Skills Iowa
SIOUX CITY
JULY 8 AND 18, 2014
Introductions
Margaret Buckton
Rhonda Justice
Susie Olesen
Doug Robbins
A moment of reflection
What data and information . . . . . .
◦ do you need to do your new position of consulting teacher well?
◦ do teachers need to do their jobs well?
◦ do students need to be successful in school?
◦ do parents need?
What is Skills Iowa?
Bank of questions in reading comprehension,
math and the conventions of language
aligned to Common Core State Standards
Sioux City Interim Assessments
◦ Quarterly in both math and reading
◦ 20 questions each
◦ Aligned to Sioux City pacing guides and power
standards
◦ Q2-Q4 will be reused with possible slight
modifications to compare data over years
◦ Q1 assessments will be new.
State Interim Assessments –
Optional for Individual Teachers
and Buildings
◦ 9 annually in reading comprehension
◦ Fiction
◦ Non-fiction science text
◦ Non-fiction social studies text
◦ 3 annually in math
◦ Cover same standards
Over 1300 five to ten minute tutorials in
reading comprehension, vocabulary, the
conventions of writing, math, science,
employability skills aligned to Common Core
State Standards
Research Supporting
Skills Iowa
Classes exceeding expected gains on the math
benchmark tests had teachers who used all of
the components of Skills Iowa more than
teachers of classes with lower than expected
gains.
Usage
Effective teachers found SI to be a valuable
resource in raising student achievement.
Increased usage does not guarantee increased
test scores. The “How” SI is used is far more
important than the “How much”
100
90
Percent of Teachers Implementing New
Skill into Practice
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Learning new …seeing it
…chance to
demonstrated practice
theory
…receive
corrective
feedback
Professional Development
Joyce and Showers (1987)
…job
embedded
coaching
100
90
Percent of Teachers Implementing New
Skill into Practice
80
How does
this
happen?
70
60
50
40
30
Leadership
20
10
0
Learning new …seeing it
…chance to
demonstrated practice
theory
…receive
corrective
feedback
Professional Development
Joyce and Showers (1987)
…job
embedded
coaching
• Support teachers in taking quarterly benchmark assessments
and stressing that usage isn’t optional. Clear and high
expectations.
Leadership
• Finding time for trainers to work with principal, coaches, and
staff, sometimes together, sometimes separately. Professional
development.
• Looking at the data, sharing data with students, staff, parents,
school board. Using data to determine where to go next.
• Student learning
• Usage
• Asking teachers about the data: What do you see? Areas for
improvement? Surprises? Where are you going next in
instruction as a result of data study? Creating a collaborative
environment.
• Using data in PD work and faculty meetings; modeling
importance of data. Modeling what is expected.
David Nagel
Corwin
Professional
Learning
“Measurable improvement in student
learning only occurred in PLCs that
focused on changing the instructional
practices of their teachers.”
dave@davenagel.com
http://www.davenagel.com/uploads/fi
les/ISFIS/Slides%20from%20PLC%20Se
ssion.pdf
Supovitz, 2002; Supovitz & Christman
2003
Waterloo Study
Dr. Jane
Lindaman
Participation on Skills Iowa is decent in that
73% of students take at least 8 of the 9 reading
tests. (82% take at least 7 of 9 reading tests.)
There is a significant correlation between Skills
Iowa benchmark tests and Iowa Assessments.
When students pass the majority of Skills Iowa
tests, they are quite likely (80-90% likely) to be
proficient on Iowa Assessments.
"Given the predictive value of the Skills Iowa benchmarks
related to the Iowa Assessments, this program has gone
from being a 'nice to have' to a 'need to have' tool."
Jane Lindaman, Superintendent, Waterloo
Community School District
Remember: There are two
programs
DEMO
edifyASSESS
Skills Tutor
Sioux City
Implementation
2014-15
1. Calendar – 4 quarterly
tests
2. What needs to happen
before the first
assessment?
3. What needs to happen
after each assessment?
