This terrible v-log goes hand-in-hand with THIS KEYNOTE PRESENTATION.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Lost in Celebration
It's rare that an educator can find issues with high test scores. Rare, but not impossible. I say that because, depending on your perspective, even good news like high test scores has its doppelganger.
My partner and I assessed ITBS scores from a grade three class at small K-8 private school. It was a good meeting. My partner has not spent much time assessing ITBS scores so there was some learning on her part. She picked up on it quite quickly. It was also good for me as it was a refresher course of sorts since I've not done it in a bit. The meeting went longer than I had suspected, but in a good way. The thing about data is that you need to have a goal in mind (because you can spend days dissecting data) but must also be flexible (assessment will oftentimes uncover information you weren't expecting to find).
Part of this school's niche is creating a learning environment that builds successful students (in general). This success is obviously unique to each child - something the teachers and administration understand clearly. Class sizes in this school typically average 12 - 14 students each year, ranging from as few as six to as many as 20 in some years.
The class that we assessed had 15 students. The average student complete composite NPR for the ITBS was 82%. This meant that the students, on average, scored better on the ITBS than 81% of all other third graders across the country. This is a very good stat. The thing is, it could actually be better. If we dropped the two lowest individual student scores, the class average actually jumped six percent! If we continue to drill down, 40% of the class scored in the top 10% of the country. Still further, two students (13%) scored in the 99th percentile, a score that is impossible to best (as there is no 100th percentile).
With such incredible scores, the school is obviously doing what it claims - the proof is in the proverbial pudding. And in case you are wondering, no, they do not "teach to the test." The curriculum is not aligned to the ITBS or any other standardized test. I know this to be true from conducting teacher observations and interviews and having an in-depth look at the curriculum.
But a question arose as we weeded through the data. What happened to the two outliers? Scoring in the bottom half of the country was not something that the typical student at this school would do. We wondered what factors were in play that would lead to these scores. Did they simply not test well? Were they ESL students? Did they have reading difficulties? Were they both from a lower socio-economic level than any of their classmates? What, if anything, set them apart from their classmates that could have resulted in these much lower scores (the next lowest was 72%)? Did their learning styles differ from others', conflicting with the teacher's instruction style?
We can - and will - look at this closer. We both clearly need more data to answer any of the questions we had above. Neither of us want these two students to get lost in our celebration of the class' success in totality. Educating the individual is the focus. It's something in which we both wholeheartedly believe.
Have you experienced something like this? What did you do? What would you do differently?
My partner and I assessed ITBS scores from a grade three class at small K-8 private school. It was a good meeting. My partner has not spent much time assessing ITBS scores so there was some learning on her part. She picked up on it quite quickly. It was also good for me as it was a refresher course of sorts since I've not done it in a bit. The meeting went longer than I had suspected, but in a good way. The thing about data is that you need to have a goal in mind (because you can spend days dissecting data) but must also be flexible (assessment will oftentimes uncover information you weren't expecting to find).
Part of this school's niche is creating a learning environment that builds successful students (in general). This success is obviously unique to each child - something the teachers and administration understand clearly. Class sizes in this school typically average 12 - 14 students each year, ranging from as few as six to as many as 20 in some years.
The class that we assessed had 15 students. The average student complete composite NPR for the ITBS was 82%. This meant that the students, on average, scored better on the ITBS than 81% of all other third graders across the country. This is a very good stat. The thing is, it could actually be better. If we dropped the two lowest individual student scores, the class average actually jumped six percent! If we continue to drill down, 40% of the class scored in the top 10% of the country. Still further, two students (13%) scored in the 99th percentile, a score that is impossible to best (as there is no 100th percentile).
With such incredible scores, the school is obviously doing what it claims - the proof is in the proverbial pudding. And in case you are wondering, no, they do not "teach to the test." The curriculum is not aligned to the ITBS or any other standardized test. I know this to be true from conducting teacher observations and interviews and having an in-depth look at the curriculum.
But a question arose as we weeded through the data. What happened to the two outliers? Scoring in the bottom half of the country was not something that the typical student at this school would do. We wondered what factors were in play that would lead to these scores. Did they simply not test well? Were they ESL students? Did they have reading difficulties? Were they both from a lower socio-economic level than any of their classmates? What, if anything, set them apart from their classmates that could have resulted in these much lower scores (the next lowest was 72%)? Did their learning styles differ from others', conflicting with the teacher's instruction style?
We can - and will - look at this closer. We both clearly need more data to answer any of the questions we had above. Neither of us want these two students to get lost in our celebration of the class' success in totality. Educating the individual is the focus. It's something in which we both wholeheartedly believe.
Have you experienced something like this? What did you do? What would you do differently?
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