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The COVID-19 slide: What summer learning loss can tell us about the potential impact of school closures on student academic achievement - NWEA

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COVID-19 school closures will likely impact student academic achievement. Research on summer learning loss can offer insights to help educators, policy makers, and families understand, plan for, and address some potential impacts of this extended pause when students return to school.

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A year or so ago, I had the pleasure of working alongside a colleague who by all accounts was a fantastic teacher, Lily Rhodes. As a teacher-researcher from a local university, I was curious to see how this teacher differentiated instruction for her 7th grade science students. To satisfy this curiosity, I observed her teaching and interacting with her students. In addition, we had in-depth discussions about her approach.

Lily has taught 7th graders outside a large, southeastern metropolitan area since 1997. Over the years, she has taught science, language arts, and reading on two-, three-, and four-member teaching teams. At the time of my semester-long observations, Lily was teaching science and language arts on a six-member teaching team.

Differentiation seemed to be working in Lily's classroom. The students didn't appear to worry about the differences in requirements among their peers, and they willingly worked at a level that challenged them. A classroom snapshot shows how Lily managed this.

Before starting a unit in science, Lily had her students take a pre-assessment that required them to circle the parts of the body that belong to the nervous system: "Flip over your quizzes. Circle what it says to circle. Then turn it back over. Go!" When they finished, Lily collected the quizzes. She quickly graded the papers and sorted them into different piles while students watched a short Schoolhouse Rock clip on the nervous system.

Lily had written the day's agenda on the board: 1. Warm-up and quiz. 2. Nervous system stations (Anatomy Arcade, Ready or Not, Rhodes Scholars). After the video clip, Lily divided the students into different groups on the basis of what she learned from the quizzes. She sent two boys to the back computer and two girls to the front computer to extend their knowledge of the nervous system in the Anatomy Arcade station. Six students were sent to the front table to work with Lily at the Rhodes Scholars station, and the remaining students broke into pairs to conduct an experiment at the Ready or Not station.

Lily clearly stated what everyone should do:

For those of you in the Anatomy Arcade, you'll see a tab called "Nervous System." Choose one of the games listed, and play it with your partner. If you're with me at Rhodes, we're going to be doing something special. If you're in Ready or Not, read the experiment directions on page 626, and get started.

As students started to work, Lily told me in a whisper that the students in the Rhodes station were struggling with nervous system information. "We're going to go over it again," she said, "and then I'm going to work on the skeletal system so they'll be experts when we start that system tomorrow. Hopefully, they'll be able to teach it to the rest of the class."

Lily decided to arrange the graded quizzes into three groups: students who got all the questions correct, students who missed one or two questions, and students who missed more than two. Her practice of giving daily short quizzes during the body systems unit began two years ago. After students took the quiz at the beginning of the class, Lily quickly assessed their understanding of the concepts and organized them into groups that differed day to day, depending on quiz results.

What stands out in this snapshot of one class period is that Lily decided to use the computer to extend the knowledge of students who scored 100 on the quiz. The advanced games found under the Nervous System tab-a folder set up on the computers with online games and interactions for students to choose from-required not only a high level of understanding of the nervous system, but also the ability to make anatomy-based decisions to keep animated characters alive. These games entailed a lot of intense reading and decision making that engaged and enriched students who were already comfortable with the material.

For Lily, the standard was simply a starting point. She believed it was her responsibility to take students who knew the material to a more in-depth and complex understanding. For example, in one of the games, students had to not only identify the parts and functions of the nervous systems but also delineate connections between nerve impulses traveling from our brains to which body part, why, and how. This goes beyond the standard "Explain the purpose of the major organ systems in the human body." Students had to read about each nerve connection (for example, the liver, thoracic, and brain connection) to play the game. The students in this group had already aced the pre-assessment in which they were required to explain the purpose of the nervous system. So were they learning?

The students in this group-those who had missed one or two questions on the quiz-were responsible for designing their own experiment. Lily believed they needed reinforcement of a few simple concepts to fully grasp the material for the day. This station required the students to work in pairs to read through directions, conduct an experiment using meter sticks and timers, and interpret the results.

Students in the experiment station explored stimuli and response time-with both voluntary and involuntary responses. The students began with one partner holding a meter stick 50 centimeters above the desk and then dropping it while the other partner caught it. After writing down various measurements from this initial task, students worked to design a similar task to test response to stimuli. Students then analyzed the work by writing about stimuli, response, and nervous system parts and functions. This learning task encouraged the students to further explore how the nervous system responds to stimuli and cleared up the few misconceptions the students had.

The quiz results showed that six students really struggled to understand the different parts and functions of the nervous system. These students missed three to six items on the 18-question test (or scored between an 83 and 67 percent). Many people would consider 83 a sufficient score and not consider the student in need of remediation. However, Lily decided 83 wasn't good enough. This group met with Lily to review the material in the standard. Lily drew from many different practices: Students reviewed orally; made flash cards of key concepts they missed, such as the parts of the nervous systems and the functions of those parts; and quizzed one another before they retook the quiz. These students scored either a 100 or a 94 on the retake.

