Digging deeper into ANCS’s 2015 Milestones data

Back around Thanksgiving, the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) finally released school level results from the first-ever administration of the new Georgia Milestones tests from many months earlier in April 2015.  While the big lag between testing and score reporting limited the usefulness of the information, there were some highlights for ANCS students which I shared at that time.  Since that time, all schools received student level data from the 2015 Milestones, and our leadership team and faculty have spent time digging more deeply into the information from those reports to see what can be gleaned from them that might help us to know where we are strong and where we can improve.
At the January meeting of our school’s board, I presented some of our high-level takeaways from this “data dig” and want to share them here as well.  First, though, a little context that I think always bears repeating when we analyze student outcomes data of any type:
  • Don’t read too much into any one single piece of data.  Just because the Milestones (or any standardized test) gets reported on more publicly than other student data doesn’t necessarily make it more important.  We’ve got to take test data into consideration with what other data about an individual student tells us—whether a student does well on a test or not.  What Milestones data (or any other single data point) can do is to lift up areas for further reflection or possible action when viewed holistically, something we try to do with the ANCS performance dashboard I wrote about in this blog earlier this year.
  • Consider how the measure matches up with what’s important to you and your school.  The feedback we can get about our students’ performance on the English Language Arts and Math Milestones is quite helpful to us because the tests’ focus on key skills in reading, language, writing, and problem solving aligns well with what we teach students.  The results from the social studies test?  For ANCS, there’s not as much value to the information those test results yield simply because the breadth of facts covered on a multiple choice test don’t connect with the approach to teaching that is and has always been central to our school, especially in the social sciences: depth over breadth.  I’ve also written about this extensively in this space before.
With that in mind, here are some thoughts from our students’ 2015 Milestones data:
What’s strong?
  • While many schools saw their state percentile ranking of average scale scores decline over the past three years, ANCS’s rankings in ELA and Math stayed consistent or increased in nearly all grade levels, suggesting alignment of teaching at ANCS with the more rigorous, critical-thinking focus of these new tests.
  • Literacy skills are a strength of ANCS students when looking at the percentage of students passing the ELA tests across the school and as compared to other schools in Atlanta and the state.
  • Students with disabilities performed well as compared to their peers at ANCS and significantly outperformed APS and state averages among students with IEP or 504 plans.
  • Students at ANCS for 2 or more years generally show consistently increasing levels of achievement on the ELA and math tests through their time at ANCS.
Where is there room to improve?
  • The percentage of students passing the math test was in the top bracket of the district and state at most grade levels, but performance was less consistently strong than in ELA.
  • In both ELA and Math, there are likely more students who could perform at the “Distinguished” level of the tests based on their performance on ANCS projects and other assessments.
  • While students—regardless of background—tend to show proficiency on these tests if they’ve been at ANCS since kindergarten, students who come from lower socioeconomic levels who do not start at ANCS in the younger grades have lower levels of achievement on these tests.
At the conclusion of my board report I mention some of the initial next steps we are taking to explore these areas for growth further and to address them.  As we prepare for the next round of Milestones later this spring—and as we engage students in learning every day—we take seriously our responsibility to serve all students well and to equip them with the skills that will make them better thinkers, communicators, and human beings.

Comments

3 responses to “Digging deeper into ANCS’s 2015 Milestones data”

  1. Holley Silirie Avatar
    Holley Silirie

    Thank you for your always thoughtful commentary and for deciphering this material for those of us who are not professional educators. I appreciate your posts.

  2. Natalie R. Avatar
    Natalie R.

    We always appreciate your transparent synopsis on how ANCS is growing :o)

  3. The things not mentioned are the things most concerning. Comparisons are great but absolute performance provides a different picture. We have lots to do as a nation and should not tip toe around uncomfortable discussions.