Academic Reading

Our next CoL PLG is this afternoon and we have been asked to read a piece of academic reading and to highlight some quote from the text to share with our colleagues. We have only been tasked to read the first few pages however I have found it very interesting so far so I think I will continue reading it to the end. The reading is "Analysis and Discussion of Classroom and Achievement Data to Raise Student Achievement" by Mei Kuin Lai and Stuart McNaughton. This is a very fitting article as I have been looking at my data for both my CoL inquiry and RPI that I am currently taking part in. From the first part of the article here are the five key quotes from the text that stood out to me. 

• In the late 1990s, research on schools involved in Ministry of Education projects indicate that there were a sizeable proportion of schools that did not analyse and use achievement data to improve their practices, but recent research indicated that most schools now regularly use data to inform their practices (Lai and McNaughton 2010). 
• Using a broad range of data is recommended, including data from assessments, observation of students in class, homework and ‘student voice’ (e.g., student questionnaires).
• The literature indicates that focusing primarily on achievement information, such as on national standards or high-stakes assessment, has failed to improve students’ literacy achievement (and by implication, failed to improve teachers’ practices).
• It could be one or several of these issues that is the cause of the poor score, and teachers need to know how to put together a teaching programme that can address these issues.
• For all these reasons, we argue that connecting achievement patterns to teaching patterns is essential if teachers are to draw the appropriate inferences from the achievement information to develop more effective teaching practices.

I am looking forward to discussing these key points this afternoon during our CoL PLG and will reflect on this on my blog after our meeting, so watch this space!