Edwin Analytics Update

Here is a summary of yesterday's ESE Edwin Analytics User Group WebEx (thanks to my Data Specialist colleague in Greater Boston, Paula O'Sullivan, for this update as I was unable to attend the WebEx.)

Teacher Access - As presented at the Edwin Workshops in November, ESE is doing a "soft" rollout of teacher access to Edwin Analytics.

• At this point, access is available only to those participants of the workshops, but districts can email the Edwin Analytics team to request access if they did not go to a workshop. The security role is "Global Access Teacher" and should NOT be assigned in combination with any other Edwin Analytics role.
• There are three reports available to teachers. These reports are also available to administrators in the Classroom folder.
• Teachers can view the data for last year's students, and for two years prior. At this point, teachers can not run the reports for their current students, but eventually that will be available for districts that have implemented SIF. Manual student claiming does not include updates to teacher reports for current students.

WIDA/ACCESS reports - You can now run these reports for your "claimed" students, i.e. those currently enrolled, IF your district submits claim files.

Local Assessments Data Uploads - ESE is revisiting the idea of allowing districts to upload local assessment data, particularly data from "off-the-shelf" assessments.

New User Guide - This will be posted any day now, along with a new Security & Access Guide.

Housekeeping - ESE is retiring the remaining references to Education Data Warehouse, EDW and DW. The new email address is edwinanalytics@doe.mass.edu, although the old address still works as well). Security role names have changed (e.g., DW 211 School User is now Edwin Analytics School Administrator).

Cubes - A basic demonstration of the cube functionality was provided.

The Edwin Analytics User Group WebEx is held the first Wednesday of the month at 11a.m. and the third Wednesday of the month at 2p.m. ESE sends email reminders to several lists including the Edwin Analytics Contacts as identified in Directory Administration and to subscribers of the EDWusers email list.

To subscribe to the EDWusers list:
Please send an email to imailsrv@list1.doe.mass.edu
with the following text—and only this text—in the body of the message:
subscribe listname your_full_name (e.g., subscribe edwusers john smith).

Edwin Analytics Workshop Handouts and Tips

As you know, the Education Data Warehouse has now been merged into Edwin Analytics, and by now you may have logged in to run reports with your preliminary 2013 MCAS data. The interface hasn't changed significantly, and in recent workshops the participants have commented that the speed and ease of use in the new system are excellent.

One difference you may have noticed is that the "My Folders" area is not easy to find. "My Folders" is an excellent place to save copies of reports, especially reports that may contain student-level data, as it is extremely secure (unlike a memory stick!) and accessible from any computer.

If you do not see a "My Folders" tab at the very top level of tabs (to the right of "Public Folders"), you need to set the My Folders tab to appear. To do this, click on the "Tab Menu" button to the left of the EOE tab at the very top of the page and select "Add Tabs". Check the box next to "My Folders", then the green arrow in the middle to move the selection over to the right. Click OK. You should now see the My Folders tab at the top, next to Public Folders.

For those that were not able to make the Edwin Analytics workshops this month (and even for those that were!) I'm providing you a link to a Google Drive folder which contains the Edwin Analytics handouts and information sheets used in the workshops. Please let me know what you find useful or if there are questions I can answer for you!

Link to Edwin Analytics Handouts

The Education Data Warehouse is now Edwin Analytics

Today's announcement from ESE:

As of today, the Education Data Warehouse (EDW) can be accessed through the Edwin Analytics link on the ESE’s Security Portal.

Edwin Analytics is accessible using the EDW login roles. These roles should be assigned to district and school users in accordance with the rules set forth in the Department’s Data Access Policy for the EDW.

Edwin Analytics includes:

• All EDW state data (MCAS, Growth, SIMS, EPIMS, SCS) and all personal content saved to a users’ ‘My Folders’, district, and school folders.
   
