Activity Description and Summary
I met with the director of curriculum to determine the school’s needs based on content area data and the schools mission. The meeting brought to light the need to address the area of English Language Arts -reading. According to the Achievement Network Scores (Anet) (2014), the children have been receiving scores below 60% and these grades keep fluctuating.
The process through which data is shared and analyzed is a simple one in my school. A special date and time is usually given for the data meeting and teachers access their class data before each meeting. At the meeting the teachers are joined by the principal and coaches to have the discussion on the results. The result for each grade is examined to
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On these days children’s scores are reviewed to see where they are weak and why the weakness is occurring. Teachers also have to plan lessons for the re-teaching of the topics where the children are showing weaknesses. The principal at my school is using data in the correct way in that time is set aside for the data discussion and plans made as teachers use the data to answer questions. However, what I would do differently is not just analyze data from immediate test scores but I would add data that speaks to the whole child. That is, I would include data collected from parents, data on behavior, and data from previous years and so on. This data, together, give a clearer overall picture of the child and so would provide a clearer answer to questions as to why a child is having difficulty performing. Positive change can only occur when answers to questions are …show more content…
This is so because progress monitoring, when used correctly, is an effective tool. Firstly, learning is accelerated as areas of weaknesses are addressed using appropriate instruction. Secondly, the decisions that teachers take are not ‘willy, nilly’ but they are informed - in the sense that- the progress monitor informs the teacher as to how a strategy has worked or did not worked. Further, it “increases students’ awareness of their own performance” (Myers, 2015, p.3). Finally, this activity impacts student achievement because it provides regular assessment of the children’s progress rather than having to wait for the end of a year or quarter to see how children are performing in a particular area. Progress monitoring is, therefore, paramount to students’
...achieving high scores on standardized tests” (Solley).Because of this, teachers take more time to teach test preparation skills than valuable information (Neill, 165). Although standardized tests have been trusted for years to assess the progress of students, there is little evidence that they measure progress accurately.
...racy skills to function as adults, and we have a responsibility to our students to help them acquire those skills. We need to improve our weak characteristics of our campus and continue to use our strengths to develop new programs that will benefit our students’ abilities. If given the chance to improve my campus’s literacy programs, I would do whatever it took to make it a success and I would use multiple resources to find answers to questions that I could not answer. I would bring all these things together to make an after school literacy program a success.
Moreover, the student demonstrated a high reading ability that is somewhat beyond their grade level. I have identified that he is on or above his expected reading level. He should be provided enrichment in reading. By discovering this, his teachers can plan accordingly to build on his present skills and help him develop into a well-rounded reader.
A nationwide investigation also reviled school across the nation were involved in changing test scores. In order to stop this cruel and I think criminal intent on our children we must understand different learning habits. Also understand the environment of the child. The environment plays a strong role in how our children learn and are able to grasp what is being taught. Most importantly we must be patient. Every child does not learn one the same level. We are all different in so many ways. The teaching outline should reflect our unique characteristics. Let’s use the universalization test. What would the United States be like if every educator changed test scores? We would be a nation of inadequate uneducated individuals. We have an unwavering responsibility to our children.
An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the Colorado Growth Model to help guide them to determine if students have made adequate yearly progress. Together, they created the plan that included the district goals mentioned above as well as continuing to include new technology skills, information on special education changes with Response to Intervention (RTI), maintaining current staff implementation of literacy goals and a new goal of raising achievement in math.
I think in order to improve our kid’s exam scores we need to start with the administrators. They are the ones who are in charge of hiring teachers and evaluating them. They need to make more time to go by classrooms and make sure that work is getting done in the classrooms. I think that principals should enjoin more test in the format as the State test are given. They should also provide students with ample time learn the information that need to be learned. When I was in high school we were on block schedule, which only gave us four classes every day. So we had eight classes total. We spent almost two hours in each class. So that gave teachers more time to cover material and they were able to make the test longer since we had a longer period of time to take them. However, we only saw them ever other day.
