A Year-to-Year Analysis of Marymount s ERB Results

1. A Year-to-Year Analysis of Marymount’s ERB Results! How a little attention to the details (and a lot of hard work) helped us all make great gains!

2. Why a Standardized Test? Standardized tests provide critical information with which to Monitor individual achievement Inform instruction Assess/improve curricular programs Evaluate/enhance instructional strategies Track school progress longitudinally Inform parents and students of progress Hold ourselves accountable

3. Critics Say the Tests  Don’t Measure… Creativity Imagination Conceptual thinking Curiosity Effort Judgment Ethical reflection Commitment Nuanced thought Initiative

4. So, Why the ERB’s? High achieving schools Independent schools nationwide Provides informative data at all levels It’s not perfect, but it’s the best we’ve got!

5. How We Slice and Dice the Data  Same cohort Different cohort Individual students Whole class By percentile Item analyses By stanine Trend analyses By scaled scores Gap analysis

6. When Kids Fall in the “Below Average” Range, What Went Wrong? Usually, it’s one or more of the following: Curriculum gaps leaving students unprepared Poor test-taking savvy Lack of general knowledge base Absence of preparation or support Instructional practices different from the test format Test anxiety (rarely seen in actuality) Inexperience in independent thinking Lack of long-term memory or initial comprehension Inexperience in “doing hard things”

7. What Can We/Did We Do About Addressing Our Concerns? Increased our instructional repertoires so every teacher has more (and more effective) teaching tools at their disposal Dana Hall Math Conferences Conferences and workshops Bay Area Writing Project Peer support and internal leadership Assessed our current reading and math programs and did a gap analysis and redundancy analysis in math and reading Completed and have continuously updated our curriculum maps

8. What Else Have We Done? Explored areas of relative weakness and adjusted curriculum Imagine It! and Math Investigations New Middle School Algebra program Wordly Wise vocabulary series Higher expectations and emphasis on actual learning, not just teaching More, and more challenging, reading Differentiated instruction Full-time Learning Specialist K-2 literacy coach on campus

9. What Were Our Goals? Better learning, more readily retrievable for students on high-stakes tests Know, meet, and exceed state standards Improve by 9 scaled-score points in each major category each year Greatly reduce the number of students who score in the bottom three stanines Continue to stretch the students at the top of the class via differentiated instruction and the Osprey Program

10. What Were Our Big Successes as Measured in Scaled Score Points? READING COMP MATH Grade 4 10 pts in one year 14 points in one year Grade 5 16 pts in one year 41 pts in two years Grade 6 13 pts in three years 38 pts in one year Grade 7 17 pts in three years 67 pts in three years Grade 8 17 pts in three years 46 pts in three years

16. What Was Our Most Critical Goal for the Year in 2008-2009? To eliminate all below average scores and increase above average scores by 10% on the ERB WrAP test To ensure that at least 60% of our students are writing at or above the national average using independent school norms on the WrAP To show growth of 9 scaled score points in our major areas of measurement

17. Did We Meet Our Goal of 9 Points? Reading Comp Average Gain: 9.4 points Math Average Gain 18 points Average school-wide point gain: 13.7 points

18. How Did We Do in Writing? Using Independent School Norms… Grade 4 87% scored average or above average (46% above average) (3 students below) Grade 5 96% scored average or above average (50% above average) (1 student below) Grade 6 97% scored average or above average (40% above average) (3 students below) Grade 7 100% scored average or above average (62% in above average) (0 students below) Grade 8 100% scored average or above average (72% in above average) (0 students below)

25. 2009 ERB Data: Percentage At or Above Grade Level

26. What’s Our Next Big Target?(Reading Comp,…Reading Comp,…Reading Comp,…Reading Comp,…Reading Comp,…Reading Comp,…Reading Comp,…Reading Comp,…Reading Comp!!) Here’s the plan: Purchase Accelerated Reader to extend outside reading and enhance reading comprehension Insert one more novel into each grade’s English curriculum Share reading comprehension development strategies with all teachers, not just English Hold a reading contest sponsored by the Library Add Sustained Silent Reading GOAL: Raise Reading Comprehension by 15 scaled score points per grade in one year on the ERB’s!

27. What’s Your Role As Parents? Love, support and encourage their best work Volunteer at school (read the research!) Focus on continuous progress not just percentile rank Read with and to your child and encourage him to read alone Ask your child “why?” and “what do you think?” questions Ask them to do “hard things” and to persevere until the work is done

28. Throw a Party! Send Flowers!!Strike Up the Band!!! What’s been done here is truly remarkable Teachers have worked together in new ways with powerful leadership at the Division Level Teacher-leaders have emerged We’ve made data-driven decisions on staffing, instruction and curriculum We’ve set high goals for ourselves and the students We done more in three years than anyone would have ever have predicted

29. And we’re still the happiest school on earth…