Data Use by Teachers in High-Performing, Suburban Middle Schools to Improve Reading Achievement of Low-Performing Students

摘要

The accountability mandates of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have changed the relationship between schools and data. State assessments provide new sources of data and the high - stakes associated with these tests have increased the pressure on schools to use this data to drive instructional decisions. Under NCLB, accountability is based on overall student performance and achievement of designated subgroups of students. Within this system, the existence and needs of low-performing students who do not comprise a subgroup for accountability purposes could be concealed in a school with high overall levels of student achievement. This study examined the use of data by sixth-grade and seventh-grade reading teachers in three high-performing middle schools to improve the reading achievement of low-performing students. The selection of schools was based on the achievement levels of eighth-grade students on the 2004-05 Reading PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment). Each of the middle schools involved in the study scored in the top 10 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, based on the percentage of students at the advanced or proficient levels.Data was collected through a teacher survey and teacher interviews. While teachers in each school reported use of data to identify low-performing students, identify the reading strengths and weaknesses of low-performing students, and monitor students' reading progress, the data used differed among the schools and teachers within the schools. The variation in data use was related to the grade level of students taught, the placement of students in regular education or special education reading classes, the number of low-income students in the school, and the resources provided by the school and/or district to facilitate data use.