The Data Speaks!

I was super excited/nervous for final exams to come around this year. I mean, this is what all the grading reform has been leading up to--right? All my hard work hinged on one test score. Well, the moment came and went and I am pleased to say I have great news. I graphed my final class averages (all the standards tests) and the final exam scores. The correlation was certainly positive, but I needed a number! After using the conveniences of Excel (**drumroll**) 0.89 correlation coefficient!!!!! This is super exciting. I almost could have given my students JUST the final exam.

A few things I noticed:

• The Special education students were the subgroup that had the lowest correlation coefficient. However, it was still 0.74. 
• The high performers had the highest coefficient at 0.91. 

I am anxious to see what May will bring with the state testing. So far all the tests (to include the final exam) has been made by either me or my department. The state test in May will be the true measuring stick for what I've been teaching this year.

On another note, I haven't been updating as much as I had hoped for this year. I will, of course, do my best to post relevant information in a timely manner. That may or may not happen more often next semester.

Purposeful Assignments

Ever since I have been using Standards-Based Grading in my classroom, I have noticed that I have been making my assignments much more purposeful. In the past my schedule would look something like this:

Monday:5.1 vocab/notes, guided practice
Tuesday: 5.1 guided practice, independent practice
Wednesday: 5.2 vocab/notes, guided practice
Thursday: 5.2 guided practice, independent practice
Friday: 5.3 vocab/notes, guided practice

Etc..., etc..., etc...., the boring cycle continued. Every now and then I would throw in a cool activity or two, but I would stick with the routine for the most part. I would assign problems just because it was independent practice day and not necessarily because it was what the students needed at that time. I would "worksheet" the kids through the chapter and then we would test at the end...simply because we had "covered" the material.

Now that I am working with SBG I feel like every assignment I give has an actual purpose. I am trying to learn more about what my students know or how I'm going to teach them something in particular. I don't lecture. I don't really give too many notes. I don't give homework. I give very carefully selected assignments.

The reason I am able to select the assignments so carefully is because I know what each of my students know and are able to do. Instead of giving endless worksheets, I give "mini-quizzes" several times a week. When the students are performing well on the mini-quizzes I give them their standard test.

It really seems like this system might stick around my classroom permanently.