Use Formative Data to Drive Instructional Strategy Decisions (Advanced) One School’s Road Map to Success Robby Goodman, Ph.D.

Northridge Middle School  1050 students, 65 certified staff members  Free and Reduced Lunch %: 12% - 40%  Attracted hundreds of students through school choice  Maintained state given “A Rating” for last 5 years

Norms / Values  As a staff we decided early in my tenure to spend our time focused on students in positive ways  PRIM Manual

Professional Learning Community  1) What do we want our students to learn?  2) How will we know that they have learned it?  3) What will we do if they do not learn it?  4) What will we do if they already know it?

Collaboration Time  Time is my staff’s greatest resource  Allows for staff collaboration to better our students’ successes  PLC focused time, Instructional Team time, School Improvement Team times  Teams meet three times a week with their Data Team, twice with their instructional team alone, and once with their instructional team, guidance counselor, and administrator

PLC Structure at NMS  What do we want our students to learn?  Common Core Content Standards  Common Core Literacy Standards  Indiana State Standards  AND…..Character education, responsibility, civic mindedness,……

PLC Structure at NMS  How will we know they have learned it?  Common Formative Assessments  Given quarterly as data teams for longitudinal study  Given more frequently for shorter term “checking for understanding”  Generated and reported using our PLC Data Form

PLC Structure at NMS  Reporting of Information Attained  Data Meeting with Administration  Completion of Data Door  Wiki Page  Pyramid of Intervention page  Student conferencing

Data Meetings  Each data team meets with me (principal) a minimum of twice a quarter during given collaboration time  We review together plans for the current common formative assessment as well as the data results from the prior assessment  This data includes the interventions/extensions given for students and their success rates

Completion of Door Data  From the data collected during our team meeting, a quarterly document called “Door Data” is generated  These include simple bar graphs to show growth from students as a data section from the formative assessment (stage one) to the final mastery levels after interventions (stage 2), standards assessed, and interventions/extensions performed  Data then is posted on bright colored paper on each teacher’s door as well as my office

Wiki Page  We utilize a wiki page for the storage and collection of all assessment data and information  Easy access for all team members, regardless of location  Credit goes to author William Ferriter (Teaching the iGeneration)

Pyramid of Intervention Page  A custom screen on Powerschool  General student information automatically populated  Staff documents what we know about students for all to be able to access  Common Formative Assessments help us know where our students struggle and what interventions do and do not work for them

Student Conferencing  All of this collected information is discussed with each student weekly during homeroom

PLC Structure at NMS  What will we do if students don’t learn the material?  INTERVENE!!!  Re-teaching in new ways  Additional time with staff and resources  RTI Programs

PLC Structure at NMS  What will we do if they already know it?  Extension activities  The “nice to know”  Bull's-eye concept

How to Incorporate Common Formative Assessments  Portions of a summative test (pre-testing questions over next concept)  Bell ringer questions  Jeopardy games  Traditional formative quizzes

Critical Components  The Data Team must come to a consensus on the following for a quality common formative assessment:  The standards to be assessed  Method in which they will be assessed  What defines individual student mastery  What steps will be taken to insure success for each student

Important Tips  ALL good teachers gather formative data daily: they just might not understand that they do.  Thumbs up, thumbs down  Dry erase boards  Bell ringers, homework  General feelings of where a class is on a given concept

Important Tips  Switching to a more formal common formative assessment model is difficult.  Must provide support  Must provide time

Why are common formative assessments critical?  Grades are inconsistent and unreliable  They are not always indicative of true learning  Read Marzano’s Formative Assessment and Standards Based Grading (2009)

Benefits of Common Formative Assessments  Able to assess authentic learning across classrooms  Able to target specific needs for interventions/ extensions  The collaboration: The purposeful conversations with peer educators using common formative assessment data may be the best outcome

Closing Thoughts  Learning is the constant. Time is the variable.  How are you guaranteeing to your students teachers next year that authentic learning has taken place?  How are you supporting individualized student needs with additional time?  The knowledge and skills needed to take your school from Good to Great already exist within your school: collaborate in authentic ways!!!!