PATs : What are they and how can you use them?

1. PATs: What are they and how can you use them?

2. Progressive Achievement Tests • Designed for the assessment of students in Years 4 to 10. • English Department administers three tests: Reading Comprehension, Reading Vocabulary, and Listening • Scores from the comprehension and vocabulary tests can be located on measurement scales. These scales allow progress to be measured from Year 4 to Year 10. • Scale scores can be converted into stanines, which compares student achievement to a national reference group.

3. But I don’t teach English or Social Studies… so why should I care? • We need to know how our students will cope with different texts. • Comprehension: assesses a student’s ability to construct meaning from text. • Vocabulary – assesses a student’s ability to understand the words they read. • Listening – assesses recall and inference. Ever wondered why a particular student never follows instructions? The PAT listening results might give you an idea why.

4. How have they been used at HHS lately? Results have been used for: • Identifying students who require learning support • Identifying students who could benefit from the peer reading programme • Diagnostic information by English teachers. • Also……..???? • The goal is for all teachers to be comfortable to access and use data to help with their knowledge of students.

5. A reading comp answer sheet looks like…

6. Understanding test results Stanines • A stanine score shows the position of a student’s achievement in relation to a representative sample of students in that year level. • Stanine 9 represents the top 4% of students in that year level. • Stanine 1 represents the bottom 4% of students in that year level.

7. Stanines

8. 9CK 2009 PAT results

10. Using the stanine results • Useful when used in conjunction with other assessment data and observations (eg class observations, previous reports…) • Grouping students with similar needs and abilities. • Identifying readers requiring support: Students who score stanine 3 and below for their year level require closer attention. • Selecting able readers for enrichment programmes: Stanines help us identify students whose scale scores indicate high achievement for their class level. (Stanine 8 and 9)

11. We can analyse test results in greater depth… The PATC scale or PATV scale • Students comprehension and vocabulary raw test scores are converted to a scale score. The score provides measurement on a scale that represent increasing sophistication in reading comprehension and reading vocabulary. • This allows us to see if students have improved from Year 9 to Year 10.

12. Sample of Reading Comprehension student report

13. What this report means… • The student scored 92.5 on the scale. • Constructing meaning: She can construct meaning from a wide range of longer texts that involve unfamiliar topics and ideas, more complex grammatical structures and vocabulary. • Abstract information: She can unpack abstract information eg metaphorical language and rely much less on concrete examples in the text to support her understanding. • Inferences: She can link multiple pieces of information that may be far apart in a text to make inferences eg inferring character traits or themes implied by the author. When making inferences she is able to identify and reject competing information.

14. Stanine 9 This means she is in the top 4% of students in year 9. Easily copes with texts with a reading level of 15+.

16. Scale score 69 Constructing meaning: She does this from a range of texts that involve less familiar topics, ideas, grammatical structures and vocabulary. Abstract information: She requires fewer concrete examples in the text to support her understanding. Inferences: She can link several pieces of information together that are separated in a text to make inferences. Stanine 5 This report shows the student is in the 40-59 percentile of Year 9 students. She could struggle with some reading tasks, especially those with a reading level of 15+. The amount of incorrect answers in the last three texts could indicate a reading speed issue.

17. Broad diagnostic uses • Performance on different types of texts eg poem, narrative, explanation, recount, persuasive • Performance on different types of comprehension questions eg global inferences, finding information. • Rate of reading ie students who do not finish the test paper or who performed consistently, then have most of the last few questions incorrect.

18. So is such in-depth analysis worth it? • Cons: Time and money • Pros: In-depth information on a student’s ability to infer and find information Student’s ability to complete tasks on time Give me your feedback over the next few weeks

19. So what next? • Results will be in KAMAR around week 6. Have a look, record the marks. • Remember: At the most basic level, you are dealing with numbers 1-9. 9 outstanding. 1 low. • Reading comp : how well they can understand what they read. • Vocab: How well they understand meaning of words. • Listening: How well they can listen.

