[LM_NET] HIT: Data from Standardized Tests

[Toni Buzzeo <tonibuzzeo@TONIBUZZEO.COM>]

ORIGINAL POST:
As I'm sure many of you know, my passion is collaboration and my 
current focus is on data-driven collaboration.  As I prepare my 
workshop for AASL, it would be helpful to me to hear answers from 
those of you who have a bit of time (ha! at the beginning of the 
school year?!?!?!?) to questions I have asked in the past. Feel free 
to answer any or all of them:

1) Who receives the test results data in your school?

2) How is the test data shared?

3) Are you always present when the data is presented?

4) If not, how do (or can) you gain access to the data? Have you come 
up with a work-around to being left out of data-sharing?

5) What are the top areas of student gaps or deficits that your 
school is seeing in your students?

RESPONSES:
In my district we have a new online system (Eduphoria which I believe 
is a commercial program) that allows us to view students' test 
scores. It has the capabilities of highlighting and sorting the data. 
It also shows exactly which questions students missed most. Since we 
were just trained last week I haven't had time yet to access the 
information, but I know our scores in vocabulary are an issue for us.

Because I most closely work with Lang. Arts that is what I am most 
familiar with. Our reading scores dropped this past year, which 
hasn't happened in recent history. The largest gap was in 7th grade 
in my school (we only have 7th/8th). However, problems in vocabulary 
were felt across the district in every TAKS grade level, as least as 
far as Reading went.

***

In my school, every certified staff person is told about the status 
of our test results at an inservice. The data is given to the teams 
of teachers who work with the students in the classroom. It is made 
available to all other staff upon request. I also have district 
access to all of the student results for all of the schools, as I use 
it to help me guide the students in selecting materials at their 
reading level to make the task more enjoyable. I am always present 
when the data is presented to the staff. As far as deficits go, we 
are making AYP for all students in all areas, except for Special 
Education reading. We do find that students are having difficulty 
with reading nonfiction materials for information, despite the fact 
that they love to check out nonfiction books from my library. I 
personally believe that this is in part due to the fact that we 
encourage students to read nonfiction material for fun, but when we 
then ask them to read them for information, they don't understand 
that the reading strategies change.

***

Our test data is received by the principal who immediately shares 
with the asst. principal and counselor.  This usually happens just 
before we start back to school in early August and they are the only 
faculty working at that time.

A couple of weeks after school starts, each grade is given the test 
data for the students they taught the previous year. This information 
is used to identify low areas for each grade level.  The teachers are 
required to complete spreadsheets for each area tested on all 
students in their classes or subject area - this is done for the 
students they are teaching in the current year.  This information is 
supposed to be used to identify areas the current students need to improve on.

The overall data and results are shared in a faculty meeting held for 
all faculty (me included).

Our school did not make AYP for the second year in a row in only 1 
area - special education reading.

***

No, I don't receive the test data It is compiled by the SIS - 
specialists in school who used to be called Reading, Math or Science 
Coaches. They review it with the Principal and VP, and then it's 
shared with classroom teachers. If I want to know or see it, I can 
ask.  I normally ask for an informal assessment from the classroom 
teacher. Our big failures are always vocabulary, inference and 
anything science.  We are a low SES and mostly ESL / Bilingual 
school. Social studies isn't tested yet, but it is I know we'll bomb 
it big time.

Most of my planning is very informal (I'm on a fixed / flexed 
schedule).   I do lots of read alouds (which I love) and introduce 
vocabulary and inference while doing so.  I do collaborate with my 
4th grade teachers when they do a an intensive month long "Writing 
Camp" just before the big state writing test.   Again it's informal - 
Walking through the parking lot together.

Me " what's the focus this week"
Teacher "we're working on leads".
Me  "OK got it"
Granted I've been at my school for 18 years so I know everybody and 
they know me.

***

Principal receives the test results.  They are presented at a faculty 
meeting with the possibility of receiving a hard copy.  I am always 
present when the data is presented.

