The Data Inventory from ITEC 7305 was for us to compile a list of

assessments that I or other teachers are using at Simpson Middle School to assess
the students on the required common core standards. Those assessments included
CRCT scores, writing tests, formative and summative assessments done in the
classroom, benchmarks, and specifically to my reading class this year, the SRA test
(which determines a students reading level and their growth as they continue to
read throughout the year) This inventory is a chart that lists the assessment and
who is involve wither it be 6th grade reading or every student in the building. The
chart also has a time line, area for improvement and how the assessment could be
more effective for the following school year. This chart was a nice summary for
anyone at Simpson to see what is being done in ALL the classroom. We see there
are adequate data (and a lot of testing) for each grade level.
Diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments were part of this
artifact. The formative being DBQs, the summative being writing tests, and the
diagnostic being tests such as the bench marks or the SRA tests. Each one is to
measure growth of our students and should be analyzes throughout the year and
that is what we do at Simpson. We dont just give a test and then move on. We are
data and assessment driven school. These assessments measure student
learning and technology literacy in various forms such as summative and
formative assessments after a unit has been completed. The technology part is
assessed through the DBQS (data based questions that are done online now). I as
the teacher giving the assessments, facilitated and model good test taking/
assessment taking the beginning of the year so that we would have a routine for
assessment taking in both the computer lab and in the classroom.
I am not a data person. I could never teach math, science, or a data class. I
am all about the literature and writing. With this being said, I learned a lot. I
learned that any form of assessment can be improved. Also I learned even more
that test and quizzes are not the only way to assess the student. Even when I
question my students understanding in the class on a ticket out the door- this can
be used for assessment as well to see what they students comprehended about
that days lesson. I think if I were to create this Data Inventory again, I would have
a focus more on how the assessments could be adapted for other subjects and
grade levels. The more of variety of the assessments in a classroom, the more
likely you are to get better data of understanding the skills and mastery of the
standards from each student.
The Data inventory helped with school improvement since every teacher can
use this sheet for its own data to see who is doing what type of assessment. This
can be assessed by the minutes taking at a SSP meeting at our school. I presented
this to the staff and we discussed every line of the sheet by seeing what
assessments were working, which werent, and with those conversations, we gained
more ideas on how to improve the ones that were not working.