4. Resources
Sioux City
Implementation
2014-15
Proposed Skills Iowa Testing
Windows (a little longer
time frame)
Q1: Sept 15 – Oct 3
Q2: Nov 19 – Dec 9
Q3: Feb 9 – Feb 27
Q4: Apr 20 – May 7
16 hours of training for each building
available: Doug and Rhonda
Teach principals to use program, primarily access reports
Teach coaches to use program, access reports, make assessments
Teach teachers to use program, set up classes, access reports, make
assessments, make Skills Tutor assignments, access tools in edifyAssess
Work with tech folks to be sure systems and Skills Iowa tools are compatible
Work with tech folks and clickers
Work with collaborative teams in looking at the data
Before the first assessment, technology
personnel…
1. Submit Skills Iowa spreadsheet to Doug Robbins with
names, state IDs, and other demographic information of
students and teachers that Skills Iowa has requested
2. Work with Doug to ensure the clickers work
3. Make sure both edifyAssess and Skills Tutor are accessible
in the Sioux City system
Before the first assessment, teachers...
1. Create classes from enrollment data submitted by district tech personnel.
2. Enter any new students not entered on initial entry into classes.
3. Give each student their username and password.
4. Make sure the pop-up blockers on computers used by students to take the
assessments are turned off. Recheck for each assessment.
5. If using clickers (check with tech folks on accessibility), check that the
system is in working order. Contact building tech coach with any
concerns.
Before each quarterly assessment, school
leaders (principals, consulting teachers) …
1. Develop a schedule for classes needing to access computer labs/carts to take
assessments. Communicate this schedule with all staff.
2. Schedule quarterly meetings with Doug or Rhonda to work with the leadership team
to analyze and use quarterly assessment reports to direct instruction.
3. ASAP: schedule new teacher leaders into a two hour initial training session.
4. Communicate and expect the quarterly assessment data will be used in collaborative
teams, identifying students for extra help, planning instruction, follow-up formative
assessment confirmations, etc. . . . talk about it – ask teachers in casual
conversations, what SkillsIowa data did you discuss in your team conversation?
What are you gathering now in preparation for your next team conversation? What
are you doing differently in your classroom this week after talking about the
benchmarks in your last team meeting?
Before the first assessment, central office
personnel …
Make clear that all schools will participate in Skills Iowa by giving
the assessments and using the data in the school improvement
work.
Celebrate gains in buildings that were good early implementers
and create opportunities for success stories to be told.
On-going: Remind principals, consulting teachers and
instructional coaches about available support from trainers.
Ask, what are you learning about classrooms in your building?
After each assessment. . .
1. Communicate any problems to technology staff, leadership or trainers that
occurred during test administration, so issues can be addressed and solved.
2. Central office, building leaders, and teachers analyze assessment data. Doug
and Rhonda will schedule a short meeting to assist each in analyzing data.
3. That analysis leads to these actions:
◦
collaborative teams use data for planning lessons that address challenges,
◦
collecting more data – what else do we need to know?
◦
setting goals for student performance, and
◦
other actions the team identifies as helpful.
Dylan
Wiliam
“Why formative
assessment needs to be
a priority for every
school” webinar and
slides linked on the
www.skillsiowa.org site
under Research on
School Improvement
tab:
It’s not the data –
it’s what we do
with the data.
Dylan
Wiliam
“Why formative
assessment needs to be
a priority for every
school” webinar and
slides linked on the
www.skillsiowa.org site
under Research on
School Improvement
tab:
It’s not the data –
it’s what we do
with the data.
Resources:
Doug Robbins DougR@skillsiowa.org
Rhonda Justice Rhonda@skillsiowa.org
Skills Iowa www.skillsiowa.org (check out the resources for school
improvement)
ISFIS School Improvement Boosters http://www.skillsiowa.org/?q=publications
We will focus on two reports today.
1. Item Response Distribution Report
◦
How might this report be useful to you in your
work in improving student performance?
2. Detailed Performance on Standards Report
◦
How might this report be useful to you in your
work in improving student performance?
P.S. There are many other reports: read about
them, access them, call Doug and Rhonda, look for
short training webinars. . . Lots to come
Let’s look at Reports and Dig In
What’s in it? How might you use this report in your work?
Item Response Distribution
Performance Band Report
Detailed Performance on Standards
Student Performance on Standards
Score Distribution
Usage Reports
Final feedback and Reflections:
What three things do you want to remember about
today?
Any other comments?
Thanks for all you do and all you will do to improve
outcomes for Sioux City students!