UMD Globe
 























EDUC 476/698V
Assessment and Design Strategies for Improving Student Learning: Utilizing Data with Technology Tools for Instructional Decisions

Visual overview of course content
Example of Excel data entry and analysis
Staff
Instructor:
Davina Pruitt-Mentle
Course Meeting Times
One session/week
Primarily Delivered Online
Level
Undergraduate / Graduate
Discipline
All disciplines encouraged

Catalog Description

Explore systemic improvement strategies to curriculum planning, assessment, and instruction through utilizing data and data analysis via technology tools. This course is designed to assist educators in identifying and using data that are most effective in assisting improvement of student achievement and system efficacy.

Course Description:

As the gap between low and high achieving students continues to grow and the implementation of high-stakes accountability systems becomes the norm, the need for data to guide classroom decisions becomes increasingly important. Unfortunately, many practicing educators have limited or no experience in using data systematically to inform decisions about classroom teaching. The density and range of available information contributes to the arduous task of effectively analyzing and applying assessment results to decisions about day to day instruction.

Data can be used not only to evaluate and track student performance but also to assess instructional effectiveness and various other factors that influence student learning. This course will address some of the common questions that educators have about data driven school improvement. What types of data should be collected? How might teachers collect data effectively with current technology applications? How might teachers use data for school improvement? What steps should schools take to improve their use of data?

This course will explore systemic improvement strategies to curriculum planning, assessment, and instruction through utilizing data and data analysis via technology tools. Content is designed to assist educators in identifying and using data that are most effective in assisting improvement of student achievement and system efficacy, and examine a variety of innovative curriculum design and classroom assessment practices, including instructional rubrics, student self-assessment, ongoing assessment, problem based and TfU/backward design models, integrated with the aid of technology applications. Educators will locate, access, retrieve, evaluate, and archive information pertaining to their school's, as well as their individual classroom assessment scores, state content standards, and performance assessment tasks, and design, test, and revise curriculum projects and assessment tools for use in your own classroom.

Previous Student Comments

All Teachers in the entire school system need to take this course This should be a required course for ALL teachers AND administrators. The resources, case studies, and exercises were so interesting that I forgot about being scared of having to learn spreadsheets and databases-now I am teaching in-service workshops on this to my school.

In a time that focuses so much on data collection and analysis using tools and templates can be a real life saver. Technology applications might be the teacher's real defense to do all we are asked to do. This course showed me how to do it.

This course prepares teachers to think about collecting, organizing, analyzing, connecting day to day instruction with standards, and then prepares teachers to make informed decisions about instructional practices and appropriate and varied assessments. This course is above the normal. All teachers within our system should be required to take this.
Carolyn Kornegay, District Math and Science Curriculum Specialist



Educational Technology Policy,
Research, & Outreach
http://www.edtechpolicy.org//
dpruitt@umd.edu
   Copyright © 2009 ETPRO