Quantitative Evidence of Academic Growth
Overview
My students take the Northwest Evaluation Associated (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment three times a year in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. This is an online assessment where students are able to show their mastery levels of a range of Literacy skills including foundational skills, language and writing, literature and informational, and vocabulary use and functions. Students take this assessment in our school's Learning Lab. The Learning Lab is where students engage in online learning programs and get small group tutoring instruction. When students take this assessment in the beginning of the year I am able to see the skills they already possess entering the school year. In the Winter, I am able to see how effective my instruction has been for each student and what instructional changes I can make for the remainder of the year, based on student scores and goals met. The Spring data shows me how much my students have grown over the year and how effective my instruction was to close the achievement gap for all students.
NWEA MAP is a national assessment to see how students are performing compared to other students in the same grade level across the nation. The assessment adjusts to students levels and will increase the rigor of the questions for students who are showing mastery of the grade level questions. I explain student scores to parents in parent teacher conferences and grade level meetings. Parents know students exact scores and their goals. My school uses a platform called "Schoolzilla" to create individualized student goals based off of prior NWEA MAP data.
To learn more about NWEA MAP click on the button below.
My students take the Northwest Evaluation Associated (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment three times a year in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. This is an online assessment where students are able to show their mastery levels of a range of Literacy skills including foundational skills, language and writing, literature and informational, and vocabulary use and functions. Students take this assessment in our school's Learning Lab. The Learning Lab is where students engage in online learning programs and get small group tutoring instruction. When students take this assessment in the beginning of the year I am able to see the skills they already possess entering the school year. In the Winter, I am able to see how effective my instruction has been for each student and what instructional changes I can make for the remainder of the year, based on student scores and goals met. The Spring data shows me how much my students have grown over the year and how effective my instruction was to close the achievement gap for all students.
NWEA MAP is a national assessment to see how students are performing compared to other students in the same grade level across the nation. The assessment adjusts to students levels and will increase the rigor of the questions for students who are showing mastery of the grade level questions. I explain student scores to parents in parent teacher conferences and grade level meetings. Parents know students exact scores and their goals. My school uses a platform called "Schoolzilla" to create individualized student goals based off of prior NWEA MAP data.
To learn more about NWEA MAP click on the button below.
Example Questions
Since many of my students are emerging readers, questions are read to students on the computer. Each question has a small speaker icon students can click on to have the question read to them and can click on it multiple times to re-hear the question. Students also learn how to use the track pad on the computer to click, drag, and/or drop items. To introduce students to the assessment, they watch a video from the NWEA website to learn how to take the test and why they are taking the test. The button below is a link to a video I show students to understand what the assessment looks like and how to navigate through the website.
Since many of my students are emerging readers, questions are read to students on the computer. Each question has a small speaker icon students can click on to have the question read to them and can click on it multiple times to re-hear the question. Students also learn how to use the track pad on the computer to click, drag, and/or drop items. To introduce students to the assessment, they watch a video from the NWEA website to learn how to take the test and why they are taking the test. The button below is a link to a video I show students to understand what the assessment looks like and how to navigate through the website.
As I have mentioned, the test has questions on four literacy categories; foundational skills, language and writing, literature and informational, and vocabulary use and functions. The button below provides a link to a sample NWEA assessment for grades K-2. Each of the question is aligned to the prior mentioned categories.
Scoring Chart and Goal Setting
Goals for each grade level have been established through NWEA. The set goals are normed across the nation and ultimately show if students are performing on or above grade level. Below is the chart created by NWEA that shows reading goals from different grade levels.
Goals for each grade level have been established through NWEA. The set goals are normed across the nation and ultimately show if students are performing on or above grade level. Below is the chart created by NWEA that shows reading goals from different grade levels.
In addition to the NWEA MAP normed goals, my school also creates individual student goals based on their current scores and growth needed to ensure students are growing at least 1.4 years. As mentioned above, these goals are created on Schoolzilla. Schoolzilla creates goals by dividing a student’s Fall to Spring MAP growth by the Fall to Spring Growth Norm provided by NWEA. The chart below shows my classes goals from the Fall and Winter assessments for the 2016-2017 school year. The chart below shows Fall and Winter goals based off of predicted years growth, points growth, and overall RIT goals. The overall RIT score determines if students are performing on or above grade level. For example, in the Fall category in the furthermost right column, I can see predicted Spring RIT score for each student from Fall to Spring; then, in the Winter category I can see anticipated student goals for Winter to Spring growth, under the Spring RIT Goal column.
The images below shows student actual data compared to the goals presented above.
