Project AAIMS Activities Year 3: 2006
Project AAIMS teachers participated in a retreat in late January 2006. At the retreat, they reviewed data on student progress on the different measures for the Fall 2005 studies. Working in school-based groups, they evaluated graphs of student growth showing class averages by period and data for individual students. A portion of the retreat was devoted to discussions of common challenges in algebra instruction and opportunities for teachers to share methods that they use to help students overcome these stumbling blocks. The retreat concluded with teachers providing the Project AAIMS research team with input on the types of data most useful to their instructional decision-making and their preferences for the formats in which these data might be presented.
In the spring semester, each teacher again administered two types of measures, giving two forms of one type in the middle of the month and two forms of the other at the end of each month. District A teachers continued to use the same measures from Fall 2005. General education teachers administered the Algebra Foundations and Content Analysis-Multiple Choice probes, while District A special education teachers used the Basic Skills and Algebra Foundations measures. In Districts B and C, general education teachers administered the Basic Skills and Content Analysis-Multiple Choice measures. At the conclusion of the semester, individual student graphs were generated for the teachers and shared with the students for whom consent had been obtained to participate in the project. Results of these studies exploring the use of the algebra measures for monitoring student progress are reported in Technical Reports 13 (Districts B and C spring semester) and 14 (year-long studies in Districts A and C).
In mid-April, a second AAIMS teacher retreat was held. Feedback from the January teacher retreat was used to create sample formats for providing teachers with data on their students' performance on the progress monitoring measures. The data included individual student graphs presented in an electronic format to facilitate efficient review of individual students within a class period and error analysis summaries by class period to provide teachers with feedback on how the class was responding to the different types of questions on the measures. Data from one of each teacher's classes was used provide a realistic demonstration of how the formats would work. Teachers reviewed their students' data and responded to structured questions to provide additional feedback on the data presentation formats; a group discussion was also held to further discuss feedback and arrive at a consensus regarding the preferred formats. Discussion time was provided for sharing teaching ideas and strategies and teachers provided input on the planned research activities for the 2006-07 school year.
The Spring 2006 Project AAIMS Advisory Panel meeting was held on May 2. Information about the numbers of teachers and students participating in each district was shared and research results related to student growth were highlighted. Project AAIMS staff shared plans for research activities during the 2006-07 year which focused on teachers' use of the data. Advisory Panel members responded positively to the data formats involving individual student graphs and skill analysis summaries.
In the fall of 2006, participating teachers in Districts A and B selected the types of measures they preferred to use for monitoring their students' progress. Each teacher's class periods were randomly assigned to either a "data" or a "no data" condition. In the data condition, teachers received monthly updates that included electronic spreadsheets and graphs for each student in the class, as well as error analysis summaries showing student performance data on each type of problem within the measures being administered. Project AAIMS staff conducted data conferences with teachers to share these data and discuss teachers' concerns about students and possible instructional actions. At each data conference, teachers selected one or more target students for whom they would provide additional attention and monitoring in the upcoming month. Students in the no data condition completed probes on the same schedule, but teachers did not receive any data on these students' performance until the end of the semester. Students, regardless of condition, did not receive any feedback about their performance until the end of the semester. The results of this investigation are reported in Technical Report 15.
The Fall 2006 Project AAIMS Advisory Panel meeting was held on October 12. Project staff shared a summary of the results of research studies conducted during the 2005-06 school year, including the results of the growth studies conducted during this period. Planned research activities for the 2006-07 school year focus on teachers' use of students' progress monitoring data. Small group discussions addressed issues of sustaining use of the measures beyond the period of the grant and discussions about potential future collaborations around research activities.