Organizational Approach to Measuring Student Growth

1. Organizational Approach to Measuring Student Growth

2. AGENDA • Basics of our approach • The challenges • Three scenarios • NWEA • ACT • Non-benchmark-able assessment • General principles

3. Basics of Our Approach • Significant gains / solid gains system • Origins • Shortcomings

4. A Typical Situation • My first year in the classroom – 6th grade ELA • 6th graders reading, on average, at a second grade level • My school’s approach: get more kids to pass the high stakes city test in February • Infeasible for many students; feasible and challenging for a few; feasible, but not challenging for a few – overall, not motivating or meaningful for me or my students • One short deal in the middle of the year with no reliable indication of progress leading up to the exam • Things my students and I needed and wanted in an approach to measuring student progress: • An approach that makes sense, given where my students are starting • Fair • Inspiring • Frequent, reliable proxies of progress

5. Scenario 1 – 4th Grade Teacher Using NWEA • Students start, at a mid 2nd grade level, based on NWEA diagnostic data at the beginning of the year • Teach sets goal based on student starting point and expected gains – typical goal would be 1.5 years of average student growth on NWEA – this is ambitious because this is 1.5 times what would typically be expected in the course of a school year; this is feasible, though, because we know it’s been done by other teachers • Teacher creates unit assessments that are aligned to NWEA standards, such that she gets a rough proxy of progress from the unit tests / assessments she is giving every 3 – 4 weeks • Teacher administers mid-year NWEA, which indicates progress • Teacher refines / adjusts strategy based on unit data and mid year data to ensure that she is constantly improving her efficacy • Teacher administers end of year NWEA, which tells us how much growth students have made over the course of the year

6. Scenario 2 – 9th Grade Math Teacher Using ACT • Students start, on average, with a 12 on the ACT, based on ACT diagnostic data • Teacher sets goal based on student starting point and expected gains – typical goal would be 3 points growth on ACT math exam – this is ambitious because it is more than would typically ocurr in the course of an academic year; it is feasible because we know that many teachers have done it before • Teacher creates unit assessments that are aligned to CRS standards and thus serve as a rough, but very helpful, proxy of progress throughout the year • Teacher administers mid-year ACT, which indicates progress • Teacher refines and adjusts strategy based on ongoing unit assessment data and mid-year ACT data to ensure he is continuously increasing effectiveness • Teacher administers ACT at end of year, which tells us how much growth students made over the course of the school year

7. Scenario 3 – 2nd Grade Teacher Using Running Records • Teacher completes diagnostics at the beginning of the year to determine starting point • Teacher sets growth goal – usually something like 1.5 – 2.0 years of growth – based on starting point and what we’ve seen strong second grade teachers achieve in the past; at the same time, teacher determines assessment system and adopts aligned summative and unit assessments • Teacher administers unit assessments and frequent running records to gauge growth • Teacher uses unit and running record data to refine / adjust strategy to ensure she is continuously increasing effectiveness • Teacher administers end of year assessment, which tells us how much growth the stuents made over the course of the school year

8. General Principles • Student outcomes matter most • Growth measure, not absolute bar – this focuses us on the true work of the teacher, which is moving students from a starting point (point A) to an end of year destination (point B), which is inspiring, given the starting point and where students must ultimately end up • Rigorous, benchmark-able assessments • Allow us to define an inspiring end point • Allow us to calculate expected gains • Frequent, aligned, reliable measures of progress • Allows teacher and students to understand how they are doing • Allows teacher to refine / adjust strategy, which is critical to empowerment