On track and on target {Managing Student Data and Goal Setting}

I have a slight confession… I hate data. I really do. It’s a lot of work. It’s time consuming. It’s tons of papers to keep up with. It’s not my favorite… at all. On the flip side, I love data. It gives me insight on what I need to reteach, what my small groups should focus on and how my class is progressing.

However, when I don’t like things, I try to figure out a way to make it work for me!  I made myself a data binder/assessment binder a few years ago and LOVED that I had all of my information in one HUGE binder. I had to do much more paperwork in the past for assessments. At this school and in the past few years, we’ve used ESGI to help with assessments so it saves me TONS of time and I don’t use ANY paper when it's time for report cards.

Here’s what I do to keep up with tracking my student data.

My data binder has a place for classroom data, student data and in the back is where I put most of my quick assessment sheets and cards.

I do have a few letter naming sheets, number sheets, colors and alphabet charts behind the assessment tab. I rarely use these because I have a math and ELA intervention binder that also works as a great quick assessment for things that I don't want to use for ESGI.

I keep the cards in this zip bag and just pull them out. I have the cards color coded for easy use. Numbers are on orange, letters on one color, sight words on another and so on. I can quickly grab a color and get to work with what I want to assess for a particular child

My binder also have a tab for each child. I keep all of their monthly assessment sheets here. They have an assessment sheet that goes home in their homework binder and when I fill it up, it is stored here as well.

The assessments are done during the week. I send them home on Mondays for parents to sign. I take them back out and keep them at school the rest of the week. This helps with them being misplaced or ruined. I've had some get things spilled on them and this helps to take them out every Tuesday morning for me to keep.

These assessments are VERY time consuming, but I LOVE them. I usually can check off students after small groups, after we've done something whole group, just working with them as I walk around the room and it lessens my workload on Fridays. The ones that already know all their letters and sounds - it's easy to just check them off. This helps when you have to conference with parents as well. They already know up to date information on how their child is performing. We don't have to give progress reports so this is my form of a progress report in kindergarten.

We are doing DIBELS this year so any thing related to that will go under their tab as well. It was SUPER easy to make tabs for each child. I just printed off a cover with their names and typed all of their names much smaller on one page. I cut each name out and just taped them to the page protectors. Quick and easy personalized tabs to help me when I’m looking for a certain child.

For our goal setting, I can only show you one picture (I prefer not to show their pictures next to the goals).

I have different goals and I add their pictures off to the side for students that have reached the goal. We work really hard and talk about one goal for each child. Of course, some hit more than one or two quickly and that’s okay. The fact that they get to see their picture makes them want to work a heck of a lot harder to get their pictures. When they do reach a goal, they also get a brag tag to go along with that.

That's it! I try to keep it as SIMPLE as possible, but I like to have the data when it comes to conferences, RTI meetings, and during IEP time. I will have ALL of their data in one place and won't have to scramble to look for it or try to hurry and print anything off.