Growth measures for, systemic change: through periodic learning assessments, you can analyze which instructional programs are most effective, make student groupings and reallocate resources to areas of need

School Administrator, Jan, 2007 by Allan Olson

RELATED ARTICLE: Growth data: answerability for continuous improvement.

BY GERRITA POSTLEWAIT

Imagine the school board has established these criteria for the superintendent's next performance evaluation. Next June the board members want to know:

* How much did students in our district learn this year?

* At what levels were students performing in reading, language arts, math and science when they started and how have they grown over the course of the year? How are our students advancing compared to other students in the country, given similar demographics?

* In which schools are students experiencing the greatest gains in achievement? Are all subgroups of students demonstrating adequate growth? Are student achievement gains visible in every classroom, in each grade level, in every school?

* Which curricular programs or instructional methods appear to be yielding the greatest return on investment in terms of growth in student achievement? Include Title I, special needs and other pull-out programs in your analyses of results.

In the past, it would have been difficult, if not unfeasible, to ascertain real-time answers to these questions, but now, thanks to new technologies, such as computerized adaptive assessments that measure and instantly analyze how much student growth is occurring for every student during each quarter, superintendents can address these concerns with confidence.

A Changed Conversation

A decade ago, Horry County Schools, a district of approximately 36,000 students located on the coast of South Carolina, became mired in the arduous tasks of defining "world-class" standards, constructing assessment items and personalizing instruction for each student. Teachers felt overburdened with developing, administering and scoring benchmark assessments and developing a system to organize and deliver personalized learning plans for every student.

Then, five years ago, Horry County partnered with the Northwest Evaluation Association, a nonprofit organization that aligns district or state learning skills and performance objectives with a computer adaptive assessment system. Within minutes of a student completing a test, the classroom teacher electronically receives a diagnostic analysis that tracks the amount of growth the child has attained during the previous quarter. NWEA has embedded its assessments into the curriculum so that when a teacher double-clicks on a student's name, he or she can instantly access an individualized learning plan for the following nine weeks, including the performance standards this child has mastered plus the specific skills and concepts the child needs to learn next.

Through this new sophisticated monitoring system, we acquired the means to measure and analyze growth, to engage all educators in richer, deeper, more focused data discussions, to personalize instructional delivery and to instill a sense of responsibility for student success among everyone in the school system.

School Usage

As a result of growth data, teachers and principals are thinking differently about their work. After each assessment, they review the performance of individuals, classes and grade levels of students to analyze patterns of growth and make decisions about which approaches are most effectively advancing students.