Data Overview Project (M. Sykes)

Millicent Sykes Assessment in Education Data Display
Focusing Question: How do the Seattle School District's 3rd, 4th and 5th grade international elementary school students' scores, on the Smarter Balance Assessment, compare? How do the student demographics (i.e., race and ethnicity) compare among these schools?

3rd, 4th and 5th Grade Smarter Balance Assessment Proficiency Percentages for International Elementary Schools in the Seattle School District

Beacon Hill
Concord

Dearborn Park
John Stanford
McDonald
Mathematics (3rd, 4th, and 5th)
56.1%
44.2%
27.0%
93.1%
89.8%

67.1%
22.3%
57.4%
89.1%
70.7%

45.2%
35.0%
55.3%
66.2%
85.7%
Reading (3rd, 4th, and 5th)
42.4%
39.6%
28.5%
89.6%
86.2%

61.8%
25.3%
44.4%
87.6%
68.2%

52.0%
61.4%
60.7%
77.9%
85.7%
*Data from 2014-2015 academic school year








Student Racial and Ethnicity Demographics by International Elementary School

Beacon Hill
Concord
Dearborn Park
John Stanford
McDonald
Asian
28.7%
9.0%
46.5%
10.9%
4.7%
African American/Black
7.5%
11.2%
30.4%
0.9%
0.5%
American Indian/Alaska Native
0.6%
1.2%
0.8%
0.9%
Unknown
Caucasian/White
15.2%
11.0%
6.5%
56.9%
67.9%
Hispanic
38.7%
62.9%
8.4%
13.2%
11.8%
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander
0.2%
1.0%
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Two or More Races
9.1%
3.7%
7.3%
17.3%
15.2%
* Data from 2014-2015 academic year

In the above charts I see:
Five international elementary schools included.
John Stanford International and McDonald International have the tallest bars for the mathematics and reading scores, in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade.
The 4th grade students at Concord International have the lowest scores, in mathematics and reading.
The least percentage of students is in the "Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander" racial group.
The greatest percentage of students is in the "Caucasian/White" racial group.
Concord International has the greatest percentage of students in the "Hispanic" ethnicity group, while Dearborn Park has the greatest percentage of students in the "Asian" and "African-American/Black" racial groups.
The first chart compares the Smarter Balance Assessment (SBAC) scores of the five international elementary schools in the Seattle School District. The second chart compares the amount of racial/ethnicity diversity of the five schools. I was curious how the racial/ethnicity diversity of the international school may relate to the percentages of proficiency scores on the SBAC. These charts are an illustration of the assessment scores and racial groups in the 2014-2015 academic year. I notice that the international elementary schools that have greater percentages of "Caucasian/White" identified students have greater percentages of proficiency on the assessment. This observation promotes more questions.
After looking at these displays, I would like to consider the percentage of students who receive free/reduced lunch. By having this data, I will be able to distinguish the students who are living in poverty from the students who are not living in poverty. This information may also give me insight into an external factor, which may have affected some of the students' scores on the Smarter Balance Assessment. Since these students are attending an international school and are learning a second language, I want to view data focused on the amount of students who require additional support in their bilingual learning. This data will give me insight into students who possible struggle with reading, speaking, and/or writing in English, due to already speaking another language. Lastly, I will consider the teachers' contributions to student learning, by evaluating their experience and credentials.
Clarifying Questions: What is the percentage of students receiving free/reduced lunch (i.e., how many of the students, at the international elementary schools, are living in poverty)? What is the percentage of students who needed additional support with learning English, as a second language (i.e., how many students transitioned from needing bilingual assistance)? How qualified are the teachers (i.e., what credentials do the teachers possess and how many years have these teachers taught)?

