My target group for this data collection and intervention process is a small group of seven 6th graders who are performing below grade level in math. These students all score one or more grade levels below where they should be on the STAR and Acellus assessments.

Goal:  Sixth grade students will improve their STAR assessment math scores.
Objectives:

• Students will increase their math math skills, achieving one grade level of improvement by December, 2015, as measured by the STAR math assessments.
• Students will demonstrate improvement with every monthly STAR math assessment taken, beginning in September, 2015.
  
• Students will reach grade level proficiency in math by June 2015, as measured by the STAR math assessments.
  

1. Describe how leadership, teachers, families and students will be involved in this process.  What role will each play?

The people involved in this intervention process will be:

Administration:  Ideally I’d like to see site leadership lead the charge with data analysis and intervention implementation. This would help to create a school culture of conscious and targeted improvement in student achievement.  At the very least site leadership will need to provide support, resources and possible funding for this intervention process.

Teachers: monitor, observe, work with students in small group or one-on-one capacity twice per week during class, communicate with parents in an ongoing way to maintain support at home.

Parents: communicate with teacher to understand what they can do to offer support at home, and support students at home in those capacities

Students: complete their math assignments and assessments, ask for help when they need it, study, practice

Counselor: meet with students and communicate with parents as needed to support any social-emotional issues students have that may or may not be factors in the below grade level issue in math.

2.  What are the interventions that you plan to implement based on your goals and objectives? Indicate interventions for students, faculty/staff, and families/communities and indicate whether they are focused on individual students, groups, grade levels, or whole school.

Whole School:

• Site leadership can set aside a small amount of funding to be able to host a quarterly family math night at which the teaching staff can share helpful and fun activities and websites or other resources with students and families that will help students struggling in math and help to create a positive mindset regarding math ability.
  
  
• School-wide math problem of the week that makes math a school-constant and also puts math in a fun light for students.

Groups and Individual Students:

• Teachers will pull out small groups of students or even individuals to work on specific math skills that students are struggling with. Hands-on activities with manipulatives whenever possible will help students with big-picture foundational concepts.
  
  
• Teachers can provide instructional videos to offer students extra ways to think about math.
  
  
• Whenever possible teachers should try to make the connection between math and real life through math exercises, videos, or simulations so that students who struggle with foundational math skills can begin to see its relevance, and move away from seeing math as a foreign language.
  
  

3.  What type of support will be needed to carry this out? For example, time, professional development, materials, etc.

At this point I think that the teachers could use some training on what kinds of specific math tutorials, activities, exercises, etc., to implement when students are having difficulty mastering particular math skills.  Site administration should provide some funding for any needed manipulatives, software, etc. that will aid in the success of the intervention.  Determining which materials need to be purchased may require a teacher meeting to brainstorm and discuss, so time for that type of planning meeting will need to be granted.  Teachers will also need the buy-in and support of the parents to support on the home end.

Parents will need information, support, and possibly materials to use with their children as they support the intervention from home.  

Counselors will need the support of teachers and parents in the form of communication and follow-through.

1. Which additional data did you gather to inform your thinking on the problem?

I was able to gather assessment data from the STAR math tests that students in our district take.  I found that there are a variety of reports available in the STAR data base, and some of them are very detailed.  While I was happy to find more hard data related specifically to math achievement, I feel I have to spend more time looking much closer at finer details in these reports, as nothing of major significance is jumping out at me with the level of data analysis experience I have so far.  I also gathered more soft data in terms of parent involvement in the teaching of math and the issuing of report card grades in this semi "homeschool" environment.  My intuition tells me that the soft data will be more helpful in telling the story of each child, and then maybe the small differences in the STAR reports that indicate some level of growth (or lack thereof) will be more apparent to me.  I gathered more attendance data, but as I suspected, it isn't much help since ADA for Independent Study is calculated and reported based on work turned in, not on seat time. Going through the cum files is taking a very long time, but is yielding some much-needed information about students moving school-to-school, health issues, early elementary indicators, etc.  My next endeavor is to see if I can speak to any of the parents of these seven students to gather more story.

