Data Collecting

There is data that is useful and some that is not. Students every fall take the WKCE and we don't get results until late in the school year. This data does us little to no good. It can confirm what we have expected of a student all year but does not help us to change them at this point of the year. I think it would make more sense to give the WKCE in the spring and use that information to place students more accurately for the next fall when school starts up. In my school district we have MAP testing which is done three times a year: Sept., Jan. and May. This test gives immediate feedback. It gives individual scores and shows on average where they are among their peers. Also it gives information on specific areas of strengths and weakness for each student. Also we can look at previous years so we can compare progress, was this a fluke test or was it consistent with what the student has done in the past. This can help differentiate the students we have more accurately to better meet their needs. Just because they are poor in vocabulary for example does not mean that they have poor comprehension skills or vice versa, the MAP testing can help us more accurately place kids by skills rather then just how they do overall in a subject. Obviously we also have to look at data we collect on a daily basis in our classroom and compare this with the results we get on the bigger tests. Also by our observation of the students, this is not number data but very important just the same.