Create Innovate: In an earlier post I pointed out that merely increasing the learning time is no silver bullet on its own and as a school one of the changes was to become more data driven. The overall year 11 achievement data was shared with students during assemblies. Students were then encouraged to use our online student SMS portal to view their achievement data. Student reports were designed to present their achievement data in a manner that was easily understood by both students and their parents. Setting a school-wide goal of 20 credits per term for each student meant that this could be used as a starting point for discussions during student achievement conferences. Students and parents were then able to set academic goals based around achievement and next steps to meet the school goal of 20 credits per term.
Effective feedback is a great way for teachers to use collected data in order to improve student learning. Unfortunately, feedback opportunities are scarce in most classrooms (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999). Results from almost any assessment can be of great benefit to students, provided they are used to make instructional adjustments. And the shorter the amount of time between assessment and adjustment the more powerful its effect on learning (Using Classroom Data to Give Systematic Feedback to Students to ....http://www.apa.org/education/k12/classroom-data.aspx).
Early student successes are celebrated during whole school, year level assemblies and by “SUCCESS” postcards sent home. Ideas on how to use data more effectively were highlighted in a book I read. A detailed summary of the book may be found at https://goo.gl/WNHCt5.
