Understanding Data and Assessments
Your student is more than just a number. Numbers that are related to school assessments can sometimes be interpreted in more than one way.
What is student data?
Student data is information that is connected to the characteristics and performance of a student. Some common examples of student data are school enrollment records, attendance records, benchmark assessment scores, unit assessment scores, report cards, progress reports, observation reports, surveys, special education reports, standardized test scores, health history, writing samples, and work samples.
Data Words to Know
Assessment
An evaluation on someone’s ability or knowledge
Benchmark
The act of creating measurable standards for learning; a standard against which a skill can be evaluated or measured; a level of performance that is predictive of skill proficiency
Curriculum
Progress Monitoring
Rate of Improvement
Average growth for a specified progress monitoring measure that can be used to calculate a goal.
Understanding
seeing the big picture, knowing the meaning behind the concepts, and being able to talk and write about the what they know
Why is student data important?
Improving student learning is why student data is important to schools. Student data is essential to guide instructional decision-making and to examine student achievement over time. Each data point is a piece to understanding the whole student. Patterns and trends in student data help to identify areas of strength and weakness. Schools and teachers are surrounded by data but are not always the best at creating clarity for parents in understanding where it came from, how to interpret it, and how to use it in a meaningful way.
How is student data used?
Teachers are able to differentiate instruction by student readiness using data from work samples and assessments. Not one individual strategy or teaching method will be effective for every student. That is why it is important to use measurable data points and routinely check to see if the supports are helping.