Using the Assessment Data

image from here

With all the learning about assessments and designing them, they would be useful if teachers didn't take action based on the information they provide. Action can look like positive growth feedback, progress monitoring, determine patterns, and adjust instruction to provide differentiation.

The goal of delivering instructional intervention is to help students improve skills they struggle with. Assessment data gives teachers the foundation for creating their own individualized plan for struggling learners. Personalizing a student’s plan can look very different each time but may include a few similar criteria, such as skills that need emphasis in the classroom, additional support strategies for teaching the student and tracking and monitoring progress.

Knowing where each student is performing helps teachers see the big picture when developing their daily instructional strategies. This allows them to move from assessing students to grouping students based on relevant assessment data. While this makes me feel overwhelmed - how many groups do I teach, where do I find the time, how do I manage the rest of the class, where do I find the resources to meet all of the instructional needs? - the data should help us. Take a peek at this piktochart presentation I created based on the data of a hypothetical grade 6 English class. 

Progress monitoring provides teachers with valuable information regarding improvements in gaps of knowledge/skills as well as classroom performance. I think this type of monitoring should take place often so that it becomes expected and familiar for students. 

The assessment data not only is used to help students improve, but the assessment data also points to overall professional development gaps for teachers, something I think teachers, as life-long learners, should be open to.