Using Test Data for Student Achievement

Reviews / Votes

In Leadership and Sustainability Michael Fullan contends that a key to sustaining improvement in any organization is the development of 'system thinkers in action'-leaders who build professional learning communities by creating structures and cultures in which people engage in the daily habit of working together to deepen the learning of their craft. Nancy Sindelar is a wonderful example of Fullan's systems thinker in action. In Using Data for Student Achievement, she combines her knowledge of research and practice to offer wonderful examples of what schools can do to meet the challenge of learning for all students. -- Richard DuFour, educational author and consultant One the best teaching tools introduced to my school was the provision of data to teachers which identified the percentage of students selecting each option in a forced choice test. Back in 1993, as a new advanced placement teacher, I began using that information to direct the reteaching and review efforts in my economics classroom. The result was stunning-consistently high scores on the AP test resulted year after year due to the diagnostic benefits of using item analysis. I could not have been as effective a teacher without it! -- Joy Joyce, High School Social Studies Teacher Sindelar's book, Using Test Data for Student Achievement, is a lucid and useful guide to understanding the essential importance of data, standards and curriculum alignment. It will help educators at all levels to promote better instruction and hence, higher levels of learning. -- Mike Schmoker, speaker, consultant ,and author Using Test Data for Student Achievement is a practical, hands-on resource to help educators understand and implement the total process of assessment to help their students achieve. Its value transcends all levels of an educator's career and is especially valuable for college and university professors and staff developers to use as a resource to train the uninitiated in how to collect data and then how to utilize that data to assure that students are achieving at their highest potential. The clarity with which the data collection and analysis is explained, coupled with the practical experience of the author, makes this text a valuable addition to the professional library of all educators and administrators from the pre-service level to the halls of higher education. -- Roberta Sejnost, School of Education, Loyola University of Chicago