Further, Lily didn't stop with remediation with this group; instead, she chose to frontload the next body system, the skeletal system. These six students got a preview, through direct instruction, into content for the next day, enabling them to lead the discussion and teach the rest of the students the major concepts of this system. For example, the students led the class in the labeling of the major parts of the skeletal system. This practice placed the students in a more privileged, responsible role, affording them some academic benefits with their peers.

On this particular day, several of the students in the Rhodes Scholar group were those with school-sanctioned labels, such as "struggling reader" or "learning disabled," which had been a part of these students' academic careers. Many had already experienced academic failure. Lily wanted to accelerate their progress to help them achieve more.

She didn't engage the group in inquiry-based instruction practices that day, however. The Rhodes group made flash cards, listing such questions as, "What are the two main structures that make up the central nervous system?" and "What are the functions of the spinal cord?" Although this is a more traditional practice, in this group flash cards had a different feeling. The students chatted with one another while making the cards. They asked Lily to clarify concepts so the information on the cards would be easily understood and to quiz them using the cards. "Great job!" she would say. "You missed three. Practice with the cards a little more, and you'll have it!" Not every student in the room needed to work with flash cards. These students, however, benefited from the practice.

How can we transfer these practices into other classrooms? First, we have to build a learning community founded on trust and respect. Lily didn't sentence the struggling learners to a remote location or berate them for doing poorly on the quiz. She approached them with a respectful tone; they knew she would work tirelessly to help them learn and develop a deeper understanding of the content. They knew she respected them and wanted them to succeed.

Second, teachers must use pre-assessments to make decisions; we must become what Carol Ann Tomlinson called "assessment junkies." Pre-assessment enables us to base our flexible groupings on data and not on feelings. Lily carefully divided the groups on the basis of the quiz results so each student was challenged and could move forward.

Third, we can apply this lesson structure to any content. For example, a literacy teacher could give a pre-assessment on a passage's main idea; have students watch a quick video while he or she grades the quiz; and then divide the students into three or four groups on the basis of whether they need instruction on concepts, practice on the few concepts they missed, or enrichment. A math teacher could pre-assess students on their knowledge of positive and negative numbers at the end of a class, grade the short quizzes before the next class, and begin that next class by grouping students on the basis of their needs.

Could teachers do this every day? Sure. Do they need to do it every day? No. Teachers could start with one or two lessons per unit; the following year, they could expand on their growing repertoire of differentiated materials.

Each lesson does take some additional planning. But becoming a master differentiator does take time. Just start small, and go on from there.

Author's note: The teacher's name is a pseudonym.

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Differentiation: It Starts with Pre-Assessment

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If teachers want to create flexible groups that address students' needs, they need to pre-assess.

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The rounding problem show in the image above is written in such a way that it requires thoughtfulness and deeper understanding of rounding concepts. This question was PERFECT to use at the start of one of my rounding lessons!

7) Differentiation during End of Year Test Prep and Review

I will be pulling from many the leveled assessments again prior to our End of Grade testing for any of the concepts my students continued to struggle with (although I had to move on). I will even be able to differentiate my test prep by creating small groups for different concepts based on the data I have collected with my leveled math assessments.

I've also created leveled summative assessments test that will be put to great use during testing season. I have a "building blocks," "goals," and "stretching beyond" summative assessment covering all of the concepts in the specific unit of study. This will really allow me to provide differentiation with my math test-prep because I will be able to give students a summative assessment at their level. For any students who are still at the building blocks level, I will be able to focus my time on building them up to mastering the skills on the "goals" summative assessment.

For a pre-assessment before getting deep into your math unit, you can print all three levels of the Version 1 assessment for a given concept and have students go as far within the levels as they are able to. Because of the way the leveled assessments are designed, you can see where your students "top-out." This is a great option when you know your students were introduced to the concepts the previous year {building blocks} and for planning to meet the needs of your gifted students {stretching beyond}.

We should also be careful not to assume that our gifted students had a high level of mastery of all math concepts, and these assessments really provide you with evidence of how deep their understanding goes. When we completed the rounding assessment, one of my highly capable students looked at me and said, "I feel like this is the first time a math test is making me think." Wow! What a compliment!

If you know the content is fairly new to students, you can print only the "Building Blocks" and "Goal" levels of Version 1 and have students complete the assessment-but if saving paper is not an issue for you, why not print all three levels to give students a chance to stretch? However, if you find again and again that the "Stretching Beyond" questions are not worth the class/assessment time until students have been given the opportunity to practice and master more of the content, feel free to exclude them from your pre-assessments.

Differentiation During Assessments with Leveled Math Assessments

To further differentiate your assessments, if you have students who are well below grade-level, simply pre-assess them using the "Building Blocks" part of the assessment and use your small-group, stations, and class time to focus on helping them build up to being proