The baseline qualitative data is based on student growth in their writing skills. One goal I set for my students this year is for 80% of the class to score a 3.5/4 on the final DBQ assessment which will be assigned in the final quarter of the year. Our baseline data begins with most students receiving a 2/4 or less on the baseline DBQ assessment. Essay writing is a challenge for many of my students because it’s often not prioritized in our school because reading comprehension short response questions often take precedence. In an effort to improve my student's writing performance, I solicit document-based question assessments that require students to satisfy the major components of academic writing. The DBQ assessment emphasizes aligning writing to a specific task, citing relevant evidence, and concisely explaining the evidence to support the primary argument. The DBQ data collected seeks to highlight how I made interpretations of my students’ baseline performance and applied intentional supports to improve their academic writing. 

The French Revolution DBQ

The first official writing assignment provided to my students was the French Revolution DBQ assignment. This was broken into two parts: constructed response questions and essay writing. The student data below highlights three student writing examples and includes teacher feedback using comments or rubric feedback. Based on the first round of writing samples, students generally succeeded in satisfying the essay format requirement but fell short when including supporting ideas, using evidence, and general spelling and grammar mistakes. 

A crucial component of my writing philosophy includes providing students an opportunity to reflect and revise their work. One piece of advice I regularly tell my students is that writing is unlike studying for a test or learning new concepts because writing growth requires a cyclical process of writing, feedback, and revising to improve. The revision process allows students to think about where their writing fell short of satisfying the rubric requirements and what worked the first time around. The student sample below highlights one student's decision to revise their essay for additional points back. The revision highlights the student’s willingness to accept the teacher feedback and apply the changes to support their writing. The student dramatically changed their application of evidence and skillfully explained the significance of the evidence in relation to the primary argument using supporting ideas. 

Fast forward six weeks after the first DBQ baseline writing assessment and RACE writing lessons, students completed their second DBQ benchmark assessment. The second writing assessment presents dramatic student growth compared to the baseline. Several differences show the three writing assessments highlight student's use of the RACE writing structure to provide direction and apply meaningful evidence and explanation to their responses. 

Direct comparison between the baseline document 5 and the DBQ growth samples, all three students showed dramatic growth in writing structure, question-answer alignment, evidence application, and explaining relevancy. The growth samples highlight clear interpretations of the document and the application of strong evidence. In addition, the student language of the growth samples is visibly stronger.  For example, student one's baseline sample is a very simple, short response to the question. In contrast, student one's growth sample for document 2, question 5 dramatically changes their language and style of writing by incorporating RACE and a relevant analogy to drive home their response. 

Student two and three's language changed with the use of language from the textual source and a clear direction from start to finish. Student three's document 2, question 5 made stronger arguments by connecting their interpretation to a cause-and-effect situation. In their baseline sample, they merely reworded language in the document as their argument and added some additional evidence, but neglected a conclusive explanation. Student three showed intuitive responses and continues on the right track to improving their writing skills. 

Moreover, student two's response to the same question was not as strong, but they demonstrated growth on other questions such as document 2, question 4, where they demonstrate a structured example. Student two showed improvement in implementing the RACE writing strategy to influence their responses. However, one area of continued growth is moving past summarizing in their explanation and making authentic connections to their argument. 

The restating and evidence heavy focus of the RACE writing strategy clearly provided my students with a door opener to academic gains. Although some grammatical errors still exist and explanations may require further practice, the movement from non-emergent writers to emergent writers is a major shift in my students' writing.

The qualitative data collected suggests a consistent growth trend over the course of the year. The baseline student DBQ data highlighted major areas of growth for students with special emphasis on citing evidence. After analyzing student data, the intentional application of writing strategies such as RACE dramatically changed my student's approach to writing. The student RACE samples above highlight this initial growth, while the benchmark data provided shows a formative assessment of student writing growth. The immediate gains from implementing RACE put students on an upward trajectory to dramatically improve their writing by the end of the year writing assessment. The EOY assessment will provide a clear example of my students' development and showcase their devotion and hard work in improving their writing skills.