealed misconceptions about the assessment, what it measured, and how it impacted student learning.

29. Activity Objective • This activity is designed to support administrators to shift from data collection to data analysis. • This activity is designed to provide a scaffold to begin data discussions. • This activity will enable schools to shift the emphasis from data collection to data analysis.

30. Data Conference - Strategy • What process needs to be in place to begin the monitoring of student work? • Scaffold for school leaders to begin to monitor for student learning • Resource book – Section 4

31. Scenario • In 06/07 the District Curriculum Coordinator mandated a requirement for a comprehension assessment to be completed 3 times a year K-8. (Data Inventory) • Student responses were to be scored and data collected in a table format. • This data was sent to the Curriculum Coordinator and never seen again.

32. Scenario • A 08/09 A new Curriculum Coordinator has instructed principals to continue with the assessment, but expects the principal to analyze their building data as it relates to the student achievement goals. • Looking at the data collected, what do you do with it? • What process is used to begin to make sense of the data?

33. Retelling Assessment • What are we assessing? Why? • A Retelling – • Provides information on comprehension, sense of story structure, and oral language complexity • Provides insight on how students organize and process text as well as interpreting and comprehending text • Allows the reader/listener to structure responses according to personal and individual interpretations of the text

34. Examine the Data • Process for data analysis • Determine proficiency • On a 4 point rubric 3 is proficient • On a 6 point rubric 4 is proficient • Summarize the data • What percent of the students are proficient? • 1st data collection • 2nd data collection • Change in proficiency? • Student work samples – available?

35. Examine the Data continued • Using the Five Critical Questions of Learning • What is it we expect them to learn? • How will we teach so that they can learn? • How will we know when they have learned it? • How will we respond when they do not learn? • How will we respond when they already know it?

36. Keep in mind… • The quality of the learning information is dependent upon the quality of the assessment data gathered. • The teacher needs to see the link between the usefulness of the data being gathered and the learning information about the student it will provide.

37. Instruction for Learning • It is what the teacher knows and understands about how the quality of the assessment data determines the quality of learning instruction that occurs in the classroom

38. Planning the Data Conference • Using PD resource – Planning A Data Conference and the Five Critical Questions for Learning – plan for the discussion • As a team using the resources • Plan individually how you would lead the discussion • Role play discussion • Principal • Teacher C – Mr. Dean • Teacher A – Mrs. Smith

39. Data Conference Follow-Up • As the principal, what are your next steps? • As the teacher, what are your next steps? • What will you see/hear in your classroom if students are learning? • How will you know? What evidence will you collect?

40. What is evidence? • Initial data conference will set the stage • Set expectations • Data to be collected • What are we assessing? • Data to be analyzed • What is the data telling us? • Evidence to bring • Student work is the vehicle

41. Student Work – A Vehicle for Learning “Teachers have lately been required to conduct exhaustive, student-by-student reading assessments that can take days to conduct. But few are told how to use their results. We never encountered a single case where teachers used these assessment results to adjust or improve instruction; they used them to group or regroup students.” – Mike Schmoker

42. Protocol • Elementary – Third grade teachers analyzing student work – retelling • Segment 2 • Segment 3 • Segment 4 • Middle School – Teachers analyzing writing to a prompt • Segment 2 • Segment 3

43. Summative versus Formative Summative – Assessment of learning Formative - Assessment for learning How does this apply to a classroom?

44. Application to our LEAs What do administrators and leadership teams need to know and be able to do as a result of this module? Where are your LEAs in this first step of data analysis? Think about what you will need to put in place to support them.

45. Starting With the End in Mind • What is the non-negotiable by which we are measured? • What do we currently have that will support our understandings of what is being measured? • Can teachers unpack the knowledge and skills required by the state assessment?

46. Creating a Culture of Quality Data The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is developing the ability for school personnel to function as professional learning communities. DuFour and Eaker, 1998

47. In Highly Effective PLCs… Teams of teachers evaluate the effectiveness of instruction and curriculum by establishing student achievement goals. Teacher teams discuss previous years’ trend data and examine specific areas of program weakness. Achievement goals can focus on reducing failure rates, increasing access to rigorous curricula, increasing the percent of students attending college, and improving student performance on district and state exams.

48. What is a PLC? Professional Learning Community

49. Components of a PLC Shared mission, vision and values Collective inquiry Collaborative teams Action orientation and experimentation Continuous improvement Results-oriented

50. The driving engine of a PLC… Is the collaborative team,on which members work interdependentlyto achieve a common goal for which each team member is mutually accountable.