So I guess it took longer than I thought it would take, but I do have new numbers and some new ways of storing those numbers. That is, I can now grab the weekly quiz score, the total number of visits to sharepoint, the total number of points on practice Quia Quizzes, and the total amount of time spent on Quia practice games. So, if I assume the weekly quizzes are a fairly consistent data set and should produce fairly consistent results (the stuff that I add each week is equally difficult and their retention of the stuff added before stays static), then the ups and downs of sharepoint/quia quizzes/quia games should have some correlation with the anomalous ups and downs of the performance of specific kids. Also, the general increases and decreases in class use should correspond with some general increases and decreases in different product use. And, ideally, we could run some comparisons between the effectiveness of one and another. But, honestly, it's probably best to isolate variables for the purpose of research - quia games only, quia quizzes only, sharepoint review guides only - but I also want to release as much review as possible for the benefit of the kids.
Obviously the spreadsheet as it stands is of greatest interest to me, but not a good item to share in much detail, as it contains student info. I don't know, though, if I can really wring anything meaningful out of it. Right now, it's just a collection of numbers and I'm not even sure how I would find any definitive trends. I could run some correlations on some columns, I guess, and maybe I could try graphing some relationships to see what they look like. But I think I have to recognize that the limited sample size and the overlapping of types of information would make it hard to conclude anything. That said, learning how to collect all this information is valuable because I can find out the limits and possibilities of what a teacher can know about student practice and performance. I'm not sure anybody knows the degree to which we can track student performance and identify challenges based solely on tools that we already have. And while the mechanics of pulling all this stuff from on place to another (and ending up crunched on excel) are ad hoc and clunky, the fact that a person can do this (measure visits to quia, visits to sharepoint, time spent on games, percent performance on specific learning standards) is good. It's gotta be good.
Why?
Formative Assessment. RtI. And just good old fashioned efficiency. Probably other reasons as well. While it's good to know how kids are doing from pretest to present, and who's struggling, and what resources seem likely to help, more is needed. In particular, there needs to be some streamlined path that links all these pieces together and says, "Hey, Joe, you're doing well with this and this, but you definitely need to reinforce that and that, so go do these activities located here." Or, perhaps it says, "Hey, Mr. Moore, Joe is on track with this and this but needs more help with that and that. I'd recommend these activities and then retest." But right now I've got to sift through a lot to figure out what the Joe's strengths and weaknesses were this week, how they have changed from last week, what resources were accessed, how effectively those resources impacted performance, what activities were not applied, and which of those might be best suited to encourage performance before the next test or during a retest. Multiply that process by all the students and the technology isn't really saving anybody much time. It's easy to see why an intuitive intervention ("Joe seems to be struggling with grammar, so I'll give him a couple more worksheets to practice") is common even though we have the tools to go beyond that. I would definitely prefer to say, "Joe, take the online prepositions quiz until you score over 80% and I'll get a report telling me the number of times you tried, the score each time, your final score, and the amount of time you spent trying. If you can improve your score to that level, I'll (a) give you a retake of the test (b) change that portion of your grade on the test (c) add 5 points to your quiz". That's a lot easier to monitor and definitely targets the specific area that needs it the most.
Is it possible that macro automation could be strengthened? Is it possible that students could be used to track performance? ie "I scored x% this week on y skill. Then, I engaged in z intervention. The next week I scored a% on this skill."
How does all of that get tracked without creating heavy burdens or paper trails? I can come up with more ways to monitor student skills and knowledge, and more activities to supplement student performance, and better ways to analyze the effectiveness of those activities, I don't have a differentiated/responsive system in place. That system would store non-grade data (performance on learning objectives [rather than raw grade performance on the whole test], participation in different interventions, effectiveness of those interventions) in addition to grades and attendance. It would have excellent import capabilities and room for links and narrative notes. Finally, it would need to be able to establish more intelligent relationships between entries. Click two different tests and find improvement from one to the next on specific learning objectives, not just the average of the two.
Well, I guess what I'm looking for is a gradebook/recordbook/flowchart that takes the best qualities of Examview (ability to track internal data on a test [standards and learning objectives]), Excel (ability to build intelligent relationships among and between pieces of data), and Access (the ability to track non-numerative data side by side with the numbers).
How necessary is something like this, anyway? Since nobody has one, and nobody is asking for one, then it seems the recordflowgradebook is just a silly dream. But, if we really believe in RtI and Formative Assessment, then shouldn't we have some system in place whereby any preassessment or in-progress evaluation forces us to (1) identify problems or issues (2) make an intervention (3) monitor the student's engagement with the intervention and (4) evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention by (5) measuring change on a post test? All of these are non-grade (and some non-numeric) entries but are an essential part of the story of a student's performance or progress in a class.
Wow, no wonder I put off adding another entry. Seems like any step that I take forward will still lead to a missing piece of the puzzle. Oh well. I don't see what else to do but keep moving forward and hope people invent better tools.
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