 |
When I first started teaching, I would teach a lesson and assess my students to see if they had learned the objectives of the lesson. If they did, then I moved on. If they did not then I had to re-teach. That was the fledgling beginnings of data driven instruction. Using the data to make decisions about what is best for our students is what we are expected to do with increasing precision. |
| No longer can I look at my class as a whole and say,
"Did they get it?" I have to look at each individual
student and say, "What are his/her areas of strength and
weakness?" "How can I improve those
weaknesses?" "How can I use those strengths to the child's
advantage?" I need to have data to support every lesson I
teach. If I am re-teaching something, I should have data that
supports that decision. When you stop to think about it, that is a
daunting task. For those elementary school teachers who have 20 - 30
students and teach them all subjects, and they are expected to know each
child's needs in each subject. Or for the middle school or high
school teacher who could possibly have 170 or more students and
needs to know all of their specific needs. How to organize that
information and what to do with it once it has been organized is
overwhelming! One of the problems that educators face in this task
is that there are many software programs that assist in organizing such
information. However, they, are not compatible, or do not all work together, which can create
more problems than the program was intended to alleviate. In
addition once a system of data organization is in place, all stake holders
do not have access to all information which can make the teacher's job
frustrating. I only teach one subject and this year alone I have
already created many different spreadsheets using Excel. Excel has
been a lifesaver for me for organizing and analyzing data. It has
allowed me to organize the data for each student and their test
scores. I have additional columns for the objectives that I will be
teaching so that when I have that data, I can add it to the snapshot I am
creating of each individual student. I can then use that snapshot to
assess students' needs. I can create groups of students based upon
their individual needs. Hopefully with this data at my disposal, I
can increase my students' learning.
Aside from Excel, there are other data collection programs such as Microsoft's Access which allows the user to create a data base of students and then to sort those students based on whatever the necessary criteria. The Palm is an invaluable resource for collecting data and works with Grade Quick, and Excel. If you have the opportunity to take a course on Excel, Palms, or Access, I strongly recommend it. In today's data driven educational system, you cannot afford not to have these tools at your disposal! |
|