Alyssa Waclawski

Dr. Rubio
EDU 360
4 March 2015

Excel Tech Assessment Write-up

After many calculations, there is a lot to be said about the data
collected from the district. In the sixth grade, it seems that the percent of
students reaching proficient or advanced scores is remaining rather
consistent with only a very slight decrease over the course of the five years
of data collect so far. The percent of students achieving proficient or
advanced scores in sixth grade only decreased by 1.1% and they all
remained above the goal of 50% or higher. The results in the seventh grade
are also decreasing. From the year 2009 to 2014 the seventh grade scores
decrease 2.2% but still remain above the 50% or higher goal. Over these
same five years, the biggest drop in performance is in the eighth grade. The
number of students who score in the proficient or advanced categories drops
5.9% and the goal is only met two out of the five years. With this data, it
could be said that the eighth grade year has the lowest performance scores
overall and is decreasing at the fastest rate.

Alyssa Waclawski
Dr. Rubio
EDU 360
4 March 2015
56
54
52
50

6th grade
7th grade

48

8th grade

46
44
42
2009-2010

2010-2011

2011-2012

2012-2013

2013-2014

It was very interesting to see how all of the previously discussed data
looked with it was sorted into the individual cohorts. Just as in discussed
before, the scores decreased from the cohorts sixth grade year to their
eighth grade year. All of the cohorts, by their eighth grade year, ended up
not meeting the goal of having 50% of the students reach proficient or
advanced scores. The cohort from the year 2009-2012 decreased a total of
4.2%. The 2010-2013 cohort decreased 4.9%. Finally, the scores from the
cohort of 2011-2014 decreased 5.6%. Each of the cohorts decreased .7%
more than the cohort before them. That being said, I would think it is clear
that something needs to change. There needs to be research done on what
is causing these scores to continually decrease. If could be that the teaching
is getting worse, that the demographics are changing, that the test difficulty
is changing or a number of other factors are changing.

Alyssa Waclawski
Dr. Rubio
EDU 360
4 March 2015
2

1
no
yes

0
1

N
2009-2012

When looking at the data given for the grade level, there was not much
to see and interpret without doing further calculations to see how the
different demographics compared to each other. One thing that I did notice
after calculating the number of students that scored in each category, below
basic, basic, proficient and advanced, was that there were eight students
who scored in the below basic and advanced ranges. These are the two
extreme ranges so it is expected that the lowest numbers would be in
these two ranges. It reminds me of a normal curve with the extremes being
the smallest percentages. The majority of the students scored in either the
basic or proficient score ranges.

Alyssa Waclawski
Dr. Rubio
EDU 360
4 March 2015

What was most interesting with the grade level data was when it was
broken down into different demographics. I chose to look at the class that
the students were in (teacher A or B) as well as the gender of the students.
After doing all of the calculations to see what percent of males and females
in each class scored in the proficient or advanced range and whether or not
they met the goal, I was surprised to see the results compared to the entire
group of fifty students. In the group overall, the goal was not met. However
in both teacher A and teacher Bs classes the males met the goals by a very
small margin. The females in both classes however missed the goal by
22.7% and 20%. With just this data, it would be safe to say that the males
have better performance scores at this grade level. I would be interested to
see how this general statement changes in each grade.
Teacher A
Male
Female

Total

%Prof/Adv
12
50.0%
11
27.3%

Goal Met?
y
n

Teacher B
Male
Female

Total

%Prof/Adv
17
52.9%
10
30.0%

Goal Met?
y
n