Imagine this - you are sitting in your sixth-grade classroom at the beginning of the school year. Your teacher tells you that you are about to take an important test and to “try your best.” You sit and focus for over 45 minutes, answering many questions (most of which you don’t know how to answer). After the test, you are given a score on the screen with no additional information. Your teacher asks you to take out a book and to silently read while others finish around you. Once everyone finishes, students are instructed to complete the next lesson of the day on the board about science. There’s no talk about this test or its significance until the next time it’s given mid-year.
Unfortunately, this is the experience of many students when taking benchmark tests. Students sit for long periods through an adaptive test that challenges students within their zone of proximal development. This means that students miss many of the questions since they’re just out of reach as the algorithm figures out students’ exact levels in reading and mathematics. While artificial intelligence can be very helpful, the scores generated don’t mean anything without context.
Reimagining Data Collection
Research shows that students thrive on feedback that is timely and specific. Asking students to take a grueling benchmark test three times a year without understanding the “why” behind it is an exercise in futility. Instead, why not challenge students to set goals for themselves once they understand the score and their strengths and weaknesses within tested domains? The curriculum team of the Warwick, RI public school system put their hypothesis to the test and started having data chats with students in schools K-8.
The concept behind the data chat is simple: teachers sit with a student 1:1 for a few minutes (nothing too long or complicated). During the chat, teachers show the student his/her/their score, explain the score in detail, and ask the following questions: What makes you proud about your score? What would you like to improve? How will you achieve that goal? Teachers will also provide some examples of ways to improve if students have trouble coming up with ideas. Parents and guardians are also brought into the conversation by sending home paper copies of their student’s scores and explanations of what they mean.
Addressing Teachers’ Concerns
Some teachers in the district were leery of this process at first, imagining it would be very time-consuming. However, they were able to enlist the help of support professionals within the building to either help with data chats or work with the rest of the class while they had conferences with students.
At the middle school level, some teachers got creative and had students fill in their information first - before having conferences - shortening the time needed for data chats. You can see a
sample of a middle school data chat form here. Warwick uses iReady for benchmarking K-8, but this form can be adapted for any type of benchmarking assessment.
Teachers were also concerned about speaking to students who struggled with the test. Some did not want to have difficult conversations and possibly hurt their students’ feelings. However, teachers soon realized that students weren’t so concerned about their scores, but about how to improve. Students typically wanted to reach for “stretch goals” to help close the gap between their scores and others around them. The students who struggled the most seemed even more motivated to work to improve their scores throughout the year. Setting goals was much more motivating than teachers expected.
The Results of Data Chats
Teachers have already started to see the data chats pay off–students are beginning to take ownership of their learning and are working hard on the “MyPath” work in iReady, which helps prepare them for the next benchmarking test and related standards.
Schools in the district have created extrinsic rewards for students according to the number of MyPath lessons passed during the school year. After doing a correlation analysis, Warwick found that students who focused on the MyPath lessons increased their state testing scores considerably. For example, three elementary schools increased their ELA state testing scores by 12%, 14%, and 17%. Also, in mathematics, students increased their scores by 11%, 8%, 10%, and 9% at one middle school, and a whopping 21% at one elementary school –the highest growth rate in the state. These amazing results can be attributed to hard work on the part of teachers and students within the iReady platform and with data chats.
Keeping these positive results in mind, principals have created rewards that best fit their schools. Some are tying the MyPath lessons to field day and fun assemblies; others are rewarding students with luncheons and pizza parties. Regardless, Warwick is thrilled to see the momentum created with data chats. The intrinsic motivation that comes from individual goal-setting conferences creates a sense of engagement and desire to work harder during the school day.
Students need feedback and clarity on the work that they are asked to do. Adults need feedback and clarity and would be distressed if asked to take a major test without any feedback or explanation about the results afterward. Imagine taking an IQ test, and finding out your score, but never given a comparison to an average IQ. Or, imagine taking a college entrance exam and never hearing back about the score or application. If this would drive an adult crazy, why would we expect anything different for students?
If our goal as educators is to prepare our students for college, careers, and the real world, we have to take steps to make our educational system mirror what happens outside of classroom walls. Setting goalsis an important part of life, and we can teach our students how to set and work towards them with steps that are concrete and attainable. All students need is our guidance to start them off. Data chats are a simple way to make this happen.
