2.8 Data Analysis
Candidates model and facilitate the effective use of digital tools and resources to systematically collect and analyze student achievement data, interpret results, communicate findings, and implement appropriate interventions to improve instructional practice and maximize student learning. (ISTE 2h)
Artifact: Data Overview
Reflection:
The Data Overview was created for ITEC 7305 Data Analysis and School Improvement using EOCT data from 2010 through 2014 for Woodland High School, the school where I currently teach. The artifact is a PowerPoint presentation that presents enrollment, demographic, and student achievement data, interprets disaggregated results, identifies several possible student-learning problems, and offers suggestions for addressing these learning problems. I completed the project over the summer, but did provide the data files and slides to my principal to use as he wished during the beginning of the year faculty meetings and parent presentations.
The Data Overview demonstrates my ability to model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to collect, analyze, and interpret student achievement data. The student achievement data was collected from the online database housed on the Governor’s Office for Student Achievement website (gosa.georgia.gov), the Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS), and the state department website (gadoe.org). The data was then entered into Excel spreadsheets linked to a PowerPoint presentation for analyzing and interpreting. The presentation contains several live charts and graphs, including line graphs, clustered bar graphs, and pie charts showing overall school data, trends over the last 5 years, and comparisons with state and district averages. My audio narration analyzes and interprets the charts and graphs for viewers, explaining what the data suggests about student learning and achievement; I was careful to consider the sample size when interpreting changes in percentages.
To communicate the findings the PowerPoint presentation was narrated and uploaded to YouTube using the Internet program Screen-cast-o-matic. Although the presentation could be narrated face-to-face if presenting to an audience, creating online content allows users to view the data overview asynchronously and in different locations. Moreover, the presentation itself seeks to make data interpretation simple to understand, avoiding complicated terminology and making graphs and charts clear and easy to read and interpret.
Finally, the Data Overview provides suggestions for digital tools and resources to implement as appropriate interventions for addressing the identified student learning problems. Specifically, suggestions include reconsidering the use of USATestPrep.com, a test preparation website, to have students create a portfolio of standards mastery, as well as implement data analysis of classroom formative and summative assessments using POINT, the school data management software. These are two resources that the school already has access to or subscribes to, but professional learning about ways in which teachers within the building and whole academic successfully use them would be beneficial.
As an English teacher, I have always been familiar with the data for our two end of course tests and the high school writing test, but completing the data overview made me more aware of students’ performance in other subject areas. Since many students take multiple EOCTS, it is interesting to see how their performance compares across tests; when students perform well on one test and very poorly on another, it is difficult to label them as “poor test-takers,” and instead teachers must consider instructional strategies that may or may not be effective. Similarly, certain subjects have racial achievement gaps while others do not; again, this suggests a teacher-centered problem that schools must address. As English department chair, I plan on using parts of the data overview during my first department meeting of the school year, with a few additions. I hope to have teachers analyze each test (9th Grade Literature, American Literature, and writing) at the strand, domain, and item level to determine any potential student learning problems that may exist. Although our English EOCT scores have been consistently higher than state and district averages, as Georgia rolls out the new Milestones assessments, I think it is imperative to identify any areas in which we already know students are struggling since the Milestones assessments will be more rigorous in nature.
Analyzing student data should lead to increased student learning outcomes as teachers identify potential learning problems, verify the causes for those problems, and implement and monitor solutions to the problems. While the Data Overview only gives a broad picture of performance in each of the core content areas, individual departments should continue to drill down the data to strand and item level to determine if specific questions, teachers, or students groups are not demonstrating proficient levels of performance. Additionally, the data overview looks at year-end summative assessments and demographic data, while teachers and departments should spend more time examining classroom and benchmark assessments since those assessments provide teachers with the opportunity to modify instruction according to student learning patterns.
The Data Overview was created for ITEC 7305 Data Analysis and School Improvement using EOCT data from 2010 through 2014 for Woodland High School, the school where I currently teach. The artifact is a PowerPoint presentation that presents enrollment, demographic, and student achievement data, interprets disaggregated results, identifies several possible student-learning problems, and offers suggestions for addressing these learning problems. I completed the project over the summer, but did provide the data files and slides to my principal to use as he wished during the beginning of the year faculty meetings and parent presentations.
The Data Overview demonstrates my ability to model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to collect, analyze, and interpret student achievement data. The student achievement data was collected from the online database housed on the Governor’s Office for Student Achievement website (gosa.georgia.gov), the Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS), and the state department website (gadoe.org). The data was then entered into Excel spreadsheets linked to a PowerPoint presentation for analyzing and interpreting. The presentation contains several live charts and graphs, including line graphs, clustered bar graphs, and pie charts showing overall school data, trends over the last 5 years, and comparisons with state and district averages. My audio narration analyzes and interprets the charts and graphs for viewers, explaining what the data suggests about student learning and achievement; I was careful to consider the sample size when interpreting changes in percentages.
To communicate the findings the PowerPoint presentation was narrated and uploaded to YouTube using the Internet program Screen-cast-o-matic. Although the presentation could be narrated face-to-face if presenting to an audience, creating online content allows users to view the data overview asynchronously and in different locations. Moreover, the presentation itself seeks to make data interpretation simple to understand, avoiding complicated terminology and making graphs and charts clear and easy to read and interpret.
Finally, the Data Overview provides suggestions for digital tools and resources to implement as appropriate interventions for addressing the identified student learning problems. Specifically, suggestions include reconsidering the use of USATestPrep.com, a test preparation website, to have students create a portfolio of standards mastery, as well as implement data analysis of classroom formative and summative assessments using POINT, the school data management software. These are two resources that the school already has access to or subscribes to, but professional learning about ways in which teachers within the building and whole academic successfully use them would be beneficial.
As an English teacher, I have always been familiar with the data for our two end of course tests and the high school writing test, but completing the data overview made me more aware of students’ performance in other subject areas. Since many students take multiple EOCTS, it is interesting to see how their performance compares across tests; when students perform well on one test and very poorly on another, it is difficult to label them as “poor test-takers,” and instead teachers must consider instructional strategies that may or may not be effective. Similarly, certain subjects have racial achievement gaps while others do not; again, this suggests a teacher-centered problem that schools must address. As English department chair, I plan on using parts of the data overview during my first department meeting of the school year, with a few additions. I hope to have teachers analyze each test (9th Grade Literature, American Literature, and writing) at the strand, domain, and item level to determine any potential student learning problems that may exist. Although our English EOCT scores have been consistently higher than state and district averages, as Georgia rolls out the new Milestones assessments, I think it is imperative to identify any areas in which we already know students are struggling since the Milestones assessments will be more rigorous in nature.
Analyzing student data should lead to increased student learning outcomes as teachers identify potential learning problems, verify the causes for those problems, and implement and monitor solutions to the problems. While the Data Overview only gives a broad picture of performance in each of the core content areas, individual departments should continue to drill down the data to strand and item level to determine if specific questions, teachers, or students groups are not demonstrating proficient levels of performance. Additionally, the data overview looks at year-end summative assessments and demographic data, while teachers and departments should spend more time examining classroom and benchmark assessments since those assessments provide teachers with the opportunity to modify instruction according to student learning patterns.