Essay: Assessing student understanding versus assessing students (workshop reflection)

Collection and presentation of data
What learning targets will be assessed?  Students will be able to create a scale drawing of their classroom.  When given requirements on drawing size, students can choose an appropriate scale to represent an actual object.
a. What types of data will be collected to assess mastery of these targets?
Students will demonstrate mastery throughout the unit in various types of assessments: classwork practice, quizzes, and alternate assessments.  I will informally collect data through differentiated opportunities to respond, as well as collaborative type activities.  Students will submit a culminating project showing a scaled drawing of their math classroom.
b. When will data be collected?
The data will be collected throughout the duration of the proportional relationship unit.  The culminating project will be collected two weeks before the end of the term.
c. How will group data be disaggregated?  What subgroups will be targeted?
The group that is being targeted is my resource students.  I have a co-taught math class where 30% of the students either have an Individual Educational Plan or 504, therefore it will be easy to gather data.  I am also going to gather data on two Hispanic students and a Caucasian boy within this class.
d. How will it be represented graphically?
I am working with one student from each subgroup and will document their progress during this last term.  One of the students, GF is a Caucasian boy with an IEP.   His grades in math have been D’s and F’s.  The second student is KG, a Hispanic boy also with low math performance.  Another girl (JN) is one with a high absenteeism problem that suffers from anxiety.  This term, I decided to work with these two students because they eat their lunch in my room to do math work, therefore I can directly work with them one on one to provide interventions and support to facilitate more success in math.   JN is enrolled in a resource class with my co-teacher.
A chart will be created for the students to take ownership and increase self-awareness.
2. Analysis
a. How was the overall performance?
The overall performance in 3rd term for the culminating project was lower than expected.  JN did not submit her culminating project, and ended up with a 39%; GF obtained a 42% on his project, ending with a 57%, and KD earned a 68% on his project and a 61% for 3rd term.   The average score for the alternate assessment was 50%.
b. How will you assess how well subgroups performed?
I am going to be more proactive with the results of informative assessments.  The boys are enrolled in an AVID course and I will communicate with their teacher my goal of improvement and learning success.
c. How will you identify trailing indicators?
After a lesson, I provide students with exit tickets and I will be using these as trailing indicators.  I will meet with JN, GF and KD during lunch, within class, (asking the co-teacher to take leadership while I visit with them) and hopefully after school, to go over answers with them to determine their specific learning challenges (time, anxiety, etc.) that is deterring their performance.
d. How will you identify leading indicators?
Before we begin the upcoming unit, I will provide a pre-unit assessment.  This pre-assessment could shed light on student’s retention of background knowledge from the previous unit.   Mathematics has its own specialized academic language, and leading indicators can pinpoint where these students need support if they cannot recognize the foundational requirements.  By analyzing this indicator, I will have a better idea of which elements of the math skills the students still need to work on.  We will also analyze them together as a class to provide awareness and integrate spiral reviews (or use Cornell notes daily) with the warm up activities.
3. Goals
a. What are your goal(s) for increased performance?
My goals are to provide more feedback on student’s performance along with continuous support, establishing a better student teacher relationship, welcoming a growth mindset, and having more one on one meetings. These goals should yield better performance, aiming at a 75% grade for math in 4th quarter.
b. What specific group(s) of students will be targeted for intervention?
Students are offered opportunities to redo any work for increase of grades.  These three students will be guided on initiating the retake process, providing intervention, and celebrating their improvement.
c. What assessment(s) will be used to measure progress toward these goals?
Students will be given the opportunity to demonstrate proficiency through their last term work which includes classwork practice, exit ticket quizzes, assessments, and culminating projects.
4. Strategies
a. What is your plan for improvement?
I plan to meet with them as soon as we return from spring break and show them their performance for the last three terms.  We will establish daily lunch meetings, setting aside Fridays as data analysis day, where the students can see where they stand, and agree on developing a plan of action.  This plan could be studying Cornell notes, asking for clarification on concepts that are not clear, and retaking or redoing work that scored less than 80%.   Students can create a tracker to be signed by the Avid teacher and myself, in addition to a self-improvement graph.  The idea is to allow students to work on self-advocacy and experience the benefits of continuous perseverance.  As students’ scores improve, I will decrease the meeting times and trackers.
b. What evidence-based, best-practice, interventions will focus on to improve student performance?
If students are not demonstrating mastery of a math concept through informal assessment, I will provide individual feedback, re-teach the concept, or provide corrective instruction based on the results of the assessment and re-test.  Re-teaching will allow for narrowing the gap of what has been learned and what is yet to be learned.  If there are students who did not reach mastery, I will meet with them and provide more one on one clarification and if necessary modify a test but keeping the needed requirements for mastery.   I am committed to also, providing a growth mind set environment where mistakes are celebrated and are part of the process of learning.
c. What is your timeline for implementing your improvement plan?
The timeline is the duration of the 4th quarter, which is approximately 50 days.
5. Gather Results
a. What evidence will you need to gather to assess the effectiveness of your intervention strategies?
Daily interactions through classroom participation and the scores of their work.
b. How will this evidence be collected?
I will keep records on our Skyward grading system and a journal in which I will write notes daily or every other day.  Using the test results, I will determine if learning was achieved during the intervention process and if it was assimilated or if these need to be revised, readjusted, or developing new ones.
c. How will you use the results to improve your teaching?
The results will provide information on how to best guide my teaching.  I will routinely go over the concepts that show lower performance, and after re-teaching, use the same problems on daily spiral reviews until exposure and practice have allowed for mastery.  I will document the areas or concepts that need to be front loaded and be prepared for the next time I teach this material for this unit.
d. How will your students use the results to improve their learning?
I believe that when students embrace a growth mind set context, and feel comfortable with the idea of appreciating the process of struggling for learning, they will understand that learning is not innate.  Perseverance pays off, and learning this life skill in the math class will prove to students that learning is possible in any subject. Hopefully, these students will feel comfortable with the discomfort of learning and self-advocate for better grades.
6. Evaluation of Results
a. How will you know if your goals are met?
I will know that goals were met when students reach a minimum of a 75% score by end of term.
b. How will you evaluate the effectiveness of your intervention strategy?
I will evaluate how effective was the intervention strategy was by comparing their performance with previous terms.  If students do better, the strategy was a success.  Documentation will help me to understand where the process was weak students show poor performance after work is submitted.
c. What other strategies might you try to be more effective?
The strategy I want to implement is to provide students with a better experience with alternate assessments.  My first experience with a performance assessment was not as successful as I expected.  I will provide my students with enough time for self-scoring, an intermediate scoring with a schedule meeting with me, and opportunities for correction and final evaluation.  I will also provide a holistic rubric that allows for awareness of criteria.
d. What additional data needs to be collected in the future?
Documentation of Math Inventory results from each trimester, Math final, and Sage scores will be collected.  This documentation will be forwarded to students.   8th grade teachers so they are aware of strategies that were successful during their student’s 7th grade math experience.
e. What do you need to change to improve the assessment process itself?
Through this class, I have gained deeper understanding regarding the meaning of assessments which has transformed my view of tests.  This illumination will improve my process of assessing student understanding versus assessing students. Even through all the professional development regarding formative and summative assessments, I have learned that assessments should not be the end result after a lesson or unit, but a motivation for student learning and an essential component of teaching mathematics or any other subject.  I will use assessments for learning and as a barometer of students understanding that will guide my instruction in a safe environment where this revered process is celebrated.