***

I am in a K-8 Catholic school and to answer your questions:
1.  Testing is done in April and by June the principal has the results.
2.  ALL faculty assemble for a review of the data. (gaps in 
achievement, accomplishments, etc.)  This is presented in paper form: 
bar graphs we get from the testing center.  Each grade gets their own 
data to review and to make notes if they so desire.
3.  All specials teachers are required to attend this meeting. In 
August during our pre-planning week (week before students report) we 
ALL assemble again, this time to review in depth.  We have bar graphs 
by grade and then subject.  One slide per grade to show all subjects 
so we can see what percentile of students achieved partial mastery, 
mastery, or no mastery.   This information also compares our most 
recent scores to the previous years scores AND the diocesan 
scores.  This visual REALLY makes an impact.  The next event is to 
meet with the teachers from the grade below and then above you (3rd 
gr. meets w/ 2nd to get comments on the class they will have this 
year, then 3rd gr meets with 4th gr to comment on the class they are 
sending up) All special teachers are assigned a group to work 
with.  At this meeting, goals for differentiated instruction are discussed.
4.  Specials (and classroom teachers) have access to the data all year long)
5.  While we are pleased with our percentiles, we are always looking 
for improvement.

In the past, I have not worked formally with classroom teachers to 
address deficits.  I zeroed in on what I thought would extend 
learning. I am not included in grade partner planning sessions.  I 
get my info. in the hall, lunch room, bathroom, etc. "What are you 
working on?  I have a great book/video/database that can help with 
that".  As long as it doesn't involve more work for the teachers 
(they are SO stretched) they are grateful.

***

The principal picks up the State testing results from the District Office.

The principal shares school-wide, and grade level information with 
the Leadership Team and then the whole staff during a staff meeting. 
The principal and/or site mentor give each teacher their class 
results at the grade level meetings - the only information shared is 
the grade-level results.

Yes, I am present when the data is presented.

If anyone on the teaching staff is not present, then the staff mentor 
shares the information with them.

Reading comprehension and writing ( we use a 6 traits type rubric - 
the schools in my District are 'meeting' the Benchmark, but were just 
averaging 3.7 ) are our areas of gaps.

***

In my school, the test results data go first to the principal and the 
department heads. The principal interprets the high level results to 
all staff in a staff meeting (things like English results overall and 
grade by grade improved from x to x. However we are not meeting 
adequate yearly improvements of X that were set for us by the state.)

In some cases, such as our math scores for the past 2 years, we might 
be told which population of students was the only one that did not 
make adequate progress -- for instance, "special education students 
who receive school lunch tickets did not make adequate progress, but 
all other student populations did." That way, we can brainstorm how 
to bring that population the instruction they need to perform where 
the other populations are.

All teachers are invited to meet with the principal to see how their 
own students did. Results can be viewed to the level of student by 
student, question by question, and which standard each question 
represents within that subject.

I have not felt a need to view results to that degree of granularity. 
(My sense is that if I asked, I would be allowed.) However, 
especially for the English tests, I have asked for high-level 
interpretation of red flag areas. One result -- I was told that 
reading a non-fiction passage and answering questions about the 
passage has been an area of concern on our English tests for all 
three grades several years in a row. Because I know that, I have made 
it a point to approach our English teachers to suggest some 
collaborative non-fiction literature lessons.

***

We start school this week but were notified by email in early August 
that our school had made AYP.  Tomorrow in our first inservice 
day.  At the faculty meeting we will be getting the results of 
testing but I can answer some of your questions.

Our principal receives the test results data in our school. The test 
data is presented at a faculty meeting.  Each teacher, including PE, 
art, music, and library, gets a copy of the data. I am always present 
at this meeting.

***

Every faculty usually gets a copy of the over all picture. Teachers 
get individual student results.

Data is shared in tables, graphs, etc.

Sometimes I am at workshops, meetings, or other places, so not at the 
meeting, but I am usually offered a copy.

We are connected to Curriculum Central, which I find difficult as a 
librarian to maneuver as you have to select a topic and grade level 
to find information.

Main Idea, supporting details, are usually the big student gaps.

***

The sad truth is that I do not come up on my principal's radar.  She 
isn't against me, but she just doesn't give me or the library a 
second thought.  Since I'm good at my job, faculty never complains 
about my programming and in fact people often praise our library 
program, and me; plus the students LOVE their library.... well it's 
easy to allow me to just sit on her back burner.  She is an 
administrator who jumps like a bunny to make sure she follows the 
current party line on administrative protocols within out 
district.  Her reports to higher-ups are always on time, include all 
the required data, and she pushes top-down every new fangled thingy 
that comes along.  Let me be clear, she isn't against me or the 
library program.  The real truth-to-tell thing is that I will NEVER 
be treated like by best-friend colleague here in my district.  Her 
principal will come to her at the end of the year, "Hey, I have some 
left over money.  Gotta spend it, do you have any 
recommendations?  Is there anything the library needs?"  She and I 
operate just about the same (PR, programming stuff, professional 
level contributions and behaviors, collaborative efforts within 
school), but her principal deeply values his LMS and the LMC.

