There’s no doubt that excellent teachers have been able to find a balance between meeting the needs of their students in the classroom and raising education standards in line with the results from the standardized testing data they receive.
These days, there are a vast variety of tools and data available to teachers. This has allowed them to teach their students better to ensure they eventually leave school armed with the necessary knowledge and skills to enter the workforce.
Here are just a few ways that good teachers use standardized testing data to meet the needs of their classrooms.
Once teachers have access to standardized testing data, they can look for specific trends that will allow them to plan better classroom lessons.
For example, teachers can identify areas within the testing where many of their students have missed several questions or have not answered them correctly. This allows the teacher to plan future lessons to cover these areas in more detail.
In other words, the data can quickly highlight areas where the students are not yet competent in because these haven’t been covered in enough detail.
On the other hand, the data can also highlight areas in which the students are much more competent. This means that there’s no further need to spend too much time on these when the time would be better spent on concepts that are not yet fully understood.
They Look At Individual Student Results To Form Smaller Groups
Forming smaller groups within the classroom allows teachers to give the students exactly what they need. For example, those students who have performed well in one area can be given enrichment programs to develop further the knowledge that they already have. This stops these students from becoming bored and helps to enhance their skills and knowledge further.
On the other hand, those students who have not yet grasped a certain area of study can be given extra tuition so that they can understand the concepts being taught. For teachers, it might be a case of providing the information in different formats to help students understand it better.
This method of teaching in smaller groups can be very successful. It means that no students are left behind because extra time is being spent to ensure they understand the material they are taught. On the other hand, students who have already mastered the material are given more advanced learning opportunities.
They Share The Results And Work On Goals
Another thing that excellent teachers do is share standardized testing results with their students. In this way, there’s collaboration within the entire classroom. Students can be complimented on their excellent performance, and discussions can be entered into regarding the improvements that can be made.
This allows the students to take more responsibility for their performance and learning and can also open up discussions on how those with problems can better understand certain concepts.
Quite often, it’s just a case of explaining certain concepts differently for some students to understand.
Good teachers have learned how to balance the needs of the students in their classrooms with the data they receive from standardized tests. This has allowed them to teach their students better and reach a level of education that will set them up for a successful entry into the workforce.
