Technology Apps that Close Achievement Gaps and Boost the Achievement of All Students

Technology Apps that Close Achievement Gaps and Boost the Achievement of All Students Nancy W. Sindelar, Ph.D. C 2013. Nancy W, Sindelar

About Me • Teacher Teacher, Department Chair, Assistant Principal, Assistant Superintendent, University Professor • Consultant Works with schools to align curriculum and assessments to standards, develops high performing teacher teams, and guides administrators, teachers and parents through the maze of testing and use of data • Author Assessment Powered Teaching, Corwin, 2010 Using Test Data for Student Achievement: Answers to NCLB and CCSS, Rowman and Littlefield, 2011 (2nd ed.)

Session Outcomes • Overview of research on assessment and the use of technology • Data analysis applications being used by high-achieving schools to monitor students’ progress toward meeting standards and close achievement gaps. • Strategies for Success with the Common Core State Standards • Align existing curriculum and assessments to Common Core State Standards • Use classroom test data to monitor students’ progress toward meeting standards and closing achievement gaps • Motivate students with the results of their learning • Engage parents in the Common Core State Standards Curriculum and Assessment Process.

RESEARCH: IMPROVING LEARNING THROUGH ASSESSMENTTHE POSITIVE FACTORS OF USING ASSESSMENT TECHNOLOGY INCLUDE: • ADJUSTING TEACHING TO TAKE ACCOUNT OF THE RESULTS OF ASSESSMENTS Fullan (2001) Leading in a Culture of Change • PROVIDING EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS Sindelar (2010) Assessment-Powered Teaching • MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO BE ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN THEIR OWN LEARNING Sindelar (2010) Assessment-Powered Teaching • PROVIDING STUDENTS WITH THE ABILITY TO SELF-ASSESS THEMSELVES AND UNDERSTAND HOW TO IMPROVE Fullan (2001) Leading in a Culture of Change

RESEARCH: IMPROVING LEARNING THROUGH ASSESSMENTTHE INHIBITING FACTORS INCLUDE: • TEACHERS TEND TO ASSESS QUANITY OF WORK AND PRESENTATION RATHER THAN THE QUALITY OF LEARNING AND LEARNING NEEDS Fullan (2001) Leading in a Culture of Change • “Schools and teachers suffer from the DRIP syndrome---DATA RICH, INFORMATION POOR.” DuFour, R. (2002) What Is a “Professional Learning Community”? Educational Leadership. 61 (8) 6-11. • “Colleges of education often fail to include…assessment training in their programs…and assessment training of any sort remains virtually nonexistent in leadership training programs.” Stiggins. R., & Chappuis, J. (2006) Assessment FOR learning rather than assessment OF learning helps students succeed, Journal of Staff Development, 27 (1) 2. • U.S. educators remain “a national faculty unschooled in the principles of sound assessment.”Stiggins,R. (2002, June) Assessment crisis: The absence of assessment for learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(10), 758-765. • Teachers don’t trust the use of data. Over 33% of the 1000 teachers surveyed nationally reported that LMS solutions “made them feel like they were being monitored.” Education Community Attitudes toward SIS/L MS Solutions (2013) @http:www.turningdataintoaction.org • Teachers have very little involvement in instructional technology decisions. Data analysis and learning management system (LMS) implementation efforts are being led by information technology leaders rather that curriculum and instruction leaders. Implementation and Selection Approaches toward SIS/LMS Solutions (2013)@http:www.turningdataintoaction.org

Poll Questions • How many of you are IT leaders? • How many of you are curriculum and instruction leaders? • How many of you are teachers?

Assessment Analysis Improves Teaching and Learning • Use data to inform instruction • Use data to monitor students’ progress toward meeting standards • Use disaggregated data to close achievement gaps • Use data to motivate students with the results of their learning

Four Steps for Gathering and Using Classroom Test Data to Inform Teaching and Monitor Student Progress 1. Align curriculum and classroom assessments to the Common Core State Standards. 2. Create a data-based system to monitor each student’s progress toward standards and learning targets. Focus on evidence of achievement or lack of it---outputs rather than inputs. 3. Decide which assessments will go through item analysis and which reports will be used. 4. Use PLC time to discuss student achievement. Begin with data. Focus on results, not opinions.