Percentage of Students Receiving Free/Reduced Lunch at the International Elementary Schools

Beacon Hill (n=481)
Concord (n=409)
Dearborn Park (n=364)
John Stanford (n=466)
McDonald (n=403)
Free/Reduced Lunch (%)
58.8%
81.7%
82.4%
7.9%
5.5%
*Data from 2014-2015 academic year

Percentage of Students Who Transitioned from Needing Bilingual Support

Beacon Hill
Concord
Dearborn Park
John Stanford
McDonald
Transitional Bilingual
46.2%
46.5%
33.2%
5.4%
0.5%
*Data from 2014-2015 academic year



Teachers with at least a Master's Degree

Beacon Hill (n=34)
Concord (n=32)
Dearborn Park (n=22)
John Stanford (n=25)
McDonald (n=23)
Obtained at least a Master's
70.6%
65.6%
54.5%
64.0%
60.9%
*Data from 2014-2015 academic year

Average Years of Teacher Experience

Beacon Hill
Concord
Dearborn Park
John Stanford
McDonald
Teacher Experience (years)
11.9
11.7
11.3
11.7
6.5
* Data from 2014-2015 academic year

Upon looking at the recently added charts, I see that the students at John Stanford International and McDonald International have the least percentage of students who are "transitional bilingual" as well as receiving free/reduced lunch. The students at these two schools are mainly "Caucasian/White" and have the highest percentage of students scoring proficient on the Smarter Balance Assessment. When I look at the data, focusing on the teachers, the data is similar among the five international elementary schools. The only differences are: the teachers at McDonald International Elementary School have been teaching for an average of ~5 years less than the teachers at the other schools, and Beacon Hill International and Concord International have 7-12 more classroom teachers than the other 3 international elementary schools (Dearborn, John Stanford, and McDonald).
This data points to the inequality of racial/ethnicity and economic distribution at the five international elementary schools, in the Seattle School District. From north to south, the schools are location as such: McDonald, John Stanford, Beacon Hill, Dearborn Park, and Concord. Students from the northern schools come from families with higher incomes than the students from the southern schools. Having this information, I would propose that a learner-centered problem would be the additional support students in the southern schools need, due to external factors the students cannot control (e.g., learning English as a second language).
From the data above, I wonder if Beacon Hill and Concord have already implemented a plan to address the additional support their students may need. These schools have more teachers than the other three international schools. Besides teachers, what are other ways the schools can support their students?
In terms of the free/reduced lunch data, students are fed breakfast (if the student arrives on time for breakfast) and lunch. I would want to know which students are showing up to eat breakfast, if the student is identified as needing free/reduced lunch. I would need to know the attendance/tardy records of the schools. I think this data would begin to give me insight into the students who are arriving to school, before the first class begins. I am not certain if the schools provide the public with information regarding who eats breakfast and lunch. I would like to acquire this information to see which students are eating breakfast at school.
Lastly, while I have been focused on the factors that affect a student's ability to learn, I have not offered feedback about the assessment. The 2014-2015 academic year was the first year that the Smarter Balance Assessment was administered. From my experience, working at Concord International Elementary School last year, many of the teachers voiced their dislike of the assessment. Many expressed that the assessment is much more difficult than the assessments the state administered, previously. (The previous assessments include: Measures of Academic Progress [MAP] and Measures of Student Progress [MSP].) I think having example questions from the SBAC assessment and data of teachers, policy makers, and parents' feedback about the test, would be beneficial for providing insight into the testing experience. From there, the parents, teachers, and administration will have a clearer sense of where improvement and support is possible.
When I think about applying this Data Overview with colleagues at my workplace, Latona School Associates at John Stanford International Elementary School, I think about the plausibility of my colleagues using this information. Latona School Associates is a before and after school child care center available for families of students, who attend John Stanford International. At Latona, we do not review data associated with state assessments. We often look at attendance and behavior (e.g., suspension records and the frequency of a student sent to the principal's office). Latona School Associates is focused on providing social-emotional support for the students. With that being said, I believe this Data Overview Project could be used for grant writing. Childcare providers, at Latona, can use this Data Overview to advocate for international students, in general, as well as the southern international schools. This data could also be shown to the parents of the international school students, and prospective international school students, who are interested in finding a place for their child.
