The Data Doldrums

I began the school year with 24 students. 58% of those students were not reading on grade level and needing major interventions (my reds).

I had my work cut out for me before we tested again in January.

I made reading goals for each student and taped it to the corner of their desk. I created a form that went home to their parents outlining what they could do at home to help their students improve.

I knew together we were going to make some progress.

These students haven't known what a normal school year is like. Their kindergarten year got shut down. First grade was all about masks and really only a 4-day-in-person school week. Some of my students have HUGE learning gaps, and it's become my job to fill those gaps and get them reading on grade level.

Second grade is a crucial year. Data shows that if a student is not reading on grade level by the end of second grade, it is much harder for them to catch up. The reading just accelerates. 

We made a class goal: If 60% of my students could reach the goal on their desk, we'd have a rootbeer float party. That meant at least 16 of my students had to achieve it at testing time in January.

My district had a different goal in mind which was we would achieve 5% proficiency. That meant of the roughly 100 students we have between us, 5 of those students would move from below-grade level to on-grade level or above.

Our testing day came. I was super excited and super nervous. I wanted them all to do well. AND we did!! My number of reds went from 58% to 50% and 18 of my students made their goal. I chose to not include my new students because that wouldn't have been fair to throw them into the mix when they hadn't been with us all year. However, had my new RED students been taken out the data the district shared, I would have been at 46%. That's a 12% drop. That percentage drop means that some of those reds moved into yellow status which is not quite reading on grade level but making progress.

One student went from reading 4 words per minute (wpm) to 42. Another went from 14 to 52. And yet another read 34 at the beginning of the year and read 88 wpm on her test. I couldn't have been happier. All made growth. Some more than others, but no one went backwards.

We celebrated.

We partied.

And then the district people came to discuss our district goal and data.

I felt pretty confident going in to the meeting until they told me I had pretty much stayed the same. Two of my colleagues grew by 4% proficiency (this means they had 1 or 2 students move to on-grade level.). 

Here's the kicker. In that meeting they only seemed to care about who was and who was not on-grade level. I can go down my list and tell you that in 10 seconds. There were no deep dives into what the numbers really meant. There was no looking to see who was super close to moving over that threshold. AND it certainly did not take into account one of my high students who moved in October and the 3 extremely low students I had move in during those few months. Just that kind of movement is going to skew the numbers and disrupt the balance. My colleagues got lucky with their new move-ins.

My grievance is if you're going to use data for measurement, make sure you are looking at the numbers correctly. Don't just look at something and assume you know what is going on. Had my high student not moved and had I not had 3 low students move in, my numbers would have been on target.

I told myself that I need to remember that when we have these little data meetings, I know way more of what is going on with the numbers than they do. I can do math, and I can certainly play the numbers game to interpret what is really going on.

We set more goals for this next half of the year and taped them to our desk. This time we are working for a pizza party. I know they can do it.

They are going to make me proud again. I can feel it in my bones.