I’ve never been one for math! Except statistics or graphs, which are the bread and butter of the geographer. So when Data Analysis showed up on my course list for my cohort, the word terrified crossed my mind.
The course for me was difficult – it lent to teachers that use State testing to inform their practices through that data. While the data driven methodology was a sound practice, which I endeavored to implement with our faculty, our data is driven more from the subject specific formative and summative assessment criteria in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programmes Middle Years Programme (MYP), which is not really a number – it’s a descriptor of rigor that the student achieves.
However, I discovered, through conversations with our Head of Curriculum and Professional Development that we do inform the teaching of Math and English through our participation in the Electronic Records Board (ERB) in Grade 7 and the Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Success (MAP) tests. This data helps placement of students in our math programme from 8th Grade onwards. So I used this data from over the few years that we had tracked it to inform my action planning and to work through the data driven process. While this data is not misused in our school, it is not widely communicated (as a social studies teacher, I did not know of its existence until I started asking the questions. Therefore, one reflection I had, as a teacher knowing this ongoing as an aspiring technology leader, is to communicate all data effectively across all of the stake holding teachers so that they might disseminate it’s benefits in a particular context.
We may not like it as teachers, but having this data does inform our practice and helps to even identify populations in our diversity that might be falling behind due to socio-economic gaps that might prevent or hinder their success.
I got to deeply visit and analyze our School Strategic Plan which, considering my change of role from teacher to technology coach in the coming academic year is a wonderful foundation for my understanding of the data that I might visit with to help the teachers better use the technology to reach higher standards. So I’ve gone from terrified to not so afraid of the numbers and understanding that they help us make sense of the very diverse population we have in our school.
The course for me was difficult – it lent to teachers that use State testing to inform their practices through that data. While the data driven methodology was a sound practice, which I endeavored to implement with our faculty, our data is driven more from the subject specific formative and summative assessment criteria in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programmes Middle Years Programme (MYP), which is not really a number – it’s a descriptor of rigor that the student achieves.
However, I discovered, through conversations with our Head of Curriculum and Professional Development that we do inform the teaching of Math and English through our participation in the Electronic Records Board (ERB) in Grade 7 and the Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Success (MAP) tests. This data helps placement of students in our math programme from 8th Grade onwards. So I used this data from over the few years that we had tracked it to inform my action planning and to work through the data driven process. While this data is not misused in our school, it is not widely communicated (as a social studies teacher, I did not know of its existence until I started asking the questions. Therefore, one reflection I had, as a teacher knowing this ongoing as an aspiring technology leader, is to communicate all data effectively across all of the stake holding teachers so that they might disseminate it’s benefits in a particular context.
We may not like it as teachers, but having this data does inform our practice and helps to even identify populations in our diversity that might be falling behind due to socio-economic gaps that might prevent or hinder their success.
I got to deeply visit and analyze our School Strategic Plan which, considering my change of role from teacher to technology coach in the coming academic year is a wonderful foundation for my understanding of the data that I might visit with to help the teachers better use the technology to reach higher standards. So I’ve gone from terrified to not so afraid of the numbers and understanding that they help us make sense of the very diverse population we have in our school.