ENTRY 11 DATA ANALYSIS ACTIVITY

Dear Music Ed Supterstars,

We have hired you to help one of our teachers do a better job of analyzing and use data for
their teaching. The teacher has been teaching a middle school general music class (Music
Appreciation) and hasn’t changed their teaching style. The classroom only has lectures,
only summative assessments, and when not lecturing, the teacher shows old videos from
Beethoven Lives Upstairs. The teacher is open to changing, especially when the
administrator says “shape up or your contract will not be renewed for next year.” They
have asked you to provide suggestions on the data provided on the first pre-test he has
administered. Some supplementary material has been provided as well to help you make
sense of the classroom setting. We are only asking you to help him make sense of the
assessment data.

Thanks,

Dr. Payne
Principal, BHS

Unit: Protest Songs of the 60s Grade: 8th

Objectives
1. The student identifies seminal bands composing music protesting involvement in the
Vietnam Conflict.
2. The student selects three songs from these bands and analyzes the lyrics to determine
the position they were taking regarding the conflict.
3. The student describes the significance of these songs on the American public.
4. The student names significant musicians and their contributions to popular music in the
1960s.
5. The student analyzes the impact of protest songs of the 60s as they relate to the history
of rock and roll.

BHS required rate for mastering objectives: 70%

Snapshot IEP: Focus Student A
Student A was diagnosed with dyslexia only recently. Because of this late diagnosis, she
has a very negative view of school and will not engage much in class. She is a “social
butterfly” as described by her mother and has strong verbal and social skills. She also has
had success in extracurricular activities. She refuses to read in class because of her
dyslexia and has been tested at a low 2nd grade level on the STAR assessment. She also
seems to have some learned helplessness because of her reading inability.

Snapshot IEP: Focus Student B

Student B reads four years below grade level due to his lagging efforts during elementary
learning. He has normal oral skills, but his writing is very sloppy to read. His social skills
are very deficient as he often interrupts others and talks excessively in the classroom. He
has normal motor skills, but has difficulty in seat-work due to fidgeting and wanting to get
up and move around the classroom. Because of medication, the student can come to class
extremely fatigued if on one task for an extended period of time. He was diagnosed with
ADD in the 5th grade.
Pre-Assessment Data
Student Scores by Objective on the Pre-Assessment
(Scores listed below represent the number of items correct. For percentage correct see the
final column)

Student Obj 1 Obj 2 Obj 3 Obj 4 Obj 5 Overall

%
5 5 items 5 items 5 items 5 items
items 25 items
1 5 5 5 5 5 100
2 5 4 3 3 3 72
3 4 3 2 4 1 56
4 5 3 3 2 1 56
5 5 2 3 1 1 48
6 4 3 2 1 0 40
7 5 3 2 1 1 48
8 4 2 1 1 0 32
9 3 1 2 2 1 36
10 4 3 2 2 2 52
11 4 3 2 3 2 56
12 4 4 2 2 1 52
13 4 3 2 2 0 44
Focus A 3 3 2 2 2 48
Focus B 4 3 2 1 0 40
What do these data mean for instruction during the unit?
(In other words, as the teacher, how will you design and implement instruction based on the
given data? What assessments will be necessary? What will help you meet your state learning
outcomes. Be specific in your responses.)
The overall scores average a 52%, which is good for a pre-assessment. However, there is a
lot of variation among scores when stratified by objective. As a whole, students did well on
objective 1, average on objectives 2 and 3, and much poorer on objectives 4 and 5. So, more
focus should be placed on teaching the larger-scale concepts of how the music
impacted/contributed to popular music and rock and roll since that is what students
struggled with the most. Following that, the slightly smaller-scale or more general concepts
such as lyric analysis and general impact on the public should be focused on, but not as
much as the music’s impact on larger trends in the musical world. To improve scores,
teaching via multiple mediums will be crucial to bringing all students up to the desired
level and engage every student from the lowest to highest scoring. Use of visual media,
music, verbal instruction, and activities would cater to a large portion of students while still
being valuable information.

What do these data mean for instruction for the Focus Students
during the unit?
As a whole, the focus students actually did not do dramatically worse on the pre-
assessment than other students in the class. They did seem to struggle more with the more
complex concepts much like the other students, though whether that is due to their
difficulties reading or simple lack of content knowledge is unclear. Using multiple methods
of instruction, namely auditory and kinesthetic, will be most vital for the Focus Students as
both do not read up to grade level and would get frustrated and not learn as well from
written information. The same can be said for assessments; alternative methods of
assessment should be used to avoid having the students write all of their answers and read
difficult questions. For example, students could record themselves making a podcast, video,
or other similar media to display their knowledge of content. In addition, unless the
content is “fun” or extremely engaging, activities should be limited in duration so that
Focus Student B can continually focus and not be fatigued.
Dear Intern,

Your aid in helping the teacher make some good instructional decisions based on the Pre-
Assessment data was very useful in having the teacher plan instruction. Please find below
the Formative Data for two assessments from the teacher’s unit. The first was a timeline
activity that was graded by a rubric and aligned to Objective 3. The second was from a
Historical Profile of a musician assigned to the student, graded by a rubric and aligned to
Objective 4. Please provide advice for how he should use the data for this unit and in
future teaching.