The process that I conducted, for this Data Overview, is more thorough and in-depth compared to the data reviews that commence at Latona School Associates. Like I stated before, Latona focuses on social-emotional learning rather than academic student achievement. While this data review is more extensive than what I am use to viewing at work, I think this process could be beneficial. This process would challenge the childcare teachers to critically think about the projects they facilitate as well as the specific discipline and attention strategies, we use. Overall, this process provides an opportunity for teachers to pause between thoughts and actions, in hopes of providing the best instruction and support for students.
A potential challenge, in implementing this process at my workplace, would be having access to data. Since we are childcare teachers that focus on social-emotional learning, accessing data centered on conflict resolution among children and regulation of emotions may be hard to find. I think researching various strategies, focused on social-emotional learning, and finding data of the effectiveness of these strategies, could be a place to start. We, the teachers and administration of Latona, would need to analyze a sources' data in hopes of finding out this information. From there, we would need to reflect on our own practices before we obtain our own data.
Another potential challenge, in implementing this process at Latona, is time. Latona teachers interact with students for a few hours at the beginning of the day and a few hours in the evening. I foresee many of the teachers protesting the process because of lack of time to delve into data, as well as lack of time with the students. A strategy that may solve this challenge, is implementing this process during trainings at the beginning of the school year, during the transition between semesters, and at the end of the year. I think having the data reviews during the trainings will allow the childcare teachers time to reflect on their practices in their classrooms, specific challenges the teachers have experienced, as well as potential changes to implement in their classrooms and/or as an organization. Lastly, the implementation of the process could start small and increase in depth through the years. This way people are invested to seek positive and effective change that lasts.
This Data Overview focused on the Smarter Balance Assessment scores of 3rd-5th graders, at the five international elementary schools in the Seattle School District. With the assessments, I considered the race and ethnicity of the students that populate these schools, in hopes of determining the relationship between the scores and the students. I found that students from John Stanford International and McDonald International had the greatest percentage of proficient scores as well as the largest percentage of "Caucasian/White" identified students. Upon viewing this data, I decided to delve deeper. Next, I reviewed data focused on the student: the amount of students who receive free/reduced lunch and the amount of students who transitioned from needing additional bilingual support. I found that students from Dearborn Park International, Beacon Hill International, and Concord International had the largest percentage of students needing both services. Upon seeing this data, I became curious about the people giving these students support. I evaluated data centered on the teachers: the average years of experience and the amount of teachers who obtained, at least, a Master's degree. After reviewing the data on the teachers, the percentages of teachers with at least a Master's degree ranged from 54.5% to 70.6%. With the amount of classroom teachers taken into consideration, a total of 136 classroom teachers at the five schools and an average of 27 teachers at each school, the amount of teachers with Master's degrees was roughly the same at each school. The average amount of years the teachers had been teaching was roughly the same, as well, around 11 years of experiences for four of the five schools. Upon completing this Data Overview, I realize I still need more data to determine why the scores in the south-end are lower than that of the students in the north-end. (While I believe the reason is due to racial and economic inequity between the north and the south.) Lastly, while I realize this information and process is not necessary applicable for my workplace, I hope this process can infiltrate into Latona School Associates to challenge us to critically think about the service we are providing.





















References
Washington State Report Card. (n.d.). http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/TemplateDetail.aspx?domain=SBAC&schoolId=1126&reportLevel=School&year=2014-15&gradeLevelId=4&groupLevel=District&waslCategory=1&yrs=2014-15







Teachers with at least a Master's Degree during the 2014-2015 academic year
School (Total # of Classroom Teachers)
Percentage of Teachers (%)
3rd, 4th and 5th Grade Smarter Balance Assessment Proficiency Percentages for International Elementary Schools in the Seattle School District from the 2014-2015 academic year
Grade and School, by Subject

Proficiency (%)
Student Racial and Ethnicity Demographics from the 2014-2015 academic year
Percentage of Race and Ethnicity

Percentage of Students Who Receive Free/Reduced Lunch during the 2014-2015 academic year
School (total # of students enrolled at school)
Percentage of Students (%)
Transitional Bilingual Students from the 2014-2015 academic year
Percentage of Students (%)
Teacher Experience of the Teachers from the 2014-2015 academic year
Amount of Years