Data Driven Decision Making

Online Lesson Contents		Introduction
Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Common Assessment Tools Used in Education Part 3: Assessment Perspectives During the School Term Part 4: Databases and Spreadsheets Part 5: Web Resources   Interactive Pages		Teaching incorporates many different skills including: communicating with others, classroom management, understanding content, instructional strategies and assessment. Some teaching skills develop easily while others take many years of work and study. Those who study teaching practice note that there is an art and science to what teachers do. Part of the science of teaching involves action in the on-going cycle of lesson planning, delivery of instruction, and assessment of learning. A teacher’s decisions and actions within this cycle are very important to student success in a given class. This online module looks at assessment and ways that teachers can monitor and support student learning using technology through data driven decision making.
		Goals
		Students will understand the purposes and uses of four different kinds of assessments. Students will learn about websites that contain useful information about their school and students. Students will learn about publisher resources that can aide and support teacher work. Students will understand the potential uses of databases and spreadsheets to monitor and track student performance.
		Assignments
		Read materials in this online lesson and follow links to other World Wide Web sites. Take the self test for Module 5 in the Interactive Self Test Area. Respond to one of the following questions in the Class Discussion Forum for Module 5:   What data needs to be tracked in the grade/subject you teach/plan to teach? How might you use an electronic database to do this? What are the advantages and disadvantages in using an electronic database? -or- Take the Diablo Valley College Learning Style Assessment and reflect on the results: According to survey results what is your learning style? What is one new thing you learned about yourself based on this survey? When might you use this assessment with students? What are the advantages and disadvantages in using an electronic assessment like this?

Go to Part 2- Common Assessment Tools Used in Education

Go to Lesson Contents

			Part 2: Common Assessment Tools Used in Education
Without data, all you have is opinion. -Dennis Fox			Teaching is a vocation of action. Educators interact with their students in an on-going cycle of lesson planning, delivery of instruction, and assessment of learning. Within this cycle teachers: plan units to communicate skills and/or content knowledge deliver lessons using strategies tailored to the needs of their students assess student understanding of content A teacher’s decisions and actions within this cycle are very important to student success in a given class. Assessment provides feedback related to the content received by the student. The student data an educator uses to take the next steps in forming lessons brings the cycle back to its starting point again of planning for the learner(s). This lesson initiates an exploration of assessment that is also know as data driven decision making. There are a least four different kinds of assessments educators use in their work. These assessments help teachers understand students in different ways. Some offer general perspectives about a class and what students know and understand. Others share very specific information about individuals and what skills they possess. Each assessment offers clues to help us understand our students and better serve their learning needs. A "seasoned educator" uses each of the following assessments in some version or another. Screening Tests Screening tests are quick assessments. Their aim is to alert teachers to problems that students have in a specific area. Some educators have said that screening tests are like colanders: They are designed to separate those students who need additional testing from a larger group; in this way teachers are able to focus their time and resources most efficiently. Many screening tests are group assessments- types of tests that can be administered to a whole class or group. Diagnostic Tests Diagnostic tests are used to probe and evaluate student needs when problems have been detected. Diagnostic tests offer detailed information about an individual’s skills, knowledge or understanding in a given area of learning. Diagnostic tests are administered in both group and individualized formats. As a matter of practice, a screening test would first indicate the need for a diagnostic test; the diagnostic test would then pinpoint details for effective instructional planning to address a student’s need. Progress-Monitoring Tests/Formative Assessments Educators use progress-monitoring tests to see if their instruction is having the desired effect. Progress can be monitored through group tests, running records, anecdotal notes, or other observation formats. Progress-monitoring measures are general administered quickly and consistently on either a monthly, weekly or daily basis with very little classroom disruption. The frequency of assessment is determined through consideration of learner profile and content. Balance needs to be found between too much monitoring and not enough. Progress-monitoring data is crucial to the efficient and effective use of classroom time. Outcome Tests/Summative Assessments This type of test of considers the growth a student has made over an extended period of time in relation to their grade level content standards or course objectives. This type of test can yield data that compares a given class’ performance with a larger population of students at the state or national level. This type of test has limited value in making day-to-day instructional decisions. Outcome tests can be very useful as: Data resources for planning at the beginning of the school year: what skills have students mastered, what skills do I need to spend more time with students on? Screening measures used to look at groups and individuals in relation to a given content area (i.e. students with basic, below basic, and far below basic skills on the California STAR assessments warrant screening assessments at the very least and perhaps diagnostic tests).