MY data experiences - It changes every year.  I'm on the vertical 
reading team, then I'm not.  I sit in on the meetings to review test 
scores and teachers ask for my contributions; plus in their lists of 
things to do for improvement they list things like "more research 
projects with Librarian", "more genre related activities planned 
w/Librarian"; "more library visits and lessons"; "cross discipline 
units planned w/Librarian" - then other times I'm not even told when 
they meet to discuss scores.

I've always been provided with the data either in a meeting setting 
or if I've asked for it.  This year I decided the ball is in my 
principal's court.  I attended the 5th grade meeting to review scores 
(5th grade is the most important elementary grade regarding scores), 
my principal handed out score reports to each teacher not me (I could 
have asked and she would have given, but...)  She spoke with the 
teachers, but didn't actually get any planned ideas down on 
paper.  She never made eye contact with me or spoke to me during that 
meeting.  We had a big change in the way numbers are calculated this 
year and she is most worried about how that will "read" with the 
public.  The assistant principal seems much more aware of my 
contributions.  She spent the meeting leaning over to share her 
paper/scores and mentioned several things with me.

My friend's data experiences - each year their school has a whole 
faculty meeting to review the scores from last year and they fight 
over who gets the librarian on their planning team (grade levels), so 
my friend makes the rounds.  They discuss lots of notes that they 
will go over throughout the year with my friend as they continue to 
tweak their ideas.  Her principal knows all about how they work 
together.  When the planning sessions are all over her principal 
meets with her in the library, hallway, his office or whatever and he 
says something along the lines of "Let me know if you'll need 
anything extra this year.  Just turn in some lists and I'll make sure 
to find the money for it."  He clearly sees her program and 
collection as a huge value to the whole school and all students.

In my district each library gets the state required $9 per 
student.  Then we can fundraise or get PTA support or write 
grants.  I usually double my annual allotment with these alternate 
sources, and I now get all of my required district money (not so when 
the current principal came on board but that is a completely 
different sad story.)  My friend does just about the same as myself 
except she always gets additional funds from her principal because he 
values the library.

So, that's the tale of two schools and how the librarian works 
within.  I know that my students, teachers and parents just think I'm 
the bee's knees; and like I said my principal has no worries about 
me.  If you asked she would say, "Our media specialist is wonderful, 
everyone loves her!"  My best buddy at school is the principal's 
sister who retired and decided to come volunteer everyday.  She loves 
the library and can run the place as my sub, but they don't pay for a 
library sub at my school.

***

1. The principal, data clerk, counselors, consultants and department 
chairs get the data first.
2. The different recipients get a copy of the reports and after we go 
through it in small and large groups to analyze and discuss, it gets 
reported to the teachers that are involved in teaching those students 
tested.  Once it has been hashed out that way, then the department 
chairs and principal present it to the department.  Copies are given 
to the teachers that are involved, and they can then make copies for 
peers who are interested.  Finally, data is presented to the faculty 
as a whole.
**important note, I am the department chair for language arts.
3. Librarians are present when it is presented to the entire faculty.
4. If I were left out, I would probably ask for a copy from a 
department chair or teacher, or the principal.
5. 7th Reading - huge gap!  They continue to score below 6th and 8th 
reading on state tests.  GT classes - percentage of those scoring 
commended isn't significant.  Spec Ed for Science.

***

Campuses  receive data through a program called AEIS-It, which allows 
staff to create reports, get subsets, etc.; Central Office folks load 
the data into the proper location.  There are also reports from state 
education agency available for download online.  I can access AEIS-IT.


Toni Buzzeo, MA, MLIS <mailto:tonibuzzeo@tonibuzzeo.com>
Maine Library Media Specialist of the Year Emerita
Buxton, ME 04093
http://www.tonibuzzeo.com
The Collaboration Handbook (Linworth 2008)

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