CTAP4 Data Assessment

Coaching moves beyond the gym. Assessment without victims: An interview with Rick Stiggins. [Journal of Staff Development]

Free Tech Literacy Assessment tool for students in grades K-12, specifically geared toward middle schoolers. who are required to be technology literate by 8th grade.

What is Data-Driven Decision-Making (DDDM) and what should be considered before selecting and implementing Electronic Learning Assessment Resources (ELAR)? The following questions should be understood and/or addressed prior to making the time and funding investment to use an ELAR in your school or district.

The momentum behind building high-quality data systems to harvest better information about student, school, and district performance has never been stronger. Although collecting data is essential, knowing how to analyze and apply this information is just as important for meeting the end goal of improving student achievement. The purpose of this study is to identify, quantify, and report on district-level processes that enable effective utilization of data to increase academic achievement at the classroom level.

If our end goal is to improve student achievement to meet AYP, then a critical intermediate goal is to determine where each of our students is in relation to the state content standards. While the logic is clear, most schools do not collect evidence of or for learning on an ongoing basis. We don't know what to teach students to take them to proficiency on indicators/objectives without knowing where they currently are on those indicators/objectives.

Analyzing your data is a process you will want to involve your entire staff. There are a number of variables that will help you determine the best strategy for your school including the size of staff, organization of teams, availability of computers with Internet, and the amount of staff meeting time. The critical piece is that you model the importance of data analysis and that you involve (mandate) all staff in the process. The odds of teachers making the instructional changes needed for improved student achievement are much greater when the data and what it tells them about current achievement.

Assessment validity refers to the accuracy of a score-based inference about a test taker's status. This definition sounds pretty highbrow, but it really isn't. Educators are interested in getting a fix on students' knowledge and skills so they can make sensible instructional decisions about those students. But teachers can't tell how much a particular student knows merely by looking at the student. That's because students' cognitive skills and knowledge are covert. Accordingly, we test students so we can use their overt responses to the test to make an inference about what's covert. Tests aren't valid or invalid; inferences are.

Overall SAT scores remained flat this year amid continued but slowing growth in the number of high school seniors taking the widely used college-entrance exam, according to a report released today by the College Board, the New York City-based nonprofit organization that owns the exam.

The 2008 California Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program test results for schools, counties, districts, and the state are available at this site. Test results are reported for the six components of the STAR Program:

This site is for district STAR coordinators. The site was developed and is maintained by Educational Testing Service (ETS) under contract with the California Department of Education (CDE). The CDE has contracted with ETS for the development, administration, scoring, and reporting of the California Standards Tests, the California Modified Assessment, the California Alternate Performance Assessment, and the Standards-based Tests in Spanish.

The California Standards Tests (CSTs) are designed to match the state's rigorous academic content standards for each grade. Grades 2 through 8 tests cover mathematics and English/language arts (which includes writing in grades 4 and 7). Grades 9 through 11 cover English/language arts, mathematics, and science. History-social science tests are added for grades 8, 10 and 11 as well as science for grade 5. Except for writing, the questions are multiple-choice.

Seventh-graders who take algebra are ahead of the game but can throw off attempts to use state test results to judge their schools' performance. Most students don't take Algebra 1 until eighth or ninth grade, but a few school districts offer it to a significant number of seventh-graders. So the results released earlier this month on state math tests can be misleading, districts such as Murrieta Unified point out.

A record number of students took the college admissions test, of which 40% were minorities. In California, 5% more students than last year took the SAT.

Assessments of learning provide evidence of achievement for public reporting; assessments for learning serve to help students learn more. The crucial distinction is between testing to determine the status of learning and testing to promote greater learning.

Classroom images and examples of using data to inform.

A major purpose of the monitoring plan is to put in place a system for the ongoing collection of data aligned with the content standard indicators/objectives you are responsible for teaching. You can't analyze data you don't have. And it is not useful to analyze data that is not aligned with your learning outcomes. Once you have the data, you are ready to analyze it.

Analyzing your data is a process in which you will want to involve your entire staff. Good data-driven dialogue keads to data-driven decisions. If you engage staff in an ongoing data dialogue, it is much more likely that you will feel ownership for the data-based decisions you collectively make.

Making data part of instructional planning can be challenging, especially if teachers are not used to thinking about assessment and data as a regular part of the process. This article offers helpful tips.