Dramatic Academic Growth
Quantitative Data - i-Ready
The iReady assessment is an online assessment that is currently used in Baltimore City for first through twelfth grades. Creating a baseline for mathematical concepts is critical for movement from grade to grade and also for the success of students outside of the classroom. iReady assessments use the four different content-based areas that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards. These four sections are:
1. Numbers and Operations (NO)
2. Algebra and Algebraic Thinking (ALG)
3. Measurement and Data (MS)
4. Geometry (GEO)
Each of these sections identifies skills that students need to know to be successful over time. While the report does not show me exactly what they do and do not know, the reports show what lessons and strategies are useful and supplemental to the assessment results. The questions asked in these assessments are based on standards that carry from grade level to grade level. This allows teachers to know which standards and skills students have mastered and where they need more supports. Using iReady allows teachers to be on the same page when looking at reports and making decisions about what is best and most needed for students.
Not only does this assessment help me with my own students, but it allows me to look at other students in the school for groupings and supports. It also helps me prepare for what skills my students lacked the most coming into the school year to be able to best support the next group of incoming students. While this is said for my current class and the class that is coming to me, the same could be said for the teacher that my students will have next year. This assessment is crucial to providing data and making sure that data based instruction can start on day one of teaching. Below, you can see the several different sections of the assessment and how these sections influence my thinking, teaching and implementation.
1. Numbers and Operations (NO)
2. Algebra and Algebraic Thinking (ALG)
3. Measurement and Data (MS)
4. Geometry (GEO)
Each of these sections identifies skills that students need to know to be successful over time. While the report does not show me exactly what they do and do not know, the reports show what lessons and strategies are useful and supplemental to the assessment results. The questions asked in these assessments are based on standards that carry from grade level to grade level. This allows teachers to know which standards and skills students have mastered and where they need more supports. Using iReady allows teachers to be on the same page when looking at reports and making decisions about what is best and most needed for students.
Not only does this assessment help me with my own students, but it allows me to look at other students in the school for groupings and supports. It also helps me prepare for what skills my students lacked the most coming into the school year to be able to best support the next group of incoming students. While this is said for my current class and the class that is coming to me, the same could be said for the teacher that my students will have next year. This assessment is crucial to providing data and making sure that data based instruction can start on day one of teaching. Below, you can see the several different sections of the assessment and how these sections influence my thinking, teaching and implementation.
Sample Questions
i-Ready is an adaptive assessment that is given to all 1st - 12th grade students in math in Baltimore City. Being an adaptive assessment allows the test to determine what questions students understand or do not understand. The test then adjusts what questions follow based on if the question was answered correctly or incorrectly. This allows the students to be pushed, but not past their frustration level during the assessment.
On the right, you can see a few sample questions for the i-Ready math test as well as the scoring chart for the 2018-2019 school year. |
i-Ready scale score placement tables. (2018). Retrieved April 14, 2019, from Curriculum Associates website: https://www.esboces.org/cms/lib/NY01914091/Centricity/Domain/533/
iready-placement-tables-2018-2019.pdf Sample reading and math items. (2018). Retrieved April 14, 2019, from Curriculum Associates website: https://www.franklinboe.org/cms/lib/NJ01000817/Centricity/Domain/54/ i-Ready%20Diagnostic%20Sample%20Items-Student%20Version.pdf |
Analysis Report
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This report allows me to see how the student has scored on their assessment. Based on their scores, iReady then creates a list of skills that the student needs more supports on. Although it may seem like a simple list, these lists are actual tools and lessons that can be applied to the student's profile for the student to complete at their own convenience. This is leveled to their needs and it also provides supports and suggestions when I am pulling small groups for math or intervention. I can look at each student's data and pull a support group based on common lesson and standards for which they need additional supports. Evaluating the analysis report allows me to understand where students are functioning with a baseline understanding of where they need to be for the next grade.
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Student Growth
Looking at student data is critical for the student, the family and me, as the teacher. The report to the right shows the student's growth from the beginning of year, middle of year and to the end of the year. In each section, the report identifies areas of strength and areas of weakness. These reports also allow me to see if strategies that I have used with particular students or groups have worked well or not. Watching students grow is the most important part of instruction because it shows retention, application and preparation for the next grade level. This report shows the overall growth, the expected growth and the growth in each section. Since this report is divided into many sections, it allows me to be more intentional and reflective as a teacher.
Within i-Ready and the four testing sections, I am able to look at the growth of the student in all four sections. As you can see on the right, this student has grown in all four sections from a pre-kindergarten level to on grade level for a middle of first grade math level. At the beginning of the year, this student was expected to grow 36 points based on his first diagnostic. Their stretch growth, meaning more than average growth, would have been 57 points. They grew a total of 121 points from the first diagnostic to the last diagnostic. Outside of the overall growth, I am able to see (looking at specific charts from above), that this student excels in algebra and algebraic thinking as well as geometry. Moving forward I am looking at skills to support him finishing to be on grade level for the next year. This student needs additional practice with counting by 5s, 10s and 100s as well as subtracting within 20 and adding two digit numbers. I would pull this student in small group with other students who would benefit from the same type of exercises to reinforce strategies and skills to address these needs. |
Beginning of Year Data - September 2018
Middle of Year Data - January 2019
At the middle of the year, 24% of the class was more than one grade level below, 76% one grade level below and 0% on grade level. This showed that I needed to continue providing intervention to a significant amount of students and would be able to provide grade level interventions to the majority of the class.
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End of Year Data - March 2019
At the end of the year assessment window, 5% of the class was more than one grade level below, 81% one grade level below and 14%on grade level. This showed that I can press the level of instruction to a higher level and focus on one intervention group. This also means that I need to be more intentional with the intervention based teaching and apply more strategies for grade level content to make sure that students are successful.
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Class Growth
After the beginning of the year, I hold student goal conferences that show them where they are functioning. I then compare their score to where they should be for first grade, where they need to be for second grade and what amount of growth iReady calculates based on their current scores in each testing section. On the left above you can see the goals that are set at the beginning of the year for each student and on the right you can see the overall growth of the class. This is a chart that is shown in the classroom so they become invested and proud of their work. Each student knows their level based on their last name and alphabetical order so they know which number to look at for their growth.
Student Goal Tracking
As stated before, student goal conferences are a crucial piece to the investment of their own learning. These conferences happen three times a year - after each testing. I sit down with each student and review their results from the test. In the box is the goal for the middle of the year and the end of the year. To the left of that small box is the actual test score for each session.
Students write the results next to the goal they created at the beginning of the year. Their end of the year assessment happens in March, and therefore, there is still more time for growth, but it is crucial that they understand how close or far away from their goal they are. This also means they need to take more responsibility for their own learning or ask for more help and I need to take responsibility to be more intentional with my instruction to help them achieve their goal. |
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Data Driven Small Group Instruction
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After students have been tested, it is my job, as a teacher, to evaluate their outcomes and then create common groups to work with. Within these groups, intervention strategies can be created or grade level groups can be created. iReady provides supports to make sure that I am grouping my students appropriately and then gives access to lessons and practice drills that are necessary for the skills that are lacking (based on the test results). I can then use these lessons and drills in order to best support my groups and students to make sure they are prepared for the next grade level.
While iReady provides the lessons and worksheets for supporting skills, it is my job to make sure these lessons are appropriate and helpful to my students. This means I am building upon these lessons in whole group, small group, implementing with manipulatives, anchor charts, etc. But, this assessment and resource allows me to make sure I am providing everything I can to my students to help them be successful. |