Evaluating A Smart Learning Recommendations

With data driving instructional practices students achieve more, and with students achieving more school move closer

As a teacher I use formative and summative data to drive my instruction. As I start with the state standard for the lesson and plan a formative assessment on that skill before a summative assessment. In years prior our school district used the platform of Performance Matter to collect data of that grade level standards three times a year. This type of information set in with Dr. Scott McLeod (20??) essential concepts. “The five major elements of data-driven instruction are: good baseline, measurable instructional goals, frequent formative assessment, professional learning communities, and focused instructional interventions (pp. 1-2, 20??). The assessment gave teachers a baseline, mid-year, and end year focus. When the teacher delved into the platform each question was broken down each standard and concept, thus allowing teacher to provide adequate instructional goal to meet the students’ needs. Teachers would also look at past state standardized testing to determine what if any remediation is needed. As a principal, he/she/I needs to understand the data elements to schedule necessary people and aid for the professional development communities.

Upon entering the Ed.D. program, I was quickly re-introduced to the process of conducting, analyzing, and synthesizing research and data. The coursework prepared me to further utilize data, not only within the course offerings within the Ed.D. program, but within the school setting as an educational leader of a school district

Data driven decision-making is leading to school success for many apparent reasons. Data driven decision-making is the direct correlation between teachers, curriculum coaches, principals, district educational supervisors, superintendent, and board members. According to Boudett and Moody (2005), the first important step in a successful data driven environment is the gathering of the group that will bare the responsibility for the procedural and executional procedural stages of data analysis.

With the data gathered, curriculum makers may gain deeper insight as how to design and plan the curriculum that the students will know about the curriculum before they enrolled.

Teachers are able to target the learning gaps by developing a plan of action based on the needs for our students. Verbiest (2014) and Hershkovitz (2015) argue data is used to tailor (how we sever students, how we offer support, types of support, what resources we need to invest on, whether we take a student to students needs with our school psychologist) instruction for students in all content areas in an effort to increase student achievement. As a result, the school can provide specific professional learning, support, and resources to teachers based on the needs and areas of weakness of our students (Fox, 2001). As lifelong learners, teachers recognize that their professional practice continues to evolve as they reflect and act on new information. If teachers have information that helps them confidently identify the root of educational challenges and track progress, they can more readily develop action plans that will have a positive impact on their students’ achievement (Halverson et al.,

-Assessing students, teaching reading skills to small groups of Kindergarten and 1st grade students, weekly data collection of progress and reporting to grade teacher and Principal of student improvement using Google Docs

In order to project how our students will perform with our use of Marzano Instructional Frameworks, we first review data from our previous years’ Smarter Balanced Assessment, grades 9-12 and Measurement of Progress, grades

Aurum Prep will comply with all compliance and reporting requirements and we are committed to the going use of data to make decisions. In fact, an innovative aspect of our school design is centered around data days, which are full day staff professional development day held every other month. Data Days allow us to work with teachers and staff to analyze the progress of all students in all tested subject areas. This information is used to make school-wide decisions that include but are not limited to: grouping of students, adjustment in curriculum guides, targeted tutorial for students, and creation of teacher improvement plans. We believe this structure in particular is an innovative feature that will allow Aurum Prep to use data effectively and also make important shifts informed by data.

All of the data can be extremely confusing to teachers and can lead them astray. Therefore, as Blankstein points out the, “No. 1 priority was for school communities to start with the “purpose” of the data” (164). Without understanding the true purpose behind the data or what the data can tell about a student there is no true reason for collecting it. Therefore, the real work, as mentioned with collaboration, comes after the data is collected. The use of data can drive instruction and promotes intervention or enrichment for targeted students to become more successful, but only if there is a goal in mind when the data is collected. Also, as Blankstein mentions, data should come from different sources, be relevant in relation to the school’s mission and vision, and must be consistent (174-175). By having data from a variety of sources, the scores can paint a clear picture of each individual student rather than relying on just one snapshot at one particular moment in time. This seems crucial considering how students’ lives often interfere with testing and how teachers are critical of assessments because a student is pigeonholed based solely on one test on one day. By curating data from multiple places, over a span of time, in a way that is relevant to the students, teachers can have a better picture of each student and more importantly, how to grow that

Beginning in the 2014-2015 school year, districts statewide will be faced with implementing the online Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments for students in grades third through eleventh. The new teacher evaluation program, Teacher Excellence and Support System (TESS), will be implemented, including the requirement for all educators to use Bloomboard to document evidence of classroom instruction. In addition, the Digital Learning Act 1280 includes significant changes including requiring all districts to offer a digital learning course to all graduates beginning in the 2014-2015 school year.

As we review and synthesize data of a district for planning school improvement, the following information is needed to access and determine the needs of a school. First, a thorough analysis of performance data must be reviewed to see how school districts measure up with state and federal accountability. During this process, it is very important that schools focus the performance indicators that will guarantee growth and success. School teams must refer to the districts mission and vision to guide the planning process. The performance indicators will provide data that will be beneficial in creating improvement strategies. So, after careful evaluation of the data, the next step would be to plan effective methods and strategies that will improve student achievement. Moreover, this plan should include needs, demographics and opportunities for students to be successful. Additionally, the baseline data is important information to include in the improvement plan.

The information provided by open data has the potential to increase the ability to make informed choices when it comes to education and learning. (Park & Shelton, 2012) The documented highlighted provides many examples of how the information gained can be effectively used by schools and individuals. It also highlights examples of the goals for the future of its growth. One of the concepts that stood out was making students own data available to them in a form that allows them to see where they are struggling, and subsequently tying that to data that shows how to improve in these

Data are gather from student engagements, such as finalizing assignments and taking exams and tests, from implied actions, containing online social communications, extracurricular activities, posts on conversation forums, and other activities that are not directly assessed as part of the student’s educational improvement. Examine simulations that process and demonstrate the data assist faculty members and school personnel in understanding. The goal of wisdom analytics is to empower teachers and schools to tailor educational opportunities to each student’s level of need and ability. (Baker, 2011) deliver researchers in educational environment with opportunities to use data mining for investigation and examination. Reducing from and building on the pitch of data mining in educational settings, performance Analytics and emphases on gathering, measuring, and analyzing data about students and their learning performance for the determination of optimizing learning performance. In modern years there has been an increased importance in using data mining for educational purposes. A very comprehensive review of data mining in education from 1995 to 2005 is published in 2007 by Romero and Ventura. One of the educational problems that are resolved with data mining is the analyzing of students ' academic performances, whose goal is to identify an

Data and metadata sharing is are crucial for both research and educational data. Educational data, in particular student-success initiatives, both funded and unfunded, often operate in isolation with little interaction outside of the department or college, and they are rarely connected to broader institutional efforts. Lack of knowledge sharing concerning initiative effectiveness and lessons learned makes it difficult to learn about promising and best practices and institutionalize them. This paper presents a framework for sharing metadata, enumerates various considerations of technologies and infrastructure that needs to be accounted for while building such a framework along with a thorough review of the related technologies and