• Six new Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS) and Postsecondary Outcomes reports located on the District, School, and Student tabs. (The same 5 district and school level reports are on the District and School tabs and one student level report is on the Student tab.)

Contact for Support:

• For access to Edwin Analytics, contact your district’s Directory Administrator (DA). If you already have access to the EDW, you automatically have access to Edwin Analytics and the specific reports available for your level of access.
• For technical support questions, please contact the Data Warehouse Contact person in your district. A list can be found at Profiles: People Search and choose Data Warehouse Contact in the ‘Function’ dropdown.
• If you are the district’s Data Warehouse contact and need additional technical support, contact the EDW team at datawarehouse@doe.mass.edu or 781-338-6820.
• For data issues including analysis, please contact the team responsible for data content:
• MCAS and Growth reports: Student Assessment Services at mcas@doe.mass.edu or 781-338-3625. 
• EWIS and Postsecondary Outcomes reports: edwin@doe.mass.edu. 
• For general Edwin questions, please contact edwin@doe.mass.edu 

I am also happy to answer questions or provide guidance, so please don't hesitate to contact me! Your questions help me understand how districts are using this new data resource. I hope to offer some "Edwin Analytics" workshops this spring as well.

More About Our New Friend Edwin

Edwin is certainly a popular guy these days -- he's everywhere!

As you know by now, "Edwin" (which is not an acronym, by the way) is the name of Massachusetts' comprehensive integrated suite of tools and resources to help educators at every level to improve teaching and learning. Edwin has two main parts:


Edwin Analytics will be a suite of analysis tools, including the Massachusetts Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS), college and career readiness reports, and the Education Data Warehouse, all available through the security portal. Today was the first of several Webinars which focused on this portion of Edwin - additional Webinars have been scheduled in order to accommodate all the folks interested in learning more! We will start seeing new reports and Edwin interface changes within the security portal toward the end of the month. All districts will have access to Edwin Analytics through the security portal.

Edwin Teaching and Learning will provide online curriculum and assessment tools for educators aligned to the 2011 MA Curriculum Frameworks in English Language Arts and Literacy and Mathematics, which incorporate the Common Core State Standards. Yesterday I had the opportunity to join the pilot districts to learn more about the Thinkgate system upon which Edwin Teaching and Learning will be built. I was very impressed by the curriculum and assessment tools it offers! You can see a quick demo of the system and learn more about upcoming Webinars related specifically to Edwin Teaching and Learning at http://thinkgate.net/ohma/. Edwin Teaching and Learning will first be implemented in districts that are part of RTTT (projects 5A-5E plus project 3A.)

For additional information on Edwin, please continue to visit http://www.doe.mass.edu/edwin/.

Coming soon -- Edwin!

Happy New Year! Most of you have heard that ESE will soon be releasing Edwin, an "integrated suite of cutting-edge tools and resources to promote best practices in classroom instruction and assessments." Edwin will have two major components: Edwin Analytics and Edwin Teaching and Learning.

Edwin Analytics will be a suite of analysis tools, including the Massachusetts Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS), college and career readiness reports, and the Education Data Warehouse, all available through the security portal. According to the information provided on this week's EDW conference call, we should start to see minor branding and interface changes to the EDW/portal within the next month, with some more major user interface changes and additional tools in the spring (eventually with teacher-level access to reports!)

Edwin Teaching & Learning will provide online curriculum and assessment tools for educators aligned to the 2011 MA Curriculum Frameworks in English Language Arts and Literacy and Mathematics, which incorporate the Common Core State Standards. Massachusetts is working toward procuring an instructional improvement system (IIS) with Ohio and we look forward to hearing the vendor selection in the near future.


Opportunities to pilot new Edwin resources as they are developed will be provided to districts who have been participating in identifying requirements for the system as well as those who have identified project 5a (Teaching and Learning System) in their RTTT applications. For more information, please contact edwin@doe.mass.edu.

