June 30th, 2022

Teach It Forward: Sharing Data Strategies

Creating and administering an assignment is only part of the learning process, next comes the data and how it can be used within the learning process. Teachers can use data to provide feedback to students and to inform curriculum conversations with colleagues and leaders.

Andrea Stonebraker – Science – Cascade High School, IN

Andrea transitioned to Gradient to support her need for powerful data analysis. After using the solution on her own for a few years, she then worked with her administrator to bring Gradient to her school. Since Andrea teaches 4-5 different courses each year, grading can easily take up a great deal of time. Gradient makes it faster and easier to get the assignments scored and the grades transferred into digital gradebooks.

Though initially she primarily used Gradient for grading and review, now she works more with her PLC to address learning loss and look deeper into the data. When Andrea started with a personal plan, she kept things simple by building formative assessments and doing test reflections. Now she incorporates standards and leverages reports to support taking a deeper dive into the data she collects on student learning.

“The data analysis allows me to improve my tests and my teaching each year. I get a lot out of [Gradient].” - Andrea

Andrea pointed out the great timesaving features like the grading by question, completion scores, and the grade transfer, as well as the easy forgiveness of human error by being able to edit the key and automatically re-grading all the assignments. All these functions really changed her world in a year with so many other struggles.

Carmen Napolitano – Chemistry – Fishers High School – IN

Carmen began using Gradient as a replacement for an older technology because Gradient provided him with faster feedback and additional details that helped him identify areas of misunderstanding. He really appreciates the ability to share the data with his AP students to explore commonly missed answers and misconceptions.

Carmen uses the Student Overview report to pull in students that may need to retake an assignment and uses the results to help prepare them. Together, they can review incorrect responses and discuss common mistakes they may have made. And since the reports are so easy to pull up, he can quickly work with a number of different students throughout the day.

Carmen has also used the data to open up valuable conversations with his PLC team. The teachers are able to compare data and ask questions about content areas of success and struggle in order to address them for the next lesson.

“It is a really easy way for us to share our data, so when we get into our PLC session we can just pull [Gradient] up… It is all in one spot and it is a lot easier to look at.” - Carmen

Students are excited and anxious to get their results right away. And with the transition to sharing the data with students immediately, the students are better able to pinpoint their own areas of growth and misunderstandings. Students are going beyond just how they did on the assignment, and more into the “why” they had the result they had.

Stacey Takamoto – Problem Solving Data Coordinator – Fleming Middle School, CA

Stacey shared her perspective as a data coach and how she supports teachers using the feedback Gradient provides. Gradient was first brought to her school by her administrator, and it is used as a part of their math intervention program to drive instruction and address student needs. Initially, students were using the scan forms but moved to the Student Portal once the pandemic started.

Teachers love how quickly and easily they are able to access and understand student data. Specifically, Stacey works with teachers to view data as a way to direct what instruction may be needed for standards and how individual student data can help focus student tutoring sessions. Stacey also uses the reports with custom demographics as a part of a district initiative to address the learning needs of African-American students within the school.

“Because we are able to access the data in real-time, it is improving teacher responsiveness to instruction. It ensures the instruction is relevant, because [teachers] are adjusting instruction, as needed, based on real-time data.” - Stacey

In Stacey’s role to support the staff with data, she often finds herself sharing reports from Gradient in her weekly newsletters. She calls out a weekly focus to share with her teams so that they can see the impact the instruction is having.

We truly appreciate hearing from each educator in this Teach It Forward session. It’s great to see how much fast and flexible data means to them and their students. It turns out that students are just as hungry for that feedback as the teachers are!

To learn from other Gradient educators in action, check out our Teach It Forward series, view on-demand sessions, or register for an upcoming webinar.