20. Progressive Achievement Tests • Designed for the assessment of students in Years 4 to 10. • English Department administers three tests: Reading Comprehension, Reading Vocabulary, and Listening • Scores from the comprehension and vocabulary tests can be located on measurement scales. These scales allow progress to be measured from Year 4 to Year 10. • Scale scores can be converted into stanines, which compares student achievement to a national reference group.

21. But I don’t teach English or Social Studies… so why should I care? • We need to know how our students will cope with different texts. • Comprehension: assesses a student’s ability to construct meaning from text. • Vocabulary – assesses a student’s ability to understand the words they read. • Listening – assesses recall and inference. Ever wondered why a particular student never follows instructions? The PAT listening results might give you an idea why.

22. How have they been used at HHS lately? Results have been used for: • Identifying students who require learning support • Identifying students who could benefit from the peer reading programme • Diagnostic information by English teachers. • Also……..???? • The goal is for all teachers to be comfortable to access and use data to help with their knowledge of students.

23. A reading comp answer sheet looks like…

24. Understanding test results Stanines • A stanine score shows the position of a student’s achievement in relation to a representative sample of students in that year level. • Stanine 9 represents the top 4% of students in that year level. • Stanine 1 represents the bottom 4% of students in that year level.

25. Stanines

26. 9CK 2009 PAT results

28. Using the stanine results • Useful when used in conjunction with other assessment data and observations (eg class observations, previous reports…) • Grouping students with similar needs and abilities. • Identifying readers requiring support: Students who score stanine 3 and below for their year level require closer attention. • Selecting able readers for enrichment programmes: Stanines help us identify students whose scale scores indicate high achievement for their class level. (Stanine 8 and 9)

29. We can analyse test results in greater depth… The PATC scale or PATV scale • Students comprehension and vocabulary raw test scores are converted to a scale score. The score provides measurement on a scale that represent increasing sophistication in reading comprehension and reading vocabulary. • This allows us to see if students have improved from Year 9 to Year 10.

30. Sample of Reading Comprehension student report

31. What this report means… • The student scored 92.5 on the scale. • Constructing meaning: She can construct meaning from a wide range of longer texts that involve unfamiliar topics and ideas, more complex grammatical structures and vocabulary. • Abstract information: She can unpack abstract information eg metaphorical language and rely much less on concrete examples in the text to support her understanding. • Inferences: She can link multiple pieces of information that may be far apart in a text to make inferences eg inferring character traits or themes implied by the author. When making inferences she is able to identify and reject competing information.

32. Stanine 9 This means she is in the top 4% of students in year 9. Easily copes with texts with a reading level of 15+.

34. Scale score 69 Constructing meaning: She does this from a range of texts that involve less familiar topics, ideas, grammatical structures and vocabulary. Abstract information: She requires fewer concrete examples in the text to support her understanding. Inferences: She can link several pieces of information together that are separated in a text to make inferences. Stanine 5 This report shows the student is in the 40-59 percentile of Year 9 students. She could struggle with some reading tasks, especially those with a reading level of 15+. The amount of incorrect answers in the last three texts could indicate a reading speed issue.

35. Broad diagnostic uses • Performance on different types of texts eg poem, narrative, explanation, recount, persuasive • Performance on different types of comprehension questions eg global inferences, finding information. • Rate of reading ie students who do not finish the test paper or who performed consistently, then have most of the last few questions incorrect.

36. So is such in-depth analysis worth it? • Cons: Time and money • Pros: In-depth information on a student’s ability to infer and find information Student’s ability to complete tasks on time Give me your feedback over the next few weeks

37. So what next? • Results will be in KAMAR around week 6. Have a look, record the marks. • Remember: At the most basic level, you are dealing with numbers 1-9. 9 outstanding. 1 low. • Reading comp : how well they can understand what they read. • Vocab: How well they understand meaning of words. • Listening: How well they can listen.