Stay tuned for additional information on the launch of Edwin in the coming weeks. For additional information about Edwin, including an extensive FAQ, visit http://www.doe.mass.edu/edwin/.

2012 MCAS Data Now in the EDW Cube

The Education Data Warehouse "cubes" were updated this week to include 2012 data. (Cubes are predefined data tables in the EDW that make on-the-fly data manipulation possible.)

The cubes can be accessed from either the District tab or the School tab in the EDW, near the bottom on the left side of the page, under the header Data Analysis Cube. Clicking the link ESE Cubes will open a folder with both the cubes and supporting documentation (a handbook and an up-to-date FAQ). The MCAS Default View cube allows users to start from scratch to analyze data for a particular school or district. The folder Starting Points (Cube Views) provides cube starting points that have already been manipulated and saved to present the data in a particular way. The currently available cube views include:

• MCAS % Correct by Strand and Topic Trend
• MCAS CPI Trends by Grade Level
• MCAS Demographic Trends
• MCAS Performance by Grade Level
• MCAS Performance by Year
• MCAS Performance by Gender by Subject
• MCAS Special Education Performance Gap Trends
• MCAS Subject, Strand, Topic, Question Type, % Correct compared to State by Subgroup (SPED)
• MCAS Weighting by Strand and Topic Level

The State MCAS Default View cube is available for training purposes and contains only state-level data.

To save a cube view, click the Save As icon in the lower right corner and save it to the My Folders tab or your District Folder. (Don't worry, you can't accidentally overwrite the public cube views.) This is similar to saving Report Views. To convert the cube view to PDF for printing/saving outside of the EDW, click the File button in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen (looks like a page) and choose Export PDF. The File button will also allow you to export the data into Excel.

I will offer a regional workshop on using the Data Warehouse cubes if there is enough interest - please email me at laura.tilton@dsacma.org if you're interested in a workshop.

Embargo Reminder

Just a follow-up to my earlier post regarding the incorporation of information from the EDW into PowerPoint or other documents. The 2012 data in the EDW is preliminary and currently embargoed, so it is not permissible to present aggregate 2012 MCAS information to groups at this time. The Commisioner's May memo stated that, "since these are preliminary data, you may NOT release any aggregate data to the public until the official release of school and district results in September." I hope you will find the PowerPoint tips helpful at that time for presentations on the 2012 MCAS to staff, school committees, and other groups.

Putting EDW Information into PowerPoint

I often get asked about the best way to get information (such as the graph from PE405) from the Education Data Warehouse into PowerPoint or another document. Folks often want to share the data or graphs from reports in a presentation for district or school staff, school committees, and others (after the data becomes public and the embargo is lifted!)

There are several ways to go about this and it mostly depends on the technology you have available to you. I apologize that these are not the most formal "how-to" directions (they will vary slightly depending on your system) but I hope one of these options will work for you.

1) Screen Capture Software (puts the display in as an image)

If you have a screen capture software such as SnagIt or the Windows Snipping Tool, you can select/copy the part of your screen that you'd like to include, and then paste it into your document. However, SnagIt is not free (though there may be similar software that is free), and the Windows Snipping Tool is only included in Windows 7, 8, or Vista (look under "Accessories.") So these may not be options for many school users.

2) Screen Shot / Cropping Option (puts the display in as an image):

• Take a screen shot of the report by pressing the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard. This copies the screen image. (Alt-Print Screen will copy the active window only.)
• Then open your PowerPoint slide and choose Paste (Ctrl-V).
• Double-click the screen image you just pasted, look for a "Crop" option in the toolbar, and choose it.
• Use the "handles" that appear around the image to crop the image appropriately; hit the ESC key when you are done.
• To resize the image, click it and drag the corners (not the sides) to re-size.

