Year-Long Assessments

YEAR-LONG ASSESSMENTS OVERVIEW
One of my main academic goals is for 80% of my students to gain at least 3 points on the American College Testing (ACT) exam over the course of the school year. My students take year-long assessments in preparation for the ACT exam. The mission of my high school is to prepare students for "college, careers, and choice-filled lives", so the importance of doing well on the ACT is constantly and consistently messaged to our students from 9th-12th grade. Therefore, all Algebra II students in the KIPP network take real, practice ACT exams each quarter. Students take these exams under real ACT exam conditions and timing. Students take all sections of the ACT exam, so the mathematics section is also a test of endurance, as the students will have just finished the English section. I do not proctor or grade the quarterly ACT exams, so the scores have minimized bias. 

These ACT exams provide me with valuable data. The KIPP network releases data for all students who take the quarterly exam, so I can benchmark my students' performance to Algebra II students across the KIPP network. I analyze the ACT data with other 10th and 11th grade teachers in the mathematics department to determine trends in student progress. We observe, advise, and collaborate with each other on how to teach objectives that are not mastered across our classrooms. In addition, I can view individual and whole-class performance on specific College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS).  I analyze and make plans to re-teach and re-assess standards with low mastery. When results are released to families, I conference with students and their parents on their quarterly progress.

Please scroll down or click the table of contents below to see how my students and I prepare for the ACT through diagnostic assessments, formative assessments, summative assessments, and data-driven instruction.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Diagnostic Assessments
Formative Assessments
Summative Assessments
Data-Driven Instruction

Diagnostic Assessments
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PRE-ACT
On the second day of the school year, all Algebra II students take a practice ACT exam under real exam conditions, which we call the Pre-ACT. Within one week, I receive a score report containing the scores of all my students. This data is very useful to me, because I often know little about my students' prior math knowledge. Therefore, I use Pre-ACT scores to diagnose students' incoming math skills. I analyze the ACT scores by class period to see if there are any major differences.

​As seen above, the scores are quite close, as they are within a 1.2 point margin. However, my third period class which consists mainly of 10th graders has the highest average ACT score, while my 4th period class, which consists only of 11th graders, has the lowest. I made note to challenge my 3rd period class with more application problems. In addition, I create a heat map of the ACT scores, which can be seen in the above image in the column of red and green. Students scores in deep green are in the top 20%, followed in 20% increments by students in light green, white, light red, and dark red. The heat map helps me visualize academic performance, so that I can seat students who are stronger in math next to students who are weaker in math. I also keep track of students' advisors, so that I can conference with their advisors throughout the year on their students' ACT growth.

Formative Assessments
ACT DRILL
Every day after students complete classwork aligned to the daily Algebra II objective, students engage in an ACT drill. The ACT drill is a 10-minute timed, individual practice of 10 real ACT questions. The math section of the ACT contains 60 questions that must be completed in 60 minutes, so I timed our ACT drills for one minute per question. I select the 10 ACT questions based on their alignment to the daily objective, or the current, or previously taught units. I also include 1-2 geometry questions on the ACT drill, so that students can continue to practice the geometry skills they learned last year. As students complete the drill, I circulate the classroom to make note of common errors, which I tally on my clipboard. At the end of the 10 minutes, I show the answers on the projector and students check and correct their answers. Then, we review the top  two most commonly missed drill questions. Our classroom culture is build on peer-to-peer support, so students are very open with sharing their mistakes on the ACT drill.

In the images below, students self-corrected their ACT drills. I noted that students struggled with remembering to distribute the negative in problem #21. In problem #23, the student on the left canceled out -6x and -6x, when she should have combined them to get -12x. This drill assessment made me aware that I should continue drills that tested for properties of negative numbers.
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A student self-corrected her ACT drills. I noted that both her errors involved properties of negative numbers.
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A student self-corrected his ACT drill. He struggled with distributing a negative in problem #21.
PRACTICE LIKE A CHAMPION
On Fridays before a summative assessment, student work on an extended ACT problem and reflection. We call this exercise "PrACTice Like a Champion". Each week, I choose one 500-700 level CCRS standard and question. Our math department has agreed on specific student and teacher actions for PrACTice Like a Champion. First, students engage in a 3-minute brain dump in which they strategize how they will solve the problem. Second, students solve the problem. During this time, I refrain from further scaffolding the problem in order to provide students with the space to struggle and think critically. Third, I model the process for solving the problem and students correct their work. Fourth, students complete a reflection reflection and turn in their packet. Finally, I assess the exercise using the rubric below.

In the pictures below, students are working on CCRS standard G 601 "use relationships involving area, perimeter, and volume of geometric figures to compute another measure". Students had just reviewed factoring and distributing binomials, and the below problem combines quadratic skills with using the area of a triangle. The student did an excellent job on the brain dump and reflection. Her only error was forgetting that length can not be negative, so the only answer for x is 5. Since she fixed her worked and explained her error, she received full credit.

Summative Assessments
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QUARTERLY ACT PRACTICE EXAM
My students aim to gain at least 3 points on the ACT math section over the course of the school year. Before each quarterly exam, we review top testing strategies such as plugging in a number and working backwards. After each quarterly exam, I receive a score report within one week. I work with our school's data specialist to break down the score report by CCRS standard. The score report by standard is very useful to me because it shows me which standards the students have and have not mastered on the ACT. I make plans to review and teach objectives with partial or no mastery in future lessons. In addition, I view the score report by question number to see what types of question phrasing are most confusing for students. In class, I use the same phrasing, so that students become familiar with it. 
Above is an image of a score report by standard that includes all of my students. The report indicates that students only need a brief review of word problems containing rates, proportion, and percentages, as mastery is at 79%. However, students will need to practice analyzing and drawing conclusions based on algebraic properties, as mastery is at 66%. There are oftentimes several ACT questions that all test the same objective. For example, questions #1, #6, and #60 are all testing CCRS standard AF 402. However, students performed very differently on these questions. I have found that most students only finish up to question #35 in the 60 minute time frame, so data after question #35 is less accurate as students are merely guessing in the last few minutes. Therefore, the 2% mastery on question #60 may have occurred because students never reached question #60 during the allotted time. As a result, I made plans to incorporate question #60 in an upcoming homework assignment.

Below is an image of student growth between the pre-ACT and first quarterly ACT. On average, my students have grown over 1.5 points on the mathematics section, so most are on track to reach their goal of 3 points by the end of the school year. I created a heat map of all student scores and filtered by growth. 61 of my students have grown at least 1 point, while 23 students either kept the same score or regressed. I noted all students who had not grown at least 1 point since pre-ACT, and followed up with private conversations and incentive plans for additional ACT practice.

Data-Driven Instruction
PictureThe math department created a list of teaching actions and focus codes that we would identify and note in peer observations.
COLLEAGUE OBSERVATIONS
Since all teachers in the math department engage their students in PrACTice Like a Champion, I have asked for my colleagues to provide feedback on my instructional delivery. Once a month, two of my colleagues come and observe my classroom. We have collaborated on a list of teaching actions that push our students to think critically on the ACT.

​My colleagues are looking for the teaching actions above, make observation notes, and tally the number of times each excellent teaching. From peer feedback, I am pushed to provide students with more time and space to struggle with difficult problems on their own before providing additional scaffolding.
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Peer observation notes made of excellent teaching strategies used my class.