As teachers begin gathering data from performance assessments and pre-tests that are components of growth measures (DDMs), district leaders are asking timely questions about managing the new data.

It’s a challenge because the data come in many shapes and sizes: from rubric-scored performances to tallies of laps run around the gym to zero-to-one hundred test scores.

Craig Waterman, ESE project lead of growth measures, suggests narrowing what districts collect to the percentage of students with high, moderate, or low growth in any given class.  Organizing the data in this way would allow educators to look for answers to questions like:

• Which teachers contributed to particularly high student growth?
• Which grade level or department contributed to high student growth?
• Which instructional practices in the high growth classrooms and grade levels ought to be more widely shared?

How is your district planning to manage DDM data? How do you intend to use the data?