A YeartoYear Analysis of Marymounts ERB Results

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A Year-to-Year Analysis of Marymounts ERB
Results!

• How a little attention to the details
• (and a lot of hard work)
• helped us all make great gains!

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Why a Standardized Test?

• Standardized tests provide critical information
  with which to
• Monitor individual achievement
• Inform instruction
• Assess/improve curricular programs
• Evaluate/enhance instructional strategies
• Track school progress longitudinally
• Inform parents and students of progress
• Hold ourselves accountable

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Critics Say the Tests Dont Measure

• Creativity
• Imagination
• Conceptual thinking
• Curiosity
• Effort
• Judgment
• Ethical reflection
• Commitment
• Nuanced thought
• Initiative

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So, Why the ERBs?

• High achieving schools
• Independent schools nationwide
• Provides informative data at all levels
• Its not perfect, but its the best
• weve got!

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How We Slice and Dice the Data

• Same cohort Different cohort
• Individual students Whole class
• By percentile Item analyses
• By stanine Trend analyses
• By scaled scores Gap analysis

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When Kids Fall in the Below Average Range, What
Went Wrong?

• Usually, its one or more of the following
• Curriculum gaps leaving students unprepared
• Poor test-taking savvy
• Lack of general knowledge base
• Absence of preparation or support
• Instructional practices different from the test
  format
• Test anxiety (rarely seen in actuality)
• Inexperience in independent thinking
• Lack of long-term memory or initial comprehension
• Inexperience in doing hard things

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What Can We/Did We Do About Addressing Our
Concerns?

• Increased our instructional repertoires so every
  teacher has more (and more effective) teaching
  tools at their disposal
• Dana Hall Math Conferences
• Conferences and workshops
• Bay Area Writing Project
• Peer support and internal leadership
• Assessed our current reading and math programs
  and did a gap analysis and redundancy analysis in
  math and reading
• Completed and have continuously updated our
  curriculum maps

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What Else Have We Done?

• Explored areas of relative weakness and adjusted
  curriculum
• Imagine It! and Math Investigations
• New Middle School Algebra program
• Wordly Wise vocabulary series
• Higher expectations and emphasis on actual
  learning, not just teaching
• More, and more challenging, reading
• Differentiated instruction
• Full-time Learning Specialist
• K-2 literacy coach on campus

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What Were Our Goals?

• Better learning, more readily retrievable for
  students on high-stakes tests
• Know, meet, and exceed state standards
• Improve by 9 scaled-score points in each major
  category each year
• Greatly reduce the number of students who score
  in the bottom three stanines
• Continue to stretch the students at the top of
  the class via differentiated instruction and the
  Osprey Program

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What Were Our Big Successes as Measured in Scaled
Score Points?

• READING COMP MATH
• Grade 4 10 pts in one year 14 points in one
  year
• Grade 5 16 pts in one year 41 pts in two
  years
• Grade 6 13 pts in three years 38 pts in one
  year
• Grade 7 17 pts in three years 67 pts in three
  years
• Grade 8 17 pts in three years 46 pts in three
  years

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What Was Our Most Critical Goal for the Year in
2008-2009?

• To eliminate all below average scores and
  increase above average scores by 10 on the ERB
  WrAP test
• To ensure that at least 60 of our students are
  writing at or above the national average using
  independent school norms on the WrAP
• To show growth of 9 scaled score points in our
  major areas of measurement

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Did We Meet Our Goal of 9 Points?

• Reading Comp Average Gain 9.4 points
• Math Average Gain 18 points
• Average school-wide point gain 13.7 points

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How Did We Do in Writing?

• Using Independent School Norms
• Grade 4 87 scored average or above average
• (46 above average) (3 students below)
• Grade 5 96 scored average or above average
• (50 above average) (1 student below)
• Grade 6 97 scored average or above average
• (40 above average) (3 students below)
• Grade 7 100 scored average or above average
• (62 in above average) (0 students below)
• Grade 8 100 scored average or above average
• (72 in above average) (0 students below)

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How Much Did Our Writing Scores Improve on the
WrAP?
Grade 4 10 points in one year Grade 5 194
points in two years Grade 6 264 points in three
years Grade 7 362 points in three years Grade
8 273 points in three years
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2009 ERB Data Percentage At or Above Grade Level
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Whats Our Next Big Target?(Reading
Comp,Reading Comp,Reading Comp,Reading
Comp,Reading Comp,Reading Comp,Reading
Comp,Reading Comp,Reading Comp!!)

• Heres the plan
• Purchase Accelerated Reader to extend outside
  reading and enhance reading comprehension
• Insert one more novel into each grades English
  curriculum
• Share reading comprehension development
  strategies with all teachers, not just English
• Hold a reading contest sponsored by the Library
• Add Sustained Silent Reading
• GOAL Raise Reading Comprehension by 15 scaled
  score points per grade in one year on the ERBs!

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Whats Your Role As Parents?

• Love, support and encourage their best work
• Volunteer at school (read the research!)
• Focus on continuous progress not just percentile
  rank
• Read with and to your child and encourage him to
  read alone
• Ask your child why? and what do you think?
  questions
• Ask them to do hard things and to persevere
  until the work is done

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Throw a Party! Send Flowers!!Strike Up the
Band!!!

• Whats been done here is truly remarkable
• Teachers have worked together in new ways with
  powerful leadership at the Division Level
• Teacher-leaders have emerged
• Weve made data-driven decisions on staffing,
  instruction and curriculum
• Weve set high goals for ourselves and the
  students
• We done more in three years than anyone would
  have ever have predicted

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And were still the happiest school on earth