Introduction

At my school, teachers understand that providing a high-quality, rigorous education is an essential component to opening doors for students. Teachers need to aggressively grow all students each year in order to ensure that when they leave high school they are able to be competitive in college and beyond. To prepare all students to be successful in college and life, teachers must hold high expectations so students are ready to compete with students from even the most privileged neighborhoods. Academic gains are crucial to student preparedness, and transformational teachers constantly review data to make sure these gains are happening on a consistent basis for all students.

From my time in special education, I value gathering data from a variety of assessments over the year in order to gain a thorough understanding of students' abilities. I obtain data through progress monitoring, KTEA testing, observations, skills checklists, IEP goal progress, NWEA MAP tests, and writing and speaking samples. With this data, I am able to create an IEP that best serves each student, as well as track progress and make changes to my teaching practices as necessary.

While I collect data from a variety of subjects and sources, for this data review, NWEA MAP data and student speaking samples are the measures I rely on the most in order to make informed decisions about student growth and mastery. The NWEA MAP data is collected from the 2019-2020 school year, while the speaking samples are from the Fall of 2020.

Quantitative Data

The NWEA MAP test is an individualized test, which means that the test adapts to each student's answer, either providing a more rigorous or less rigorous question in response to the student's previous answer. Typically, students are given about 40 questions, and NWEA MAP creates a RIT score based on student answers to these questions. The RIT scores can then be used to provide insight on a student's reading ability in comparison to peers, and as a way to measure growth throughout the year. The Reading MAP test tests students on their vocabulary and acquisition, nonfiction reading abilities, and literature reading abilities.

For more information on MAP, please visit: https://www.nwea.org/

MAP Sample Questions

MAP Achievement Norms

The Reading Achievement Norms chart is helpful to me as a special education teacher, as I use the grade bands to help determine which Common Core standards to focus on when working with students in reading intervention groups. I also use the student achievement norms to help create the present level of performance section of a student's IEP.

Please visit https://teach.mapnwea.org/impl/MAPGrowthNormativeDataOverview.pdf to learn more about the Reading Achievement Student Achievement Norms.

Student Data

Below is the Achievement Status and Growth Summary Report from Fall 2019 to Winter 2020. I have covered up scores of general education students, in order to focus exclusively on students with disabilities. I then took this information and transferred it into the google sheet shown below to organize and analyze the data.

Analysis

When analyzing this data, it is clear that the majority of my students made growth from fall to winter. Out of the 16 students on my caseload, 11 of my students met or exceeded their MAP goal, while 14 out of 16 students made growth. Additionally, 6 out of 16 students grew at least 2 grade levels in reading in one semester, and an additional four students made one year of growth in one semester. On average, students grew 9.93 points on NWEA MAP from fall 2019 to winter 2020, and made 1.25 years of growth. This demonstrates significant academic growth for my students.

I am particularly proud of the 4 students who made three grade levels of growth. In addition to reading inclusion and intervention classes, these four students also made significant progress in managing their behavior and their ADHD, which allowed them to focus for the duration of the test. It is also encouraging that at the beginning of the school year, only one student was reading on a middle school level, but now there are 6 students reading on a middle school level.

In addition to celebrating the students who made growth, it is also important to consider the students who did not meet their MAP Goal. Although 5 students did not meet their goal, two of these students only missed their goal by one point, which still demonstrates growth. The three students who made the least amount of growth (or regressed) have been diagnosed with an Intellectual Delay. An Intellectual Delay diagnosis means that students have an IQ of under 70, which impacts their cognitive processing, working memory, and communication skills. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2019), students with intellectual disabilities "often learn and develop more slowly than other children of the same age" (para. 1). This indicates that while all students are capable of growth, these students should not be held to the same growth standards as their non-disabled peers.

Although there are several students who are performing significantly below grade level, this growth indicates that students are making dramatic academic growth, and are closing the achievement gap.

