Comments, ideas and concerns about the math curricula at Andover Public Schools

Thursday, February 1, 2007

What Data?

At several points in the administration's presentation, it was mentioned that we are in the data gathering phase of the curriculum review. MCAS trends are but one data point, and many have pointed out that differences in student cohorts and tests from year-to-year make it challenging to normalize those trends. In-town test results can also be used (again assuming they remain constant) but the impact of outside tutoring is not well-understood. Some parents at the roundtable suggested PSAT and SSAT scores. These are not useful for measuring the entire student population, but could give insight into advanced learners -- a population that parents and teachers feel are not being effectively served by the current implementation of math in the middle schools.

What data points would be useful to measure the effectiveness of the curriculum?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Are there district common grade-level assessments? SSATs?