Go to Part 3- Assessment Perspectives During the School Term

Go to Lesson Contents

			Part 3: Assessment Perspectives During the School Term
...the effective design of activities for student learning is based on both an understanding of content and student needs.			It’s practical to begin thinking about data driven decision making through the lens of a given school term and considerations teachers make as the term progresses. This section of the module offers specific perspectives and examples of data driven decision making through the school term. Beginning of the School Term At the beginning of the school term, teachers organize curriculum looking at what’s ahead. They anticipate needs focusing on general questions about the class: Who are the students entering my class? Where are they in relation to the prerequisite skills for my grade/class? What is their language proficiency? What is their ethnicity and gender? Who are students enrolled in special programs? What are students’ family configurations and what kind of family support can I expect? How can I insure a safe and organized learning environment for this group of students? Answers to these questions can be obtained by looking at cumulative records, district benchmark exams and California STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) data. Technology can support educators at this point in time using the following web resources: DataQuest http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ DataQuest allows public access to a wide array of information schools and districts report to the State of California each year. Among other things, DataQuest has student demographic information, STAR test information and English learner profiles. Just for the Kids http://jftk-ca.org/ The JFTK-CA School Improvement System provides data charts based on publicly available information from the California Standards Test for Language Arts and Mathematics. It also helps schools benchmark their performance against the top ten performing schools in the state, region and county that have comparable student populations. 4-6 Weeks into the School Term As the school term gets underway teachers obtain perspectives on their students’ content knowledge through various assessment tools. Some of these tools are can be formal assessments while others can be informal observation checklists. Through these tools teachers develop a refined knowledge of their students. They are able to validate assumptions taken from cumulative records, STAR assessments, and interviews with parents and former teachers. At this point in time teachers have a first hand view of their class; they are developing an understanding of their students strengths and weakness in relation to content standards and/or their course objectives. They are generally able to identify students and rank them according to their content knowledge and/or skills. Identification of Students with Significant Learning Needs During this initial period of instruction, it is critical that teachers identify students who have significant learning challenges. These needs may be understood as deficits which could impede or block mastery of standards/content objectives for the given grade or class. The educator asks questions about the etiology of these learning needs. Why are these students here? What common needs for students are indicated by the data? Teachers use screening tests and diagnostic tests during this phase of work. Examples of screening tests and diagnostic tests include: San Diego Quick Reading Assessment http://205.126.22.50/reading/inventory/sandiego.html   Third Grade Math Inventory http://205.126.22.50/math/grade3/grade3math.html As teachers develop understanding about their students’ needs, they spend time thinking about instructional strategies and teaching methods that can help their students. Along with diagnostic and screening test results, teachers also recall their student demographic information. They focus on efficient and effective ways that they can accelerate learning and close achievement gaps. Considerations include: curriculum organization instructional time instructional strategies classroom organization school expectations family involvement "safety nets" special programs   Daily-Weekly-Monthly Throughout the Term Teachers attend to their students needs using whole class, small group, and individualized strategies and other ideas from the bulleted list above. They select a progress monitoring scheme that matches the degree of student need; more frequent progress monitoring is needed for students with intensive needs. Curricula may be a combination of State adopted materials and supplemental learning resources. Educators evaluate curricula and their students’ response to learning plans. Pacing schedules are checked and adjusted considering the scope of learning to be attained in the school term. Effective designs are continued; ineffective lessons are adjusted and modified. Examples of progress monitoring assessments include: AIMSweb http://edformation.com/ AIMSweb® is a formative assessment system that ‘informs’ the teaching and learning process by providing continuous student performance data and reporting improvement to parents, teachers, and administrators to enable evidence-based evaluation and data-driven instruction. Prentice Hall- Algebra Chapter Pre-Test http://tinyurl.com/7wves Prentice Hall’s math series includes a complete set of diagnostic and placement tests. The URL above references a chapter pre-test for the first unit in their algebra series. End of Term Assessment End of term assessments are the most common type of assessment currently found in K-16 schools. Teachers use end of term assessments also known as outcome or summative assessments to measure a student’s performance in relation to State standards and/or the course objectives. End of term assessments offer schools and teachers a means of evaluating their students learning for the term. They also offer useful data in planning for the new school term. Educators should be weary of using end of term assessments as their only means of evaluating their students and programs. (Some form of progress monitoring should be used so that educators can have data points in the school term to adjust and modify their pacing schedule if concepts are not "sinking in"- see the sub section above for more information.) Examples of end of term assessments: 9th Grade Math Practice Test http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/p_test/math_pro1.html Practice questions designed for students who want to test their skills at the end of the ninth grade level; a compilation of the minimum requirements that students should know by the time they reach the end of 9th grade. 2nd Grade 2005 California Standards Test in English-Language Arts http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/documents/rtqgr2ela.pdf Released test items from the 2nd Grade 2005 CST 6th-8th Grade 2005 California Standards Test in History/Social Studies http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/documents/rtqgr8history.pdf Released test items from the 6th-8th grade 2005 CST 4th Grade 2005 California Standards Test in Mathematics http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/documents/rtqgr4math.pdf Released test items from the 4th grade 2005 CST Many of the ideas shared in this section are based on my learning from work with Cindy Tucker, John Schiller, Don Russell, Kevin Feldman, Doreen Heath-Lance, Joan Easterday and Jane Escobedo at the Sonoma County Office of Education. I have benefited from a collegial working relationship with these individuals and express my appreciation here.

Go to Part 4- Databases and Spreadsheets

Go to Lesson Contents

Go to Part 5- Web Resources

Go to Lesson Contents

			Part 5: Web Resources
			Data Driven Organizations- What do they look Like? http://www.portical.org/cox1more.html Using Classroom Data to Improve Student Achievement http://www.classroomdata.org Ed Data http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us California Department of Education- STAR http://star.cde.ca.gov/ DataQuest http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ School Profiler http://schools.achievedata.com/schoolprofiler/ Free access to state-wide data reported on your school; very useful for working on Single Plan for Student Achievement. Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) http://dibels.uoregon.edu/ The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills.   California High School Exit Exam for Mathematics & Support Resources http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/mathrtq05.asp Released items from the 2005 version of the high school exit exam including student resources and answers.

Go to Lesson Contents