Connecting the Data Points

Getting it
Educators have been connecting the dots for thousands of years. In the early years of education many said they just had a, "gut feeling," that a student or disciple needed something. Apprentices were under the watchful eye of the master. If their production was not up to the standard of the craftsman they would have to find another approach to teach the skill, or the student would have to match the requirements of the skilled tradesman or lose the apprenticeship. In the private education that started our educational movement, teachers spoke directly to the needs of the student. There was a personal vested interest in the student, "getting it!"

Standards and Data
We have had standards for thousands of years, we have had data and facts for those years, we have parents, we have had students, and we have had schools in one form or another for all of history. So why now is there such a push for hard data? As technology has improved our access to personalized data has improved along with the technology. We can use not only informal assessments, but we can drill down through students' formal assessments to ferret out data points that we might not even have realized existed ten years ago. We see a correlation with data in adult's lives also. everything we search and use on our computers is tracked and used to specialize advertising to our lives. Data mining has become commonplace in the world.

Begin With the End in Mind
How can we use this technology without becoming test dependent? How do we find a balance? If we test to little, we do not know what our students need. If we test too much, our students will take the tests with little alacrity. We have found in our school environment that if we use the eight-step process our student's success rate increases. The problem we have had is that the testing process has become overwhelming for the teachers and the students. What is the solution? How can we make shorter more valuable assessments that give the information that will best define student needs?
We start by breaking our nine week grading periods into three week blocks in our calendar. Each of these three week segments has specific standards that will be covered. This might be part of the issue! Standards are the base of learning goals, not the ultimate goal. Our instruction must go beyond the standards to meet the needs of all the the students in our classrooms. Using a method such as Understanding By Design in creating lessons will help in this endeavor. Having explicit questions that are to be answered that include the standards, but also tie those questions to other standards or goals will enrich student's understanding. The formative pretests that are given before our three week instruction can be teacher, team, or grade level generated to collect the data on which students do not need specific instruction and could benefit from enrichment. They will also allow instruction in areas that need remediation as well as grade level teaching. at the end of the three weeks this would be re-tested to see what level of mastery students have achieved. As students finish a nine week block- three, three week calendars, an overall summative and formative test will be given to get a reading on the overall success for the nine week period. The process is repeated using the state testing as an end point. Time after this will be used to extend knowledge and enrich learning through hands-on learning.

Don't Overthink the Process
Testing has become an overwhelming part of our educational process. Using a more streamlined process in which we use informal assessment more judicially along with metered formal assessment will allow teachers to trust their, "gut," and support those feelings with data points. A rebellion is starting to brew in the educational world, and the only way to avoid it is to come up with a solution. More testing is not the answer! Simplifying the process for students, teachers and parents will help avoid the testing glut that is plaguing education today.