NWEA Next Steps

November Faculty Meeting

November 12, 2010

Assumptions and Understandings!

• Teaching is complicated work– Understanding of pedagogy– High social emotional intelligence– Strong analytic ability

• Research tells us that our personal experiences are not always the best lens through which to understand a complex phenomena

• What gets measured gets done!• The collective knowledge of the people in this room is the greatest

resource we possess!• Effective collaboration is not only an effective strategy but also

professionally and personally rewarding!

Class by Rit Report

• Shows the students grouped by RIT for Reading, Math, and Language– Allows you to click each subject to view the

students grouped by goal area• Then it allows you to view the skills each group is

ready to learn based on a ten point RIT range

Reports Available

• Class by Rit– Choose a subject click on the word (Reading,

Math, Language)• Choose a goal area (example-read for information

and understanding)– Descartes for that goal area and for that RIT band

• Dynamic Reports– Teacher Projected Performance

• Who is projected to meet standards– Click each student to get an individual report

» With projected RIT score growth over a year

What do we do with all of it?

• Analyze results• Determine an instructional plan for your

students– Small groups– Identify high leverage strategies– Identify curriculum through which to teach

skills listed in Descartes

• Monitor progress towards goals– Make adjustments

How will we accomplish this?

• Classroom teachers and co-teachers analyze data for their own class– Develop an action plan based on data

• Each teacher meets with Matt to review the NWEA worksheet– Pls bring a list of your guided reading groups

• Grade level meeting to share trends and develop grade level SMART goals…more on this next week!

When will we accomplish this by?

• December 1, 2010

Based on the data reviewed in NWEA, it is clear that many of my students are stronger in math than in reading. (Average math RIT score 212, Average Reading RIT 202)

Based on an analysis of NWEA data, it is apparent that while a majority of my students (11 of 18) have average range RIT scores for Reading Competencies common to all strands, 9 students fall below the average RIT Range in this goal strand. This particular RIT band has the largest number of students scoring below the typical RIT for the grade level. This is an area of relative weakness for my class.

Based on an analysis of the NWEA data, it is apparent that one area of strength for the students in my class comes in the Reading for Information and Understanding Goal Strand. 15 students scored at or above the typical RIT score for the grade level. Two of the remaining three students scored in the next lowest RIT band with one student scoring 15 RIT points below the typical score for this grade level. This is an area of relative strength for the students in my class.

Specific data from reports

As stated previously, my class has a relative weakness in the Reading Competencies goal stand. Many of the skills listed for this goal strand from Descartes are related to vocabulary building including homophones, synonyms, prefixes, suffixes, and root words. These are skills listed in different degrees under each RIT band.

I can teach vocabulary skills through all content areas (ELA,SCI,SS,MATH). During ELA, I will teach mini-lessons that ask students to use prefixes, suffixes, and root words to determine the meaning of vocabulary words gleaned from their current SS and SCI units.

I will need to revisit synonyms. Students have completed many activities where they are asked to identify synonyms but it is clear from the data that more is needed. I will utilize writing conferences with students and ask them to identify words in their writing and use a thesaurus to locate synonyms to use in future writing assignments. Students will keep a running list of synonyms to use in their writers notebook.

I will also need to introduce prefixes and suffixes.

Identified skills in Descartes

What am I looking for in these plans?

• Specific data gleaned from reports• And instructional plan that is a direct result from

data– Shows that you have utilized the Descartes feature as

well and have seen the skills and applied them to your plan

– A curricular connection• Reflection on your own instruction delivered up

to this point– Are there skills that still need to be revisited? Will I be

teaching a unit in the near future that helps me address some of these skills?

Reflection and

analysis

Instructional Plan with

curricular connections

NWEA Data

Your Analysis leads to

• Your goals!!!!

• We collaborate to share ideas and plan to use all of our resources wisely.

• Each teacher will develop a plan and each grade will develop SMART goals based on trends common to the grade level. Our collective action plans will be monitored in January and adjusted if needed.