Item Analysis ReportApperson Data Link SoftwareUsed with permission

Class Proficiency ReportApperson Data Link SoftwareUsed with permission

Assessment Analysis for Rubric-Graded PerformancesDuPage High School District 88 Used with permission

Summary for Rubric-Graded Speech AssessmentDuPage High School District 88 Used with permission • Summary Report for Local Speech Assessment • After the district speech assessment was given to all sophomore Speech students, the online scoring was summarized in the following report for 470 students: • Willowbrook High School 2002-2003 Speech Local Assessment • Topic Not Meet Meets Exceeds • ___________________________________________________________ • Attention-Getting Opening 12 3% 37 8% 421 90% • Introduction-Preview 9 2% 167 36% 294 63% • Body-Supporting Detail 48 10% 193 41% 229 49% • Body-Transition 48 10% 193 41% 229 49% • Body-Main Points 16 3% 99 21% 355 75% • Body-Sequence 24 5% 217 46% 229 49% • Conclusion-Topic Summary 21 4% 229 49% 220 47% • Conclusion-Clincher 29 6% 322 69% 119 25% • Presentation-Facial 7 1% 236 50% 227 48% • Presentation-Eye Contact 42 9% 203 43% 225 48% • Presentation-Posture 10 2% 345 73% 115 24% • Presentation-Gestures 8 2% 372 79% 90 19% • Voice-Articulation 12 3% 292 62% 166 35% • Voice-Rate of Speaking 15 3% 138 29% 317 67% • Voice-Fluency 19 4% 350 74% 101 21% • Voice-Volume 9 2% 111 24% 350 74% • Voice-Emphasis/Enthusiasm 26 6% 240 51% 204 43% • Supplemental Materials 42 9% 167 36% 261 56% • Organization/Outline 28 6% 83 18% 359 76% • ___________________________________________________________ • Overall 436 4% 4285 46% 4678 50%

Four steps for using disaggregated data to identify low achieving subgroups and close achievement gaps. • Run an item analysis by subgroup. • Focus on achievement of specific standards and specific subgroups. Stop focusing on averages. • Using subgroup assessment data, strategically reteach key standards and learning targets. • Be aware that performance assessments may more accurately measure the knowledge of certain subgroups than forced-choice tests, which depend on the understanding of standard English.

DisaggregatedState Test Data

Mastery Report by StandardNon-disaggregated DataThe Assessor by Progress Educationused with permission

Disaggregated Data by StandardThe Assessor by Progress EducationUsed with permission

Scanable Rubric for World LanguagesDuPage High School District 88 Used with permission

Disaggregated Data for World LanguagesDuPage High School District 88 Used with permission

TYPES OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS • Mid-lesson assessments: • clickers • 3x5 notecards for checks for understanding • “clipboard cruising” • Post-lesson assessments: • forced choice tests with item analysis by class or student • performance assessments with rubric analysis by class or student • force-choice or performance assessments with disaggregated data analysis Note: A summative assessment can be used formatively to change curriculum, course materials and test questions.

Remote Clickers for Formative Assessments

Cudos for Clickers • Christina Grimsley, 16, a junior at Coeur d'Alene High School in Idaho, first used the clicker during a third-year Spanish class earlier this academic year. She said instantaneous feedback was a huge advantage. • "You don't have to wait for someone to sit down and grade them by hand," she said of class assignments. "Right away you're able to get your answers back." • Mike Nelson, Grimsley's Spanish teacher in Coeur d'Alene, said he had proof that clickers enhanced the lessons. • "I have noticed about a 15 to 20 percent increase in their oral grades and their quiz grades, because now I don't need to guess whether kids know it to the best of their ability," he said. "I can actually see it now."