MAP Predictions

As a result of COVID-19, students were not able to take the MAP test in the spring. For this reason, I have made predictions about the end of year data. In order to make these predictions, I used the 2020 Reading Student Growth Norms. These norms show the mean amount of growth that students are expected to make from winter to spring for each grade level. I used each student's winter score and grade level comparison in order to determine the amount of growth they are predicted to make in order to determine their spring scores. The Google Sheet below provides predicted scores for each student. It is important to note that as the growth norms predict average growth, 50% of students will score higher than this prediction.

Although COVID-19 prevented me from obtaining quantitative data throughout the spring, I believe that my students would have continued to show dramatic growth, perhaps higher than predicted above. In the spring, students engaged in a unit on Immigration, and were exposed to a variety of non-fiction texts on or above grade level. Students were taught how to annotate non-fiction sources, and create summary sentences to cement understanding.

After this unit, students read A Raisin in the Sun, which helped them to develop their ability to read and analyze fiction. Student engagement was high in this unit, and because we were working online, students were asked to read independently more than in previous units.

In the spring, student engagement was higher than in the fall, as students were invested in the immigration unit and in A Raisin in the Sun. Additionally, students were producing higher quality writing and completing more thorough analysis than in the fall semester. For these reasons, I anticipate that MAP data from the spring would demonstrate continued dramatic growth.

Quantitative Data: Conclusion

The NWEA MAP data from the 19-20 school year demonstrates that students are making dramatic growth. Based on MAP predictions, if the school year had not been cut short, 7 of the 16 students on my caseload would be leaving 8th grade reading on a middle school level, as opposed to one student at the beginning of the year. Literacy is fundamental, so growth in reading, primarily in eighth grade, promotes students ability to read, write, and think critically alongside their peers for the rest of their lives.

Quantitative Data: References

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Facts about intellectual disability. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/developmentaldisabilities/facts-about-intellectual-disability.html

NWEA. (2020). 2020 NWEA MAP Growth normative data overview [PDF]. https://teach.mapnwea.org/impl/MAPGrowthNormativeDataOverview.pdf

Qualitative Data

In addition to collecting quantitative data, transformational teachers collect qualitative data in order to analyze student progress. By collecting qualitative data, I am able to look more holistically at a student's abilities, and I use this data to make informed decisions regarding unit planning and lesson planning. Collecting data from a variety of sources helps triangulate data to ensure that students are truly making dramatic academic growth. By measuring writing and speaking data, I am ensuring that students have these vital skills that will prepare them for high school and beyond.

For this section, I am highlighting speaking samples from my lowest students. In doing so, I am demonstrating that all students are capable of making dramatic growth, and that dramatic growth should be celebrated in all levels of learning.

The three students shown in the sample below are in my reading fluency intervention, and need the most support throughout the school day. In addition to cognitive and fluency deficits, these students have been diagnosed with language impairments and are receiving services through a speech/language pathologist. As these students often speak in one word statements, or simple sentences, the speech language pathologist and myself are working with these students to improve their speaking fluency before working on writing skills. It is for this reason that I have chosen to collect spoken samples in place of writing samples.

Rubric

The rubric below is the rubric that I am using to obtain data on the progress of these three students. I worked with the speech/language pathologist along with the Freedom Prep Network's Reading Specialist in order to develop this rubric. I also referenced Common Core Listening and Speaking Standards on the student's instructional level in order to ensure that this rubric was aligned to state and national standards.

Prompt: Speaking and listening

In both the beginning of the semester and the end of semester prompt, students were asked to recall as much as possible about the play that we are reading as a class: A Raisin in the Sun.

Student Sample 1

Beginning of the Semester (Fall)

In this sample, the student scored lowest in the areas of quantity and sentence structure. This student was unable to independently recall details without prompting, and when he did answer questions, he did not use complete sentence. However, the details that he was able to recall were mostly accurate, with the exception of believing that Walter Jr. passed away, and that Beneatha wanted to be a nurse. The student's score was 7/16 points.

End of the Semester (Winter)

The most significant growth from the first sample to this sample is that the student is now speaking in complete sentences without prompting. This is dramatic growth from the fall, and a result of continual practice in providing details. Additionally, he is now able to recall significantly more details than in the previous sample. While he has not moved from a 2 to a 3 in terms of order of events according to the rubric, there is evidence of growth in this area as well, because in the beginning of the sample he moved chronologically through details. The student's score is 13/16 points, growing a total of 6 points between Fall and Winter testing windows.