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/2/2/112223317/published/nweasummary2.png?1523578928)
I can also see individual student scores from the Fall, Winter, and Spring at the end of the year. I saw great growth in my students from the Fall to Spring, especially with having 44% of students scoring in the advanced (67th percentile or above). I have been very proud of my students growth especially dropping the below bucket students by 29%.
Data
All NWEA data is interpreted through Schoolzilla. On this platform I am able to see movement of students in below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced buckets. The buckets are determined by student percentiles based on their NWEA MAP scores. Students in the advanced bucket score in the 67th or higher percentile of students in the nation, students in the proficient bucket score in the 50th-66th percentile, students in the basic bucket score in the 33rd-49th percentile, and students in the below basic bucket score below the 32nd percentile. Students in the advanced bucket are performing above grade level, students in proficient bucket are at grade level, and students in the basic or below basic bucket are performing below grade level. I can view individual student data and whole class data. I communicate this data directly to parents in parent teacher conferences and parent meetings. Schoolzilla also provides high level visual representations of students in different buckets and movement of students in the buckets. I have a clear breakdown of each category from the NWEA MAP assessment and the growth students have made from the Fall, Winter, to Spring.
Below are images of my 2016-2017 cohorts NWEA data, with explanations. Please click on each image to zoom.
All NWEA data is interpreted through Schoolzilla. On this platform I am able to see movement of students in below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced buckets. The buckets are determined by student percentiles based on their NWEA MAP scores. Students in the advanced bucket score in the 67th or higher percentile of students in the nation, students in the proficient bucket score in the 50th-66th percentile, students in the basic bucket score in the 33rd-49th percentile, and students in the below basic bucket score below the 32nd percentile. Students in the advanced bucket are performing above grade level, students in proficient bucket are at grade level, and students in the basic or below basic bucket are performing below grade level. I can view individual student data and whole class data. I communicate this data directly to parents in parent teacher conferences and parent meetings. Schoolzilla also provides high level visual representations of students in different buckets and movement of students in the buckets. I have a clear breakdown of each category from the NWEA MAP assessment and the growth students have made from the Fall, Winter, to Spring.
Below are images of my 2016-2017 cohorts NWEA data, with explanations. Please click on each image to zoom.
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/2/2/112223317/projectedgrowthgoals_orig.png)
The graph shows the amount of years my students grew in the 2016-2017 school year. On average, students grew at least 1.44 years. This means they left my classroom already on a first grade level. 80% of all of my students grew at least one full year, meaning they were on grade level. 52% of my students grew at least the average 1.44%.
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/2/2/112223317/categoryscores_orig.png)
This image shows buckets of students in Foundational Skills, Language and Writing, Literature and Informational, and Vocabulary Use and Functions categories. Foundational skills include students knowledge of letters, sounds, and phonics skills such as decoding and encoding. Language and Writing include students ability to match rhyming words, separate syllables, and writing conventions such as punctuation and capitalization. Literature and Informational include reading comprehension and identifying parts of a story such as setting, characters, problem, solution, and theme. Vocabulary Use and Functions include the use of new vocabulary words and how to use context clues to solve unknown words. In the Winter, I noticed highest growth in Literature and Informational and that is a direct result of my reading comprehension lessons and students success on their unit assessments. Moving into the Spring assessment I focused a lot on phonics and writing because I realized that is where my students struggled most. I used my guided reading lessons to ensure each student was getting differentiated lessons based on their areas of growth and I believe that led to an increase in the Foundational Skills, Writing, and Vocabulary buckets of the assessment.
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/2/2/112223317/categoryscores2_orig.png)
This shows the growth in RIT bands for each category on the NWEA MAP assessment. The blue line across shows the network average. In the Spring, my students had consistent scores and were far above the average. I believe this growth is a result of differentiated instruction and truly knowing my students needs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have seen great academic growth from my students over the past few years. Specifically in the 2016-2017 school year, my students grew 1.44 years, 80% of students met at least one year growth, and 52% grew at least 1.4 years, meaning they are leaving Kindergarten on a mid-first grade level. The NWEA MAP assessment is proof my students are making dramatic academic gains. Students are leaving my classroom on or above grade level and many are already performing at or above first grade level. This assessment gives me insight on my students growth and the category breakdown helps me adjust my lessons for my students needs.
In conclusion, I have seen great academic growth from my students over the past few years. Specifically in the 2016-2017 school year, my students grew 1.44 years, 80% of students met at least one year growth, and 52% grew at least 1.4 years, meaning they are leaving Kindergarten on a mid-first grade level. The NWEA MAP assessment is proof my students are making dramatic academic gains. Students are leaving my classroom on or above grade level and many are already performing at or above first grade level. This assessment gives me insight on my students growth and the category breakdown helps me adjust my lessons for my students needs.