What did they try?

St. Mary's College of Maryland has developed a class on Data-Driven Curriculum and Instruction, a 2-credit course taught to interns in the field. The class has two major components. The first component is built around a modified version of the Maryland Teacher Technology Standards (MTTS) performance task IV. Students use simple statistical tests to analyze school-wide standardized test data provided by a local school principal, who has collected enormous amounts of data over the years at his school. Students work in groups (based on their statistical skills) to answer a series of questions that have been posed by the school principal. The second component of the course involves having students design pre and post assessments for units they are currently teaching. They then examine the student results to determine growth.

What worked and why?

• The modified version of MTTS IV provided interns the opportunity to work with authentic data from a school and actual questions that a school principal needed answered. The final report with questions answered was given to the principal for use in his school.
• Interns learn how to delve deeply into data, and they can see the many things that can be learned or become evident from an analysis of test scores.

(Samples of student products from the course and a sample final report to the principal can be found at www.smcm.edu/users/acjohnson/PT3)

What didn't work and why?

• The course proved to be a difficult one for interns to do in addition to their internship.
• Interns are not as concerned about mastering these skills as other practitioners, such as principals, instructional resource teachers, subject-matter specialists.

What will they do next?

• St. Mary's College will be offering a similar course in the spring for St. Mary's Public School personnel. Participants will be paid a stipend and receive MSDE credit to take the class.
• All of what has been implemented and learned through this grant, including this course, will be incorporated into the research strand of the new Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, which will replace the undergraduate education program at St. Mary's College.