Tracking Student Data

Teach for America heavily focuses on tracking student data. Before the school year started, all TFA first-year corps members sat through many sessions about creating a vision and goal for our students. Traditionally, teachers have held an “80% mastery” goal for students to work towards on a final test. I myself incorporated this into my classroom vision/goal at the beginning of the year when I had only 7th graders. After the first nine weeks, half of my classes switched to 8th grade and I still kept this “80% goal.” Throughout the year I have kept two excel files that track my 7th and 8th grade students toward this “80% mastery” goal.

I use quotations because I don’t completely agree with how I’ve been guided to track my students. Student test data is messy, complicated, and tricky. My first issue is that it’s all about test scores. Granted, if a student has a true understanding of the material he/she should be able to score well on a test. But standardized tests don’t accommodate individual learning needs. Some don’t test well, and some could have had a bad day/night before the day, affecting their score. Another issue I have had with tracking is that I am not sure if the tests I am giving to my students are truly aligned or truly “fair” to what they need to know.

How do I know what they need to know? Well, the FCAT of course. That’s another issue that I must hold back from expressing my livid frustration. I teach to the Science FCAT because my students’ achievement is based on their success on this test they take in 8th grade. In theory it makes sense: a child goes to school to learn certain concepts and skills, and we must assess their progress to make sure they are learning. It becomes a problem when all of that weight falls on one test.

I want to cry when I look at my data. I see the low scores and want to kick and scream, “What am I doing wrong???” There are about 7 days until the FCAT and I am really worried that only a few of my 8th graders will pass the FCAT. Mind you, in order to pass the FCAT they have to get 60% of the questions correct. WAIT A SECOND; I thought my “mastery goal” was 80%? Well, it is, and this is where reality and expectations do not meet.

Let me outline the things that bother me about my science teaching experience, from a student data perspective:
1. The Science FCAT is purely multiple-choice. No math, no free-response, no real rigor.
2. If there was real rigor, my students really would have no hope because they struggle on the current FCAT-style questions.
3. FCAT is scored on a 1-5 scale, with 3 considered okay to pass. In order to get a 3, a student has to score only a 60%.
4. A “mastery goal” is 80%.
5. I don’t understand how certain students have scored low on certain concepts when I have heard them explain to me their understanding during class activities, labs, and on written assignments.

As a teacher, you more-or-less know who is following along with the content and should pass on to the next grade level to learn more. Standardized tests serve a great purpose to quantify it, but it’s not complete. One thing I really should have done is track growth, not mastery. Now, TFA is all about making “transformation changes,” changes that are so out of this world that you can really turn around a person’s life. Their thinking is that through setting a very high bar (e.g. 80% mastery), a teacher can make this transformational change. I understand that. But it is not working for me. I would rather track my students’ growth from where they started than naively say “Yes, you will score 80% on the end of year test,” even though you came into my classroom on a 2nd grade reading level with a learning disability and emotional-behavioral problems. You just can’t do that.

And although a teacher needs to set high expectations for all students, high expectations are not one-size-fits all. I have one advanced 7th grade science class and then I have one 7th grade class at the other extreme: many English Language Learners, on an individualized learning plan or have very low-IQs. In my advanced class, I expect that they will go through the material quicker, answer harder questions, and average an 80% on the unit tests (which they have!). In my troubled class, I can’t expect that. I have to break down the lectures at a slower pace, I have to incorporate more reading strategies, have more visuals, and make the tests a little easier because if not, the students get frustrated and give up. Maybe one day those students could get to that advanced 7th grade level, but it can’t happen overnight. Is that already lowering my expectation?