2.  After analyzing all data, what do you believe are the root causes of the problem you have identified? Comment on: organizational culture, external factors, organizational structure, student demographics, instruction and preparation, and curriculum.
The root causes are proving to be the most challenging to determine.  From my slow progress of gathering specific data on each student through conversations with the teacher, classroom observations, looking through student cum files, and looking at math assessment scores my conclusion so far is that each of these students is struggling in math for different reasons- most having to do with family or health circumstances that prevented students from getting steady math support and instruction in years prior to sixth grade. I am not yet ready to report out for each student, as I am still looking through and sorting the data, but the family circumstances, family culture, and health issues, coupled with the fact that (in my opinion) the math curriculum hasn't been strong at our site (until the introduction of the Accellus program this January) seem to the major root causes.  This means that the approaches, objectives and goals set for each student will be highly personalized.  This is not in any way a bad thing, just more time consuming.


3.  Based on an outcome you would like to attain for the target group, write 1 goal and 2-3 objectives that support that goal.  (Create a SMART goal – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely.)
Goal:  Sixth grade students will improve their STAR assessment math scores.
Objectives:

• Students will increase their math math skills, achieving one grade level of improvement by December, 2015, as measured by the STAR math assessments.
  
• Students will demonstrate improvement with every monthly STAR math assessment taken, beginning in September, 2015.
• Students will reach grade level proficiency in math by June 2015, as measured by the STAR math assessments.

I have known that at my school site we need to develop a plan for looking at student data and making use of that valuable information that can assist us in teaching students and helping them develop. I am glad to have the opportunity to learn about utilizing data with the guidance of my professor and my PLC, as the main focus of this course: EDL 690.  The picture to the left is my pile of data.  It is proving to be challenging to glean significance across the various types of data, but I'm finding that the more I sit with it and keep coming back to it, more and more insight occurs, and that insight often leads me to gather another type of data or investigate reasons behind the data.


To get started, I put out a general announcement to the teachers at my site, asking if there were any groups of students they knew were struggling in any area, and if so, to let me know so that I might include them in my data analysis project.  After a few conversations, it was decided I would look at data for the 6th graders at our site, as many of them are struggling academically.  Below are the answers to the questions for our first check-in:



What type of student achievement data did you analyze?
I began with asking our registrar to run a few reports for me.  She printed transcripts for all 6th graders, as well as any state testing data available for 6th graders as well.  I also pulled assessment reports for each student from our online courseware program, Accellus, in which students work weekly in language arts and math.
What were the main findings generated from the analysis of your data?
My main findings are a bit murky in this first blush look at hard data.  I am finding that grades reported to student transcripts for middle school do not often match the data on test scores.  My guess is that, especially since parents, as homeschool "teachers" have input on their students' grades, suggest grades based on effort rather than grade level competency. I'm finding that our attendance data isn't all that helpful since ADA for homeschool is calculated, not by seat time, but by assignments turned in.  I am going to have to get creative here as I look for more hard data that might provide insight.  I think the data I have from assessments taken on Accellus might be the most helpful because it is very specific to topics studied, and shows level of competency.

Share 5 questions that the data sparked.

1. Why are some students at grade level in math while some are not?
2. What is the difference in home life and support for students performing at grade level and those who are not?
3. Were students who are emerging as a target group to study all home-schooled completely up until this point? (Most of our elementary students have been home schooled)
4. In looking at student transcripts, how accurate are grades since parents have input as homeschool teachers? (grades posted don't always match testing data- are grades on report cards reflective of effort instead of competency?)
5. Will soft data (observations, reading cum file) be more helpful and informative than the hard data I have?

Name 3 priority needs and mention which one of these seemed most urgent.

1. Remediation and intervention needs to be put in place for students who are performing significantly below grade level in math.
2. There seems to be a correlation between consistent under performance in the core subjects of math and science (CST data).
3. Some of our students have moved schools several times.  It seems important to investigate the various reasons for these moves and the correlation between these moves and grade level performance in core subject areas.

Which target group did you select to work with and why?
I chose a target group consisting of seven 6th graders to study, as they are performing well below grade level in math.  Parents and teachers are concerned, and I'm hoping some data analysis might provide some insight that leads to ideas for remediation and intervention.