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I am in the habit of analyzing statistics related to student performance. I use this information to make decisions about how to deliver the best instruction I can. Here are some of the studies I have done; studies to which I refer on several pages of this web site in support of one policy or another.
Graph - SLCS Students Scoring Level 4, historical
Graph - SLCS Students Passsing, historical
Reports
Overview
The state assigns to me a curriculum. This is the list of things students have to know or be able to do as a result of the lessons I give them. The state measures how well students meet the goals of the 7th and 8th grade class by giving my students a test each year.
Throughout the year, I take my own measures of how students are doing in the form of grades. I have decided that the final average of these grades has to be really close to what students earn on the NYS exam. I work hard to maintain a grading system that supports this. I look at my students' grades carefully each year to maintain a close correlation with the state exams.
This does not mean I "teach to the test", if by that is meant that we do nothing but practice test questions. This classroom provides a rich environment with an enormous variety of activities and opportunities. However, if by "teach to the test" is meant that I only address the curriculum assigned to me and that I teach very little that is not on the test, then that is true. My responsibility to the curriculum assigned to me is more important than my own tastes about what ought and ought not be taught. Further, the curriculum assigned to me is very ambitious. If I take diversions to study things of interest but which are not assigned to me to teach, I will simply not have time to teach the things I am supposed to. This is a difficult course of study for many students.
The correlation between the grades students earn in my class and the grades they earn on the state test is very high. This means you can depend on the quarter grades and final grade to reveal what students actually know and that decisions I make about what to teach, re-teach, or for whom to design extra help to be all based on solid data. It would be extremely unlikely for a parent to be stunned at a failing mark on a state examination for a student who has good marks in my class.
Links
NYS Education Department School Report Cards
Research into Regulations Pertaining to Modifications to Program in an IEP
Research into Regulations Pertaining to Teacher Authority to Impose Disciplinary Measures
Synthesis of Research on Homework by Harris Cooper
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