Using Data Effectively

The middle of the year is an excellent time to look at your students’ data and analyze it! I agree with most educators that there is too much testing in schools. However since we have this data, we should use it!

I know using the words “data” and “analyze” in the first sentence of this post may have you cringing, but stay with me. Using data is an important part of teaching that when done regularly and knowledgably will benefit your students on a daily basis.

Now I’m sure you’ve attended data meetings at school where benchmark test data has been shared. You also, probably, had to work with your team to analyze it to find which areas are strongest and weakest. Then, you were sent back to the classroom with, “Work on the weak areas with your students.” And there was either none or minimal support on what exactly to do to help your students in the weak areas. Am I getting warm here?

So, what I’d like to do now is share how you can analyze data quickly and use what you learn from the data to support your students in a timely manner. Timely being the key word here. As an interventionist and previous classroom teacher I know how difficult it is to find the time, but I, also, know that analyzing data and applying it to our teaching in a timely manner is how students will benefit the most.

Daily

Data you collect can be as easy as a quick check for knowledge of the objective you are working on. It wil work best when wrapping up a lesson, so you’ll be able to look at the results to help you decide if you need to make any adjustments to the next day’s lesson.

This can be done in several ways. You could have students use whiteboards and hold up answers to a question. Then, just quickly jot on a sticky note who may need more support. I have, also, seen many teachers use the exit ticket strategy, where there are one or two questions on a piece of paper that get turned in at the end of the lesson to show understanding. This one is more time consuming with having to look at all the answers to see where students are having difficulties. Another way would be to have the question in a poll type form that students complete on their device. Then, you can quickly see who answered correctly. Students could guess correctly, but you should be able to get a good idea on if the majority of students understood the lesson.

Now, I put this under the daily heading, but you don’t have to do this every single day for every single lesson. Use your best judgement here for when to use these data collection strategies. I would use them if I am unsure if students are getting it because, sometimes, you just know. I would, also, use them more for objectives that we are working for mastery on, not just an introduction.

When areas of weakness are discovered, make plans to reteach. Reteaching can happen whole group, small group, or one-on-one, dependent upon how many students need extra support. It doesn’t have to take long, most often, 5-10 minutes will do. When reteaching, students typically need the skill taught differently. Think more visuals, more hands-on, rewording of an explanation, different examples, etc.

Furthermore, it is possible that you do not need to reteach a lesson. Sometimes students may just need more practice using the skill. Provide what’s needed and then reassess.

Weekly Or Thereabouts

Data that I aim to look at weekly is data that comes from adaptive digital programs. Our school uses iReady and has used Dreambox in the past. I, honestly, don’t get to it every week. But that is ok. I have attended several trainings on how to read the data that I can access from these programs. In fact, I get overwhelmed.

So, what I have done is decided what data is most important and look at that. I will look at how many lessons have been completed in the week and, then, look at where students have been flagged for not passing lessons.

If students are lacking on lesson completion, I will think about the reason why that may be. Sometimes it can’t be helped due to absences or being pulled for outside services. For the others, I will have a quick chat with those students at the beginning of the next week.

When looking at lessons that are flagged for not being passed, I will see if there is a commanality between students or if it is the whole class. That will help me to decide whether to address this skill as a class, a small group, or one-on-one. If it is a skill that I haven’t taught yet, then I will just wait until I’ve taught it and then reassign the lesson. I know this sounds like it takes a long time, but it really doesn’t. It takes me about 30 minutes and it can be broken into chunks.

The other data that would be looked at weekly or thereabouts are quizzes and tests. As I check them, I sort them. I sort them by skill/concept errors. I usually have a checklist for this where I can mark who missed what. It’s a great tool to quickly look at the data and see what stands out. If it is a spiraled skill/concept, I will spend extra time on working on the skill/concept next time it comes around. If not, I will reteach it.

After Benchmarks

This is one where it can be tricky to analyze in a timely manner. Sometimes you are not able to access it right away or the data meeting you attend isn’t until weeks after the benchmark. I advise you not to wait until the meeting if you have access to the benchmark data.

Our benchmarks are completed on a device, so I have immediate access to the results once the students complete them. This data will take more time to sort through and look at various reports, but there is usually a teacher work day near that time. Take advantage of that and take the time to really look at your class’s data.

This is, again, where the training you’ve had comes into play. Use that training to decide which reports will best help YOU! Teachers do tend to have a preference for certain reports over others.

This is the data you want to analyze to look for trends among your class. This data can, also, support you on making small grouping decisions. As an interventionist, it helps my team and I see who qualifies for our program and, then, we use the data to help us with grouping of students based on strengths and weaknesses.

Furthermore, this data can help you with pinpointing students who may need more support than you can give in the regular classroom. These students may need to be referred for other services using the process provided by your school. Make note this should not be the only data used for that purpose. We all know kids don’t always do their best in an online testing environment. Other factors need to be considered when making this decision.

Conclusion

Whether you are a “data person” or not, we need to use data to inform our instruction. You probably do it every day and don’t even realize it. You do it when you notice a reading group struggling with a phonics pattern and decide to teach it an extra day or two in a different way. You do it when you realize your new seating arrangement is not going to work and make adjustments to limit distractions. You do it when you prevent a meltdown of a student because you know their triggers and avoid them, when possible. This is all you using data to tweak something in a way that will benefit your students.

Now, I’m just suggesting that you do this on a larger scale in an intentional way by trying a couple of the ideas I’ve shared above. Do what you can when you can. I’m not looking to add more stress to your already full plate, I’m hoping that these ideas will help to streamline your process to save you time and benefit your students.

In fact, if you’re feeling stressed, be sure to check out my post on How to Leave Your Work at Work. Let me know in the comments if you already use one or more of these ideas, are planning to try one, or have one to share of your own!