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Dramatic Academic Growth
Dramatic Academic Growth
Introduction
Introduction
To be a transformational teacher is to be equitable to all and willing to make strategic moves to differentiate to student needs. Every year I have been in the classroom, I have noticed that students with significant academic gaps enter my room. My task is to close or minimize gaps to set students for success for years to come.
One way I can do this is by tracking students' growth through assessments and their progress. This can be done through qualitative and quantitative methods. Last year (2021-2022) was my first year as a third-grade teacher. Previously I taught first grade. The students I had last year were students I taught virtually for part of the year, and I was curious to see what academic gaps and gains there were as I knew that first and second grade were virtual for most students.
Most of my students were below grade level, and I knew I had to find ways to close those gaps. This meant being intentional during whole group, small group, morning meeting, intervention, and transition times. Through this time, I saw growth in all students academically and in their social-emotional learning and daily interactions with others, as most students had not been in a school building for over a year and a half. For the class I has for 2021-2022, I will be using their data for quantitative data.
This school year (2022-2023), I am entering my second year as a third-grade teacher and, again, have the pleasure of teaching students I taught virtually when they were in first grade. I remember the feeling I had when they went to second grade and thought about how hard it was to send my students to the next grade level, unsure if they had made the proper growth to excel in second grade as in that year we were quarantined several times, and the school day was shortened that year. I will be using this data for qualitative data.
Quantitative
Quantitative
The assessment I will be using is the NWEA MAP test. This test is individualized, and students have been taking this test since they were in kindergarten. Coming into third grade, most students know how to take this test. The only difference with this year is that this is the first year the test is not read to them, so they heavily have to rely on their reading ability. This test adapts as students answer 35-42 questions meaning that the rigor depends on if the child is answering questions correctly. We are then given their RIT scores which help us understand their reading ability and comprehension. It also helps me see how students are doing compared to students in the state of Texas and the country at their grade level.
This is some of the terminology that will be used when reviewing student data (NWEA, 2020).
For more information on the NWEA MAP test click here.
MAP Sample Questions
MAP Sample Questions
RIT+Reference+Brochure_July19.pdfSample question types for reading MAP assessment.
This page comes up when students have completed their assessment.
Sample of the excel document I use to organize students for intervention.
On the left, I included sample questions that show the question types students have to answer at each RIT score for each section of the test. It is important to note that if a student is doing well on one part of the reading test, they could get more difficult questions on one section than another.
This is an example of the screen that pops up after a student takes their test. It shows the time the student took to take the test and their RIT score for each reading test section. This shows me that though the student's overall RIT score was 166, they are struggling with Foundational Language Skills: Vocabulary as they scored a RIT score on that section that is way below their mean RIT. I use this information in different ways. First, this is something students see that they are instantly looking at their goal card to see if they met their goal. I also use this information to help me group students for intervention. For example, I look at the data, and then during our intervention block, my co-teachers and I group students according to this data. We work on different skills each week. The first few weeks of intervention would be on Foundational Language Skills and Vocabulary, and we would organize students in groups with similar scores. The excel screenshot below shows how we use this data from the strands they are being tested on to categorize them for intervention time which is 30 minutes daily.
For more information on MAP sample questions click here.
MAP Achievement Norms
MAP Achievement Norms
The last updated reading student achievement norm was in 2020. These norms show what a student's mean RIT should be when they take this assessment in the fall, winter, and spring, depending on their grade level.
This chart is essential because it helps me see what content I should use when working with students.
Though these are the norms, I set their goals based on the typical growth, which is calculated by the district, and we use these numbers to set a goal to show if the child is making significant progress throughout the school year.
To learn more about MAP achievement norms click here.
Student Data
Student Data
I have included the Achievement Status and Growth Summary Report for Fall 2021 to Spring 2022. This information shows the whole class. Below I will have the excel I use to analyze student data. This data shows that 73% of students met or exceeded their projected MAP goal. This means that 16 of the 22 students in this class ended the school year scoring above the projected score that MAP and the district projected them to make.
Many students were able to make significant growth throughout the year. The average student made 15 points of growth. Using the 2020 Reading Student Growth Norms below, this is an exceptional amount of growth as a third-grade student is only, on average, to make 10 points of growth from fall to spring. As I look at my data, 12 students, or 55% of the students on this roster, made over 15 points of growth, meeting or surpassing their end-of-year goal. Through small group intervention and strategic planning, using the data collected in the fall and again in the winter helped students reach those goals. 19 out of 22 students entered the grade level below grade level. I was able to help these students make growth so that the academic gap was not something that continued to grow, but rather, over half of the students who were below grade level were now at or 2-3 points away from being on grade level for the end of the year. Gathering this data helped me be a transformational teacher because I took action with this data and decided that continuously teaching whole group will not help all students reach their goals and close academic gaps they might have.
This is an example of a student who started in my class below grade level. If I had continued only teaching this student in a whole group setting, was not intentional during my intervention, and did not focus on the skills he needed, this growth would not have been as significant. The first three points show the growth he made in third grade. As he continues to receive intervention that he needs with smaller gaps, he was able to start fourth grade closer to grade level, which is a 196 for fourth grade, versus when he started at a 158 in third grade when the average third grader is scoring a RIT of 186. This closed a gap that used to be almost 20 points to six points.
To learn more about MAP growth norms click here
In these photos, you can see a close-up of a student and their goal card and them meeting both their reading and writing goal. On the second slide, there are a group of students in this photo who met both of their goals. They were celebrated by receiving a snack of their choosing and were able to bring their bike for recess.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The 2021-2022 school year data shows that my students made dramatic growth. Many students had not been in the school building for over a year and a half because of COVID-19. Students entering the school building in third grade were significantly behind.