Student Sample 2

Beginning of the Semester (Fall)

In this sample, this student scored the lowest in terms of accuracy and prompting. As shown in the additional notes, 2 out of the 5 details provided were inaccurate. He also needed prompting in order to recall details, which resulted in him scoring a 1 in this section. Student 2 earned 9/14 points.

End of the Semester (Winter)

This student moved most significantly in the area of prompting from his first to second sample, as he was able to speak without prompting. However, he also moved from a 2 to a 3 in terms of accuracy, and from a 3 to a 4 in the area of coherence. He was the only student out of the three sampled who showed that he was able to retell the story in the order that it occurred. As a group, the students practiced this skill by recalling chronologically what they did over the weekend, and then worked on applying this to summarizing texts. Student 2 earned 14/16 points in the Winter window, growing 5 points overall from the Fall window.

Student Sample 3

Beginning of the Semester (Fall)

Although this student scored a 4 in accuracy, this student was only able to recall five facts about the play at the beginning of the semester. He also needed to be prompted in order to recall these details, which is why he scored a 1 in this area. Student 3 earned a total of 10/14 points.

End of the Semester (Winter)

Throughout the semester, this student and I worked on focus during class, as this prevented him from being able to recall multiple details about the play. The additional notes section of this rubric show that the student is now able to recall 8 details, and these details are more complex than the facts he shared in the fall. All of the facts that he presented were accurate, which demonstrates his increased focus. In the winter window, he earned 15/16 points, growing a total of 15 from the fall semester.

Analysis

The data indicates that students have made transformational growth in their abilities to speak about a text over the course of the semester. Specifically, at the beginning of the semester, all three students needed prompting in order to recall details from the text. Additionally, students have moved away from generating one and two word answers to being able to speak in complete sentences. Although students were asked details about the same text, quality of speaking and sentence structure improvement emphasizes how they are developing skills that are can be used to summarize any text and across multiple subjects.

Speaking coherently about a text and being able to provide a plethora of details without prompting results in students who are able to share details not only about ELA texts, but also about their lives. This will open doors for students, as this will increase their ability to communicate effectively with peers and adults.

Qualitative Data: Conclusion

The most notable change in these students is their ability to speak without prompting. In order to develop this skill, I have been encouraging students to speak in complete sentences whenever they are answering a question. I have also been starting all my ELA classes by asking them an open ended opinion question and having them answer the question using as many details as possible. Often times, when students with language impairments are asked to summarize or state their opinion, they do not know how to do this. By practicing this during our synchronous lessons, it is clear that they have developed this skill.

As a result of this skill development, these students have been more participatory in the general education setting. They are able to correctly and coherently answer literal comprehension questions about A Raisin in the Sun in their general education classes, and are more confident than before when speaking in class.

Conclusion

As a special education teacher, I feel even more pressure to make dramatic academic gains as I am working with students who are performing several years below their peers. After spending four years working with high school students, I have seen frustration, confusion, and defeat from students who are unable to master high school grade level standards due to learning disabilities and poor academic preparation. When students do not make necessary growth in elementary school and middle school, they are often pushed through to high school, where they continue to fall behind. Dramatic academic growth is necessary at the middle school level to ensure that struggling readers and writers are as close to grade level as possible when they reach high school, as high schools have less supports and interventions in place than middle schools.

The main reason I transitioned from working at the high school level to working at the middle school level was to ensure that I was preparing students for success in high school. I knew that due to scheduling constraints, many students in high school would not be able to receive the support necessary to make growth, while at the middle school level, there is space in all student's schedules for intensive reading interventions. Middle school teachers must commit daily to growing all students in order to best prepare them for success in high school. This requires teachers to be passionate, well trained, and persistent so that each day students are making academic gains.

The data presented above indicates that students are making growth in their ELA class as a direct result of my co-teaching and intervention support. This data also demonstrates that special education students are capable of making significant growth with the correct amount of support. Overall, this growth has prepared students to be more successful in their high school classes, which will help ensure that they are ready for college and life.