Last week, I received a two-day crash course introduction to deriving integral instructional information from WIDA data that we receive annually after administering the ACCESS test.
During cup after cup of coffee, I learned so much about what the scores represent (raw scores versus scale scores), which to use when exploring students' personal strengths and weaknesses across domains, how to analyze a students growth throughout their ELL career, and oh so much more.
After having received this professional development, I have inundated myself with the data surrounding my school's students. This is tedious and somewhat monotonous work, but I see the value in it. I do wish, however, that I had more time to pick the brains of these WIDA representatives. As people who work closely with those who created this assessment, they were able to convey a great deal of insight as to why we receive the score reports we do and which scores are important to pay attention to depending on what one is looking for.
Upon returning to work, I can see that I have a lot of digging to do through at least 4 years of data for my school's individual ELL student population. Going through WIDA data dating back to the 2008-2009 school year for student after student and then making graphic depictions of that student's true progress is painstaking, but such a valuable experience! All I can say is that I wish I had known all of this stuff earlier! The more I'm learning, the more it's feeling like common sense, but it still (for some reason) needed to be spelled out in order for me to begin this endeavor.
I enjoy what I'm learning, but it is still proving to be a difficult process. There's much more left to be understood for the sake of our students. I feel up to the task, but I also feel pulled in so many other directions.
Here's to hoping for some insight as to when to go in which direction!
During cup after cup of coffee, I learned so much about what the scores represent (raw scores versus scale scores), which to use when exploring students' personal strengths and weaknesses across domains, how to analyze a students growth throughout their ELL career, and oh so much more.
After having received this professional development, I have inundated myself with the data surrounding my school's students. This is tedious and somewhat monotonous work, but I see the value in it. I do wish, however, that I had more time to pick the brains of these WIDA representatives. As people who work closely with those who created this assessment, they were able to convey a great deal of insight as to why we receive the score reports we do and which scores are important to pay attention to depending on what one is looking for.
Upon returning to work, I can see that I have a lot of digging to do through at least 4 years of data for my school's individual ELL student population. Going through WIDA data dating back to the 2008-2009 school year for student after student and then making graphic depictions of that student's true progress is painstaking, but such a valuable experience! All I can say is that I wish I had known all of this stuff earlier! The more I'm learning, the more it's feeling like common sense, but it still (for some reason) needed to be spelled out in order for me to begin this endeavor.
I enjoy what I'm learning, but it is still proving to be a difficult process. There's much more left to be understood for the sake of our students. I feel up to the task, but I also feel pulled in so many other directions.
Here's to hoping for some insight as to when to go in which direction!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Share your thoughts!