Yesterday was like Christmas in May! I received a link from College Board regarding our students' performance on the SAT. I played around a little and discovered the treasure of all treasures - ITEM ANALYSIS!
Item analysis allows teacher to see the questions and answers to the assessment. This information is important to determine trends...did our students struggle with evidence questions?...did our students have trouble with pronoun-antecedent agreement?...and other skills.
Here's the problem...IT'S MAY! The days to the school year are winding down, the energy reserves for students and staff are at their lowest, and we are all just trying to figure out how to end the school year and keep our sanity. Do we really want to pour over test results and item analysis and identify trends and look at ways to revise curriculum to address weakness areas?
If not now, when?
I know I'm not going to feel like looking at scores in June while I'm in decompression mode. I know I'm not going to feel like looking at scores in July when I'm coaching at Snow Valley or on my trip with my wife and friends to Vegas. I know I'm not going to want to look at scores in August because I'm going to want to enjoy my final days before the school year starts. Crap...I probably should be looking at scores now while the 16-17 year is fresh in my brain. So for this Friday's TDD (Teacher Development Day), that's my mission. Dig, learn, and think of possibilities of curriculum revision.
How about your school? What is the process of learning what to do next from the data? Is someone working with the data, or do students just get their results and either smile or frown?
Good luck with your data work!
JBiz
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