The Rationale for COMMON CORE STANDARDS 1. EQUITY---Common Core Standards are a means to ensure all students have access to a similar education and provide the ability to make better comparisons of student achievement from state to state. “The idea of 50 states each doing their own thing just doesn’t make sense.” (A Duncan, quoted by J. Jennings, “National Standards.” American School Board Journal, Sept. 2009) 2. ECONOMICS---Eliminates the need for financially strapped states to each spend their limited resources on the development of standards, assessments and resources. 3. FUTURE SUCCESS---It’s believed that achievement of these standards will prepare students to succeed in college, job training programs and careers. Four out of ten new college students need to take remedial courses. (U.S. Dept of Education, Blueprint for Reform College and Career Ready Students, 2010)

Strategies for Success with Common Core State Standards • Align existing curriculum and assessments to Common Core State Standards • Use classroom test data to monitor students’ progress toward meeting standards and closing achievement gaps • Motivate students with the results of their learning • Engage parents in the Common Core State Standards Curriculum and Assessment Process.

HOW ARE COMMON CORE STANDARDS DIFFERENT FROM STATE STANDARDS? 1. To date Common Core Standards have been written for English-Language Arts, Math, Literacy in History/ Social Studies (6-12) and Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects (6-12). There are no changes to other standards at this time. Additional standards will be adopted for Science. 2. As with the state standards, grade levels expectations have been developed. Real-world applications and examples are embedded in the standards. 3. Common Core Standards incorporate “college and career readiness.” Capacities include: independence, strong content knowledge, responding to varying demands of audience, task, purpose and discipline, ability to comprehend as well as critique, value evidence, ability to use technology and digital media strategically and capably, and ability to understand the perspectives of other cultures. 4. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring that students master the knowledge and skills in the CCSS rests with districts and schools. Districts will have flexibility in meeting the standards, but many will need to change their curriculum, instruction and local assessments to align with the CCSS. According to Center of Education Policy 61% of districts are developing new curriculum to meet CCSS.

Poll Question How many of you are currently engaged in realigning your current curriculum and classroom assessments to the new Common Core State Standards?

HOW ARE THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS ORGANIZED? Common Core Standards are organized by grade level, (English-Lang Arts K-8, 9-10,11-12; math K-8, 9-12) strand and standard. English-Language Arts strands: READING-LITERATURE (RL) READING-INFORMATIONAL TEXT(RI) READING FOUNDATION SKILLS (RF) (K-5) WRITING (W) SPEAKING LISTENING (SL) LANGUAGE (L) READING HISTORY (RH) (6-12) READING IN SCIENCE AND TECHNICAL TEXT (RST) (6-12) WRITING HISTORY (WHST) (6-12) College and Career Readiness Standards are listed with English and Language Arts

HOW ARE THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS ORGANIZED? Common Core Standards are organized by grade level (K-8 and 9-12), strand and standard. Key Math strands: • OA=Operations and Algebraic Thinking • NBT=Number and Operations in Base 10 • MD=Measurements and Data • G=Geometry • NF=Number and Operations-Fractions • RP=Rations and Proportional Relationships • NS= Number System • EE=Expressions and Equations • SP=Statistics and Probability • A=Algebra.

HOW WILL THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS BE ASSESSED? The 44 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the new K-12 Common Core State Standards in English and math and are pooling their resources for an internationally benchmarked assessment system. The new online assessments, which will be ready for states to administer by the 2014-15 school year, will be better aligned with higher education demands. More than 200 higher education institutions across the 26 states have committed to participate in the partnership and will contribute to the design of the high school assessments. Compared to traditional tests, the online assessments will aim to engage students in more meaningful demonstrations of their knowledge and understanding. The New Learning Standards incorporate more real-world situations so students can learn important skills to utilize in the workplace and higher education. The proposed plan has students in grades 6-11 taking the assessment online. Grades 3-5 is proposed to be paper and pencil, with the hope they can all be move to online in the future. A review of districts’ abilities to administer the assessment online is being implemented.

NOW WHAT? Begin aligning local curriculum to the Common Core standards Begin aligning local classroom assessments to the Common Core standards Analyze local test data to see what students know and what they don’t know before students take the high-stakes tests. Strategically reteach when necessary Use local analyzed test data to engage students (and their parents) in their learning and academic progress.

Monitor Students’ Progress toward Meeting the New Standards • Item Analysis by Standard or Learning Target---WHAT DO STUDENTS KNOW? • Disaggregated Data Reports by Standard or Learning Target---WHAT DO SUBGROUPS KNOW? • Individual Student Reports---WHAT DO I KNOW? WHAT ARE MY NEXT STEPS?