2.8 Data Analysis
Candidates model and facilitate the effective use of digital tools and resources to systematically collect and analyze student achievement data, interpret results, communicate findings, and implement appropriate interventions to improve instructional practice and maximize student learning. (ISTE 2h)
Artifact: Data Overview
Reflection:
As a culminating project for ITEC 7305, I was tasked with creating a Data Overview for our school. I started by collecting and analyzing student achievement and demographic data from our school’s CRCT results. I then created a PowerPoint presentation to include graphical displays of the data that showed our school’s strengths and weaknesses and revealing areas for growth. In order to examine data even further, I included three years of longitudinal data to compare and contrast changes from year to year and to discover any positive or negative trends in the data. I also compared our school’s performance data to that of the district and state to see if our trends aligned with the larger scale trends and to demonstrate our strengths as a school compared to the district and state. I then created a screencast to discuss the findings in an online video presentation format.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to use digital tools and resources to collect student achievement data, as I utilized the online resource of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (http://gosa.georgia.gov/) to collect overall and subgroup student achievement data on the CRCT for our school, district, and state for the past three years. With the help of our school data clerk, I also utilized the digital tool of our school’s student information system database to collect student demographic data for the Data Overview. This artifact demonstrates my ability to use digital tools and resources to analyze student achievement and demographic data, as I took advantage of PowerPoint’s chart tool to create the many graphical displays of student data to help in the process of analyzing those data. I strove to make the graphs and charts as user-friendly as possible by including specific numbers on the chart itself, using a variety of charts and graphs as appropriate for the data being displayed, etc. This artifact demonstrates my ability to use digital tools and resources to interpret results from the findings because I used PowerPoint to report my interpretations and findings. For example, the collection and analysis of student subgroup data led to the interpretation that the data reveal that the scores of some ethnicity/race groups and student subgroups are lower than the school average, which then led to discussion questions about possible reasons for this and possible solutions to the problem. This artifact demonstrates my ability to use digital tools and resources to communicate findings because I not only used PowerPoint to create a presentation about these findings, but I also used Screencast-O-Matic to create a narrated screencast of the presentation to share online (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SGFVfjVySM), which I shared with my administration. This artifact demonstrates my ability to implement appropriate interventions to improve instructional practice and maximize learning because the work of the Data Overview helped uncover areas of weakness where those interventions are most needed. Although these interventions are not specifically listed in the presentation, the work that went into the Data Overview is the first step towards developing and implementing these interventions. By including discussion questions about why these uncovered weaknesses exist and what we can do to close these achievement gaps, I have started the process towards finding possible interventions and implementing them at our school. Finally, this artifact demonstrates my ability to both model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to collect, analyze, interpret, and communicate data and implement resulting interventions because I myself went through the process of completing this work; my skills and expertise gained through this process not only demonstrates my own ability to do this work but also can be used to help others do this work with their own data in their own schools as well.
While completing the Data Overview, I learned how to acquire and analyze data in a way that would reveal strengths and weaknesses within our school. I learned how to turn various data points into presentation that told a story from beginning to end, and how to find discussion point to stimulate conversation among the staff. I learned how to use PowerPoint and Excel to create various types of charts and graphs. I also used Screencast-O-Matic to create a screen-capture version of the presentation, complete with narration. I learned how to analyze data from a leadership perspective to inspire change in the school. If I were to complete the Data Overview again, I would consider reorganizing the graphs and charts to be even easier to read and interpret. For example, instead of grouping one subgroup’s three years of data in one area of the chart and dividing it from other subgroups, I would place each subgroup’s data from a single year in one area of the chart and divide it from other years. I would also want to share the results with a larger portion of the staff than just my administration.
The purpose of this Data Overview was to use data to reveal areas of weakness on which we could then focus our efforts to improve instructional practice and maximize student learning. This improvement on instructional practice and maximization of student learning could be measured by conducting a similar Data Overview in a few years to show how the instructional interventions that we implemented had a positive effect on student achievement.
As a culminating project for ITEC 7305, I was tasked with creating a Data Overview for our school. I started by collecting and analyzing student achievement and demographic data from our school’s CRCT results. I then created a PowerPoint presentation to include graphical displays of the data that showed our school’s strengths and weaknesses and revealing areas for growth. In order to examine data even further, I included three years of longitudinal data to compare and contrast changes from year to year and to discover any positive or negative trends in the data. I also compared our school’s performance data to that of the district and state to see if our trends aligned with the larger scale trends and to demonstrate our strengths as a school compared to the district and state. I then created a screencast to discuss the findings in an online video presentation format.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to use digital tools and resources to collect student achievement data, as I utilized the online resource of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (http://gosa.georgia.gov/) to collect overall and subgroup student achievement data on the CRCT for our school, district, and state for the past three years. With the help of our school data clerk, I also utilized the digital tool of our school’s student information system database to collect student demographic data for the Data Overview. This artifact demonstrates my ability to use digital tools and resources to analyze student achievement and demographic data, as I took advantage of PowerPoint’s chart tool to create the many graphical displays of student data to help in the process of analyzing those data. I strove to make the graphs and charts as user-friendly as possible by including specific numbers on the chart itself, using a variety of charts and graphs as appropriate for the data being displayed, etc. This artifact demonstrates my ability to use digital tools and resources to interpret results from the findings because I used PowerPoint to report my interpretations and findings. For example, the collection and analysis of student subgroup data led to the interpretation that the data reveal that the scores of some ethnicity/race groups and student subgroups are lower than the school average, which then led to discussion questions about possible reasons for this and possible solutions to the problem. This artifact demonstrates my ability to use digital tools and resources to communicate findings because I not only used PowerPoint to create a presentation about these findings, but I also used Screencast-O-Matic to create a narrated screencast of the presentation to share online (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SGFVfjVySM), which I shared with my administration. This artifact demonstrates my ability to implement appropriate interventions to improve instructional practice and maximize learning because the work of the Data Overview helped uncover areas of weakness where those interventions are most needed. Although these interventions are not specifically listed in the presentation, the work that went into the Data Overview is the first step towards developing and implementing these interventions. By including discussion questions about why these uncovered weaknesses exist and what we can do to close these achievement gaps, I have started the process towards finding possible interventions and implementing them at our school. Finally, this artifact demonstrates my ability to both model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to collect, analyze, interpret, and communicate data and implement resulting interventions because I myself went through the process of completing this work; my skills and expertise gained through this process not only demonstrates my own ability to do this work but also can be used to help others do this work with their own data in their own schools as well.
While completing the Data Overview, I learned how to acquire and analyze data in a way that would reveal strengths and weaknesses within our school. I learned how to turn various data points into presentation that told a story from beginning to end, and how to find discussion point to stimulate conversation among the staff. I learned how to use PowerPoint and Excel to create various types of charts and graphs. I also used Screencast-O-Matic to create a screen-capture version of the presentation, complete with narration. I learned how to analyze data from a leadership perspective to inspire change in the school. If I were to complete the Data Overview again, I would consider reorganizing the graphs and charts to be even easier to read and interpret. For example, instead of grouping one subgroup’s three years of data in one area of the chart and dividing it from other subgroups, I would place each subgroup’s data from a single year in one area of the chart and divide it from other years. I would also want to share the results with a larger portion of the staff than just my administration.
The purpose of this Data Overview was to use data to reveal areas of weakness on which we could then focus our efforts to improve instructional practice and maximize student learning. This improvement on instructional practice and maximization of student learning could be measured by conducting a similar Data Overview in a few years to show how the instructional interventions that we implemented had a positive effect on student achievement.