Yesterday was the last day of MAP testing. I think I was more nervous than the students. I want the students to do well. I want their hardwork to pay off, and I want them to be able to see growth from the beginning of the year. As I looked over the final scores, I kept reminding myself that those students are not a data point.
Don’t get me wrong, I love data. I think it can be an effective tool when used correctly. I have spreadsheets of all types of measures on my students. I can tell you how much they’ve grown since August, since December, how that data compares to Reading Inventory data, and how that data can be used to track trends in general areas of study. I love trying to figure out the puzzles of the data. Why did a student score extremely high on one vocabulary test but had a low score on two others? Did they come across words they knew on one and not the other? It’s like solving a giant riddle.
One data point is NOT however the defining characteristic of a student, and only tells one fraction of one percent of what they know and are capable of. It’s like determining a baseball players value based on their performance in one game. Even if it’s a pretty big game, that’s still just one tiny data point. It tells a story, but it’s important to figure out what exactly that story could be.
Contrary to what people who have had a conversation about assessments with me might think, I’m not opposed to assessments. I don’t mind that we have a common measure that we look at for one piece of data…as long as we realized that that data point is one number from one day, that should be put in the mass scope of who this student is as a scholar.
I get tired of hearing people emphasize this singular value like the assessment is THE measure of a student’s success and projects all that the student can become in the future. If you ask what the value of the MAP assessment is, many will point to its correlation to the ACT, which then translates into success in college (maybe?). But what if a student doesn’t want to go to college? What if a student sees the value in technical training to become an HVAC technician? What does the MAP test correlate to technical training? It’s just one example, but there is such a limited scope in what we value as demonstrated by what we measure.
I’m all for data, the more the better. But we need to figure out what story we want the data to tell us.
Check out my post on my reflections about college: https://mrstockrocks.com/2018/04/25/college-is-an-option-but-its-just-one-option/