Thanks,

Dr. Payne
Principal, BHS
Formative Assessment Data
Student Scores of Two Selected Formative Assessments

Student Formative 1 Formative 2

Timeline (%) Figure Profile (%)
1 100 100
2 90 97
3 82 90
4 86 90
5 84 90
6 76 80
7 66 50
8 78 84
9 77.5 80
10 90 100
11 81 90
12 78 80
13 50 50
Focus A 75 85
Focus B 77 60
How did the data from these formative assessments impact
learning during the unit?
(Hint: Compare these to the pre-test data for the aligned objectives. What adjusments might
need to be made?)
Overall, students have made fantastic progress during the unit. The average scores for both
assessments are a drastic improvement over the pre-assessment. Continued focus on the
larger-scale or more abstract concepts should be a priority, especially on objective 5. The
standardized assessments are a great measure of student progress. Different methods of
assessment could be considered that lean into the historical context or the impact the
music had. The impact of the music on society, history, and the history of rock and roll are
all concepts that could be focused on in content as well as in assessments. According to this
data, though, there is not a tremendous need for adjustment since students are making
great progress in areas that were generally poor in the pre-assessment.

How did the data from these formative assessments impact

Focus Student Learning during the unit?
The focus students made fantastic progress in both objectives and are now meeting the
standard in objective 3. Focus student A is having success “catching up” to the other
students in the class and clearly has ways to engage with the content in areas other than
reading. Focus student B has made improvement but could still use a little bit of work in
order to meet the standard in objective 4. Alternative means of assessment may be
necessary depending on how engaged they are with the content as the sole focus on one
artist for a full project/assessment may have impacted their ability to complete the
assignment successfully. Breaking the assessment down into smaller chunks or
fragmenting it into different auditory/kinesthetic activities is a possibility, though with the
improvement shown this may not need to be dramatic in its implementation.

Dear Intern,
Your aid in helping the teacher understand how to use data from formative assessments
was very useful. Please find below the Summative Data from the teacher’s unit. Please
provide advice for how he should use the data for this unit and in future teaching.

Thanks,

Dr. Payne
Principal, BHS

Post-Assessment Data
Student Scores by Objective on the Post Assessment

Student Obj 1 Obj 2 Obj 3 Obj 4 Obj 5 Overall

%
% % % % %

1 100 100 100 100 100 100

2 100 100 100 100 100 100
3 100 98 98 98 96 98
4 90 88 88 88 86 88
5 95 92 88 85 90 90
6 100 84 84 84 88 88
7 65 60 72 80 52 66
8 90 75 75 78 82 80
9 90 84 60 60 96 78
 10 85 70 70 75 75 75
11 90 80 80 90 84 84
12 85 85 85 70 85 82
13 60 60 60 60 0 48
Focus A 90 75 75 80 80 80
Focus B 90 80 70 70 70 76

What does this data mean for learning during the unit?
The students in the class largely achieved the standard for every objective or achieved an
overall score that met the objective. Students 7 and 13, however, have been consistently
below the average in every assessment, and those results show here as they were the only
two to not meet the standard. They may not have been interested in the content or may
have other issues outside of the classroom. A brief survey or reflection could be given to the
class to gauge student engagement with the unit and learn the origin of the issue if it is not
already known. However, the scores of all of the other students improved dramatically,
especially in objective 5 which was the one where students struggled most. The
reflection/survey could be used as feedback for how to improve teaching strategies in the
future.

What does these data mean for learning for the Focus Students
during the unit?
Both focus students improved steadily over the course of the unit and both ended up
meeting or exceeding the standard or 70%. Focus student A had a lot of success in all areas
due to alternative methods of instruction and assessment that allowed them to engage with
the content despite their reading difficulties and general dislike of school. Focus student B
had the most dramatic growth even though they got a slightly lower overall score and
barely met the standard for three of the objectives. This improvement was likely due to the
alternative methods of instruction and assessment as well as the adjusted pacing and
structure they were able to use. More work can be done in the future to improve their
performance on objectives dealing with large-scale concepts, as that seems to be an area in
which they struggle. Further breaking down of these large concepts may be necessary as
well as more rigorous planning and sequencing on an individual level so that the student
can have success in the future for projects of similar scope.

For future instruction, what have you learned about how

students learn and the effectiveness of your instructional style?
What would you change, if anything?
Overall, I think that my instruction is effective and my utilization of multiple methods of
instruction allow me to effectively teach a large portion of the class. In addition, the
flexibility of my assessment while still being standardized allows students to accurately
display their knowledge even if they may have boundaries in certain areas. However, I
believe that I can improve in terms of my sequencing and moment-to-moment instruction
on the small scale, such as transitioning more smoothly between activities or concepts.
Receiving feedback and/or reflections from students on a more consistent basis would also
allow me to monitor their growth and my teaching on a micro and macro level. If possible, I
would also reach out to individual students and communicate with them to mitigate any
issues they may be having with the content that I am unaware of.