Don’t you think students should take standardized tests? To start with standardized tests make sure schools are doing good. It also helps students prepare for later on in school such as elementary school, middle school, high school, and even collage. Even though it takes a while to get the test results back it only takes about 2 days to test. If students didn't take standardized tests how would you know how much they have progressed through the year.It will also give you preperation for next year.Sometimes the time depends on how long the students take to test. It not only tells you how good kids are doing but how well the teachers are teaching. It also shows and helps to know what subjects students are struggling in and what they're succeeding
Moreover, there are two different ways to avoid standardized testing and still be able to evaluate students and teachers. For example, doing a student portfolio throughout the year would allow the school system to keep a record of the progress of each individual in every subject. “Schools around the country are incorporating direct demonstrations of student learning into their assessment
Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.
With baby steps, it will get better day by day. One proposal is taking away some of the focus off of taking a test. Receiving low scores often results in the vilifying of educators. With all of this pressure, teachers begin to lose their passion for education and sometimes the unthinkable of giving students the answers to the exams specifically like the case of the eleven school teachers from Atlanta. Eleven teachers were arrested in a cheating scandal in which the teachers provided students with answers to do the standardized tests and some even changed the answers for the kids (WashingtonPost.com). We pressure too many of educators into extreme actions like these. Imagine having a group of children who can barely read and being told they have to score a nearly impossible score in less than year. Testing is taking away some of the purposes of education and of the educator 's reason for doing what they
Literacy is an on-going skill that teachers and students alike should commonly study and practice in all grades. Problems faced by teachers, especially teachers in higher grades, are not having the skills to be effective teachers of literacy. To effectively teach literacy across content areas, a teacher would need skills such as knowledge of the reading process and the ability to cultivate the knowledge gained in order to make informed decisions within their classrooms (Clary, Oglan, Styslinger,
Observation is important as the practitioner can find out what the child is interested in and what motivates them to learn alongside their progress and how they behave in certain situations, additionally at the same time it identifies if children need assistance within certain areas of learning or socially (DCSF, 2008). Furthermore the observations check that the child is safe, contented, healthy and developing normally within the classroom or early years setting, over time the observations can be given to parents as they show a record of progress which helps to settle the parent and feel more comfortable about their child’s education. Observations are not only constructive within learning about an individual child, they can be used to see how different groups of children behave in the same situation and how adults communicate and deal with children’s behaviour (Meggitt and Walker, 2004). Overall observations should always look at the positives of what children can complete within education and not look at the negatives and all observations should become a fundamental part of all practitioners work alongside reflection (Smidt, 2009).
It is a “reading world” we live in and students should be guaranteed every opportunity to succeed in this information driven society. Children today are overwhelmed with more reading material than ever before on billboard, television, the Internet and at school, causing reading to become a relevant and essential need in the life of every child (Lumpkin 1972). Being able to read has become the core of our information driven society. Yet, reading difficulties continue to plague the foundation of our education system creating a problem that only seems to be escalating. Hasselbring affirms that reading difficulties are a serious concern to our nation’s students claiming that, “as many as 20 percent of 17 year olds... [are] functionally illiterate and 44 percent of all high school students…[are] described as semi-illiterate”(2004). This is a harsh reality to face – a reality that stems from difficulties developed at the elementary level where reading complications arise and usually go unchecked. These reading difficulties are carri...
It is important that teachers give children a fair chance to show their knowledge when assessing. “The purpose of assessment is to provide feedback that can be used to improve student performance” (Orange 2000). Teachers assess children to ensure that they are understanding the material, and to make sure they are learning. For young children, tests should never be the only criteria for assessment. Instructors should always make sure that their assessment is fair.
As teachers, we have to monitor the progress our students make each day, week, quarter and year. Classroom assessments are one of the most crucial educational tools for teachers. When assessments are properly developed and interpreted, they can help teachers better understand their students learning progress and needs, by providing the resources to collect evidence that indicates what information their students know and what skills they can perform. Assessments help teachers to not only identify and monitor learners’ strengths, weaknesses, learning and progress but also help them to better plan and conduct instruction. For these reasons, ongoing classroom assessment is the glue that binds teaching and learning together and allows educators to monitor their efficacy and student learning.