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INTRODUCTION
- We often hear or read books or articles about growth development. Growth development is relatively used when we discuss the lifelong process of students’ physical, cognitive, behavioral, emotional growth and change.
- Raudenbush, 2004 states that within educational accountability systems, the current performance models and growth models, both are used to measure students’ progress and outcomes at the classroom, school, district and state levels.
- According to the Student Growth Guidance Document, Wayne RESA, 2016, there are many types of growth models such as Improvement Model, Performance Index Model, Simple Growth Model, Growth to Proficiency Level, Student Learning Objectives Model and Student Growth Percentile Model. These models encompass various variations depending on the Model’s purpose and available data.
- This writing, however, will only focus on growth models that merely measure students’ performance or outcomes based on the Student Learning Objective Model in the classroom.
- Before the Student Learning Objectives Model is further discussed, it is important to explain here the distinction between status scores and growth data. Growth development is related to collection of data.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STATUS SCORES AND GROWTH DATA
- There is a difference between status scores and growth data. The Student Growth Guidance Document, 2016 states that a status score is a measure taken at one point in time.
- The status scores used to compare the performances of cohorts of students. On the other hand, growth data involves assessment of students at two or more points in time.
- The growth data are collected for the same cohort or group of students, looking at their progress in a longitudinal manner.
THE STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES GROWTH MODEL
- A Student Learning Objective (SLO) is a measure of a teacher's impact upon student learning within a given teaching period.
- A SLO is a measurable, long term academic goal informed by available data from a teacher or teacher team (for example, Subject Committee Members) at the beginning of the teaching period for all students or subgroups of students depending on the class size of students.
- The teacher and students work collaboratively toward the SLO growth targets throughout the teaching period and use the formative assessment, mid-term exam or summative assessment data to assess progress toward the goal.
- At the end of the teaching period, the teacher meets the school leader, the school administrator or the Subject Committee Members to analyze and discuss the SLO results and determine the teacher’s teaching impact upon students’ learning.
- Intervention and enrichment programs are planned based on the SLO data analysis.
HOW DOES STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES GROWTH MODEL WORK
- Teachers must set realistic student growth targets that align with school, district or state priorities and learning objectives based on assessment data and students’ achievement that has been identified. The students’ learning objectives can be referred to Dokumen Standard Kurikulum dan Pentaksiran (DSKP).
- The target growths should include specific growth indicators that show learning between two points in time.
- Firstly, the teacher has assessed the students through a pre-test that has 100 marks if possible.
- Secondly, the teacher reviews where the students started as Take-off Value (TOV) and develops a growth target or expected target for each student.
- Thirdly, the students are given an assessment as a post-test. Then, the teacher calculates the differences of the growth score. The difference becomes the growth score when compared to the growth target.
- Finally, the teacher determines the students' percentage who met their target and compares that to the class target.
Below shows an Example of a Simple Growth Model.
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(Based onThe Student Growth Guidance Document, 2016)
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BENEFITS OF STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES GROWTH MODEL
The Student Growth Guidance Document, 2016 outlines some benefits of SLO. The SLO process may:
- Promote learning.
- Use as a reflective teaching practice.
- The retention of teachers. and,
- Align with many quality administrative and school improvement high impact initiatives.
SUMMARY OF GROWTH MODELS FOR STUDENTS LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The Student Growth Guidance Document, 2016 provides a table of summary of the SLO Growth Model that can assist teachers. The table is divided into two units as shown below:
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Description
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Primary Question Asked
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Benefits
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Establishes growth goals for students
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Are students meeting learning targets?
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- Teachers define learning targets.
- Promotes learning, reflection and retention of teachers.
- Aligns with school improvement high impact initiatives.
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Primary Interpretation
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Required Data Features
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Setting Standards
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Limitations
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Growth prediction. Provides student level information that can be used to reflect teacher performance.
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Can be used with criterion assessment and /or standardized assessment either at mid-term or final term which is a summative type.
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Requires setting standards for future individual student learning objectives and for classroom targets based on a future standard of score.
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1.Time Consuming
2.Does not show year-to year comparisons.
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CONCLUSION
- As a conclusion, assessing students’ growth development using the SLO growth model is still new to teachers.
- Teachers are encouraged to use this model when measuring students' learning performance. For example SLO growth models can be used through Action Research.
- It is a useful tool to use because the growth data helps to promote students’ learning goals and to reflect teacher’s teaching practice.
Disclaimer: This piece of writing is general and is only for sharing and reading purposes. It does not concern any policies stipulated by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
References
- Measuring Student Growth: A Practical Guide to Educator Evaluation resources.finalsite.net
- Raudenbush, S.W. (2004). Schooling, Statistics and Poverty: Can We Measure School Improvement? (Angoff lecture). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
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