This data helped me see how to strategically plan throughout the year to continue pushing my students forward in what they needed, and the data showed that this was successful. Using the different resources MAP has available and co-creating plans with educators and through research, I was able to push my students. I worked on skills with my students during intervention that are not typically seen in the curriculum. Strategic planning is necessary for students to know the content needed to close the academic gaps. Students being below grade level meant I had to find content covered by standards in the previous grade level and reteach this content for my students. Through doing all students were to achieve success, with 73% of them going above and beyond and surpassing the goals set for them.
Quantitative Data References
Quantitative Data References
NWEA. (2020). 2020 NWEA MAP Growth normative data overview [PDF]. https://teach.mapnwea.org/impl/MAPGrowthNormativeDataOverview.pdf
Qualitative
Qualitative
Introduction
Introduction
As a transformational teacher, I must collect not just quantitative but qualitative data as well. This is important because it helps me track student progress more consistently and efficiently.
As I reflected on my practice, I consistently noticed that students dramatically grow in their comprehension skills in my classroom. This year I want to continue to work on that, but also shift and look at student writing conventions. This practice is sometimes not prioritized because of all the other things that I want to make sure my students know.
The three students below are students who all entered my classroom at different academic levels. My goal for these students is not for them to score advanced on all components in the rubric but to make progress moving up one tier in each element. I plan to do this by intentionally checking in on students when they are writing and providing feedback on their work. The work below is the final draft they completed after receiving feedback. Though they received specific scores on how they answered the prompts, my priority for this was looking at their writing conventions.
Rubric
Rubric
The rubric to the left is what I will be using this school year to gather progress on students when it comes to their writing mechanics. This is something that will help me ensure students are making progress. I saw a rubric very similar to this on online as I looked for something that focused on third grade writing conventions. I did change it a bit to make sure it does relate to the work that I do with my students. I use this rubric specifically every other week as I want to make sure this is something I am checking often to see if there is progress being made.
Student Samples
Student Samples
While looking at the samples, I saw that Student A could answer questions accurately at the beginning and middle of the year. Student A struggled with punctuation, capitalization, and complete thoughts in a sentence when beginning the school year. Student A was always strong with their spelling. One thing I noticed when comparing both is that the student is writing on the lines now and is able to write to the end of the line. Student A also has improved on capitalization but is still writing a few letters as capital letters instead of lowercase letters. Student A started the grade level receiving a basic on complete sentences, which helped me know that they needed support on how to write a complete sentence. Through working on in-class instruction, giving constant individual feedback, and modeling it in work I perform in front of the class, this rubric was able to advance to proficient. Student A is an example of where many students considered academically medium-high students entered writing this school year. This student also showed the progress that a lot of students were able to make this year.
Student B is a student who started off the school year struggling academically, especially when it came to writing and reading; as seen in the rubric that students scored a basic on punctuation, spelling, and complete sentences. Student B's strengths were using capital letters when needed but struggled to use any punctuation, grade-level spelling, and writing in complete sentences. Through intervention and daily feedback, there was a tremendous amount of growth in this student. I also talked to Student B's parent, who supported and worked with her child at home. One immediate change I started to see was that student B wrote smaller and more legibly. Though there was tremendous growth, this student still needs to work on punctuation as before, they were not putting any punctuation, and now they are using too much punctuation. I want to continue to pull this student to talk about sentence structure and punctuation. I am incredibly proud of this student's growth and am excited to see where they end the school year regarding their writing conventions.
Student C has also made dramatic growth. At the beginning of the year, this student showed that their strengths were spelling patterns and capitalization, getting both correct about 75% of the time. Still, they did struggle with punctuation and complete sentences receiving a basic on these two things. This student was one that, with quick one-on-one feedback and reflection on their work, they could progress. This student needed constant reminders to check their work before turning it in, which helped them a lot as they had all the tools to do it correctly, but tended to rush. With us two working together, I have seen strength in not only staying on topic, but their writing conventions making the most growth in writing complete sentences. This student was then able to receive a proficient score on all four sections of the rubric.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As a transformational teacher, I must observe my qualitative data to make sure students are making consistent progress. The data collected above shows the dramatic growth my students have been able to make through intervention, feedback, and reteaching. When these writing samples were pulled, one skill that all students scored basic on were complete sentences. The same observation was noticed when they entered my classroom. This skill was something that I knew I would have to reinforce daily. This was done through my modeling, giving sentence stems, giving feedback to students during instruction for other students to see, and praising students when they started picking up habits that showed complete responses. Being intentional about what each student needs has made me a stronger teacher and made students feel supported.
DAG Section Conclusion & Reflection
DAG Section Conclusion & Reflection
As an educator, the last two years have been the most challenging. Throughout these two years, I have seen how virtual learning significantly impacted where students should be academically. Though this has been challenging, it has led to me being more intentional with how I approach my teaching practice. I aim to continue making these adjustments in my practice so that students are consistently growing and receiving what they need to progress. As a transformational teacher, I have also learned that the most important thing an educator can do to see dramatic growth is to give students feedback. Students should know their progress and be part of creating their goals. For example, when we look at our quantitative data, students understand their purpose for MAP testing and are elated when they receive the screen showing that they are done, and they see that their goal is met. This leads them to see success in themselves and the work that they are doing. This motivates me to continue my transformational practices, as I want to see all my students succeed.
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