3) Excel Option (puts the display in as an Excel object):

• At the top of the report page, look for the icon that looks like a little page with the globe on it (same place you go to convert to PDF)
• Click the icon and choose "View in Excel Options" and then "View in Excel 2007 Format"
• You will get a prompt asking if you want to open or save the file. Choose "Open."
• The report will open in Excel and you can copy and paste the graph, or any tables, from Excel to PowerPoint
• Note that this may not be straightforward on all computers. If it doesn't work for you the first time you try it, try choosing "Save" instead of "Open." Or choose Excel 2002 Format  instead of 2007. And if it still doesn't work, try holding down the Control key while opening/saving the report. Sometimes pop-up blockers get in the way.

I hope one of these options will work for you. If you have come up with a simpler/easier way to get information from EDW reports into PowerPoint, please let me know!

MCAS and Accountability Teleconference Highlights

I know that many readers of this blog attended this week's teleconference related to the release of the preliminary 2012 MCAS results and related accountability reports but I thought I would provide some of the essential information for those that were not able to attend.

MCAS Results and Discrepancy Reporting
Earlier this week, the preliminary MCAS data files were posted in the ESE Security Portal for review and discrepancy reporting. Some preliminary EDW reports are expected to be available in the Education Data Warehouse by this Friday, August 10 (ELA long compositions can be downloaded from the MCAS Service Center.)

As a reminder, the preliminary data is embargoed - Commissioner Chester has given the following guidelines for the use of preliminary data:  “I want to encourage schools and districts to use the preliminary… student data for educational planning purposes. Preliminary student results can and should be shared with teachers, parents and instructional leaders who are making decisions about Individual Education Plans, summer programs or decisions about the scope of services needed for English Language Learners.” The folks from ESE expect that the 2012 MCAS and accountability results will be released publicly on or about September 19, 2012. 

Accountability Reporting

In June, districts received their schools' provisional PPI data and accountability and assistance levels, which are based on data from 2009, 2010, and 2011. During the week of August 13, districts will receive their preliminary school-and district-level PPI data and accountability and assistance levels based on four years of data (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012) for review (also embargoed). The official results will be released in mid-September.

Education Data Warehouse Updates

There are lots of excellent new updates in the Education Data Warehouse just in time for the busy season! Here are some highlights:

• The EDW Home page is now standard for all EDW users without needing to be configured as previously discussed. It contains information about recent updates and improvements as well as what's coming down the pike. 
• All of the reports from version 2.6 have been migrated to the new EDW. Please note that although the link is still available from the landing page, EDW 2.6 is no longer being updated and will be retired in October.
• The Test Item Analysis reports now have the option to map the test items to EITHER the old or new curriculum frameworks for Math and ELA. 
• There is a "Super" student profile report which provides SIMS, attendance, course, MCAS, and CD status information for any selected student.
• There are several new classroom-level reports which utilize SCS data for a given instructional group (classroom, course section, etc.) These reports are only available to users who have been assigned the "DW-Evaluator" role. ESE has developed guidance around assigning this role to EDW users which they will post on the EDW home page shortly. (Watch for a more detailed blog post once this guidance document is available online.)

It's That Time of Year: Student Claiming

If this blog post seems like deja vu, it probably is...the student claiming process needs to take place annually!

By default, the Education Data Warehouse allows schools and districts to access data for tests administered only in those schools or districts. The student claiming process enables schools and districts to access to ALL historical MCAS data for their enrolled students, regardless of where the test was taken.

This means that Data Warehouse users can view historical data for students who are new to the district OR new to a school, if those students have been “claimed.” For instance, a middle school principal would (by default) only be able to view data for students who took the MCAS at the middle school. After the student claiming process has been completed, he or she would be able to access the data for students entering from the elementary school, as well as data for students who have come in from other districts.

The student claiming fields in the EDW have had their annual re-set as of July 12, 2012. So, once your district has "rolled over" the student information system to the 2012-2013 school year, a "claiming file" of all currently registered/enrolled students can be uploaded to the warehouse. Once you have successfully uploaded and accepted the data, users will then be able to access MCAS and SIMS history for all students registered to be in your schools this September. It's a great idea to do this now, if possible, before the preliminary data is released in August!

Generally, the student claiming process is handled by the person in your district who manages the SIMS data and involves creating and uploading a file containing a subset of the most recent student data. Information on the process for student claiming can be found at the end of Chapter 3: Basic Access of the EDW User Guide.

Please note that for those districts currently using SIF for claiming, this process should happen automatically. For further information, please contact your ESE SIF representative.

2012 MCAS and Accountability Data Release

The recent Commissioner's Update contained an announcement regarding the release of the 2012 MCAS and accountability data, including a release schedule, MCAS discrepancy reporting information, review of provisional and preliminary accountability data, EDW updates, and reporting teleconferences on August 6 and 7.

The full announcement is online here: http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=6928.

Growth and EDW 3.0 Workshops August 2012

The Southeast DSAC (Laura Tilton, Data Specialist) will be offering the following no-cost workshops on Thursday, August 16 at Pembroke High School. Workshops require a minimum of 12 participants (maximum of 24) and priority will be given to participants from regional Level 3 districts. (Customized in-district workshops are also available upon request for Level 3 districts.)

Getting to Know Data Warehouse 3.0 (2.5 hours, 9:00-11:30, August 16)
The workshop will provide a structured environment in which to explore data using the pre-defined reports in the new Education Data Warehouse, including the Growth Model reports and NEW classroom-level reports. Participants will access their own district or school’s data, and will have time to run and save reports for use in planning for the 2012-2013 school year. This workshop is appropriate for both new and previous users of the Education Data Warehouse; all attendees must have been assigned appropriate Security Portal access to the EDW by their district's Directory Administrator.

Exploring MCAS Growth Data (2 hours, 12:00-2:00, August 16)
This workshop (suggested as an extension to the previous workshop) will go beyond an overview of the Growth Model and focus on the use of MCAS growth data and reports at multiple levels (district, school, classroom/group, and student). Participants will deepen their understanding of the growth model and how to interpret growth reports (with connections to the new Educator Evaluation System), engage with school/district growth data following a data analysis protocol, and learn what growth reports are available and where to find them.

Please register via this form to reserve your spot. Thank you!

EDW 3.0 Report Basics Handout

After mentioning that there are new 2012 pre-preliminary reports in the EDW, I realized that it would be helpful to post a copy of the EDW 3.0 Report Basics handout. This handout walks through the necessary steps to:

• Log in to the EDW
• Create a folder in "My Folders"
• Run reports and convert/save a to PDF

PDF files are much more manageable for printing, saving, and sharing (especially for multi-page reports) - although please remember that reports containing confidential data (student names and scores, etc.) should not be shared via email or stored to unsecured flash drives. The My Folders and District Folders areas of the EDW are secure and a better choice for storing files or sharing them with others in your district with EDW access.

I hope this is helpful!

EDW 3.0 Report Basics Handout:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bw5VovkMQ3FFaHQwd3lJWEVxa2M

Preliminary MCAS 2012 in EDW 3.0

The following EDW 3.0 reports are now available with preliminary MCAS 2012 data:

District-Level Reports

• MCAS District Results by Subgroup (PE304)
• MCAS District Results by Strand and Topic (CU306)
• MCAS District Test Item Analysis Summary (IT301)
• MCAS District Test Item Analysis Graph (IT302)

School-Level Reports

• MCAS School Results by Subgroup (PE404)
• MCAS Detailed School Performance (PE408) and its drillthrough
• MCAS School Results by Strand and Topic (CU406)
• MCAS School Test Item Analysis Summary (IT401)
• MCAS School Test Item Analysis Graph (IT402) 

Student-Level Reports

• Assessment Detail (Individual Student)(PE606)
• Assessment History Summary (Individual Student)(PE613)
• MCAS Student Item Analysis Roster (IT616)
• MCAS Student Roster (All Subjects)( PE617)
• MCAS Student Growth Scatter Plot (GR601) (ELA only)
• MCAS Student Growth Roster (GR602) (ELA only)

Please remember that there is an embargo in place for preliminary MCAS data. While this data may be used for instructional planning, it may not be discussed with the public or press.

See the bottom of the “EDW Home” tab within the EDW for additional features and functionality that have been added to the EDW 3.0. The "EDW Home" tab can be added as the default home page in your EDW account by following the steps outlined in the May 17 blog post.

Upcoming MCAS and MEPA Data Releases

A previous blog post provided some of the preliminary release dates for MCAS results, but I wanted to provide links to two ESE memos containing additional details.

Preliminary 2012 MCAS Data:

• June 12th - ELA Composition images posted electronically for principals
• June 15th - Portfolio Feedback Forms for MCAS-Alt posted electronically for principals
• June 22nd - Excel data files and school roster reports with preliminary student results to Dropbox Central.
• June 29th - Preliminary school and district reports to Dropbox Central.
• June 29th - Selected EDW reports posted.

See the Commissioner's May 21st memo for more details.

Spring 2012 MEPA Data:

• June 7th - Parent/Guardian reports received by schools via UPS.
• June 7th - Various data reports posted to http://www.mcasservicecenter.com/.
• June 25th - Student data file with 2011 and 2012 MEPA and MCAS scores will be posted at the Department's Security Portal.

More details on the MEPA release can be found here.

Growth and EDW 3.0 Workshop Offerings Summer 2012

The Southeast DSAC (Laura Tilton, Data Specialist) has set aside July 24 and August 16 to offer the following set of workshops. Workshops require a minimum of 12 participants (maximum of 24) and priority will be given to participants from regional Level 3 districts. However, we anticipate that we will able to accommodate educators from all interested Southeast districts.


Getting to Know Data Warehouse 3.0 (2.5 hours, 9:00-11:30, July 24 or August 16)
The workshop will provide a structured environment in which to explore data using the pre-defined reports in the new Education Data Warehouse, including the Growth Model reports and classroom-level reports. Participants will access their own district or school’s data, and will have time to run and save reports for use in planning for the 2012-2013 school year. This workshop is appropriate for both new and previous users of the Education Data Warehouse; all attendees must have been assigned appropriate Security Portal access to the EDW by their district's Directory Administrator.

Exploring MCAS Growth Data (2 hours, 12:00-2:00, July 24 or August 16)
This workshop (suggested as an extension to the previous workshop) will go beyond an overview of the Growth Model and focus on the use of MCAS growth data and reports at multiple levels (district, school, classroom/group, and student). Participants will deepen their understanding of the growth model and how to interpret growth reports (with connections to the new Educator Evaluation System), engage with school/district growth data following a data analysis protocol, and learn what growth reports are available and where to find them.

Please register via this form and let us know which workshops interest you and whether your district may be able to host the workshop. Thank you!

Data Warehouse Update Webinar

A Data Warehouse Update Webinar will be presented this Wednesday, March 28, at both 11am and 2pm. (Information about upcoming updates to the EDW were shared in a previous post of an email from ESE.) The ESE folks have requested that districts sign up for only one session as each session is limited to 80 connections. You can signup online at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/conference/?ConferenceID=1295

Data Warehouse Update

The following email went out to the Data Warehouse contacts list this afternoon, so I thought I would share it here for anyone who is interested.

Dear Data Warehouse Contacts and Tech Coordinators,

In August of 2011, the DESE released the new EDW v3.0, Phase 1. This new version contained some of the prior information and reporting capabilities and three important advances:

• The MCAS tables were redesigned for better reporting performance;
• The user interface was redesigned to make locating reports more intuitive; and
• Security was streamlined to enable a simpler interaction with the DESE’s Directory Administration (DA) application.

Subsequent to that release the EDW team has continued to work on additional releases, adding reports and functionality, with the ultimate goal being to phase out v2.6.

EDW v3.0 Phase 2, September 2011 included:

• Additional MCAS reports were released

EDW v3.0 Phase 3, January 2012 included:

• A new Competency Determination (CD) report

EDW v3.0 Phase 4, March 2012 (estimated completion March 30th). will include the following:

• February Biology MCAS data
• SIMS data and reporting
• SCS and EPIMS data and reporting
• MCAS reports by classroom
• Additional report improvements to close the gap between v2.6 and v3.0 MCAS reports.

With the release of Phase 4 in March, MCAS and other state data will no longer be loaded in EDW v2.6. This version is being phased out and will no longer be available by the start of the 2012-2013 school year.

EDW v3.0 deliverables that still need resolution before v2.6 is retired:

• An MCAS cube or acceptable replacement;
• A means of assisting districts in migrating locally authored reports and other content;
• The best tool for districts to use in continuing to create custom reports;
• An answer to the question: Will districts be able to load ‘local data’, such as formative assessments, into v3.0 or will this functionality be handled by the Teaching & Learning system?
• And the loading of MCAS data prior to 2006 into version 3.0.

These solutions are still being assessed in view of the ongoing development of the PK-20 and Teaching and Learning systems. Access to existing reports developed by districts and the ability to load local data will remain as is through the remainder of the 2011-2012 school year.

If you have any questions or comments please respond to DataWarehouse@mass.doe.edu or (781-338-6820).

A Holiday Gift for You

I have been working with a fellow data specialist to create a how-to guide on Creating Student Growth Rosters for Instructional Groups. If you're interested in generating growth/performance reports in the EDW for a specific classroom, intervention group, team, etc., this is the process to follow. Basic knowledge about the use of the Education Data Warehouse and Microsoft Excel are required to complete this process.

The document focuses on the G-602 Student Growth Roster (in the older EDW) which provides three years of MCAS performance data (scaled score) and the most recent student growth percentile (SGP) for each student for both Mathematics and ELA. The report also provides a median SGP for the group, if there are 20 or more students with SGPs in the group.

Please refer to my previous blog post on Examining MCAS Growth Data by Classroom for more thoughts about the opportunity to engage staff in discussions about growth data now as we move toward the new educator evaluation system.

I shared this process with a district colleague earlier in the week, and she sent me an email the next day saying, "I think I love you!!!!...Our secretary was able to get 3 years instructional groups for me with state IDs. The reports are soooooo easy to do and save!!! You saved me tons of time. I am very excited." So I hope there are other readers out there who will have the same reaction.

Happy Holidays to all!

Examining MCAS Growth Data by Classroom

One message about the new educator evaluation system that comes through loud and clear is that student growth data will be an important measure considered (where available). This school year is a great opportunity to provide more information to staff about MCAS growth data in order to have folks become more comfortable with this measure and what it tells us.

As a reminder, the median student growth percentile for any group is the midpoint of student growth percentiles in the group (which must be >20 students), where half of the students have student growth percentiles higher than the median; half have lower. (It is not appropriate to use the average or “mean” when comparing percentiles.)

Last week, I visited an upper elementary school and presented an overview of the growth model to the staff. After sharing some of the basics, I asked the staff to share with me ways that they would like to look at growth data for their students. Teachers responded that they would like look at median growth for particular groups of students (subgroups, interventions, programs) but also that they wanted to see the median growth for their own classrooms over time. (And yes, I'll be working with the principal to help get this information to the teachers!)

I've been hearing people ask for a while now how they can more easily calculate the median SGP by group, especially by classroom. The Student Growth Roster (G-602) report in the older version of the EDW (2.6) will display a median SGP for a custom roster of students as long as at least 20 students are selected. In the next few weeks I'll be putting together some revised instructions on how to do this (students can be selected using a list, filters, or SASIDs) so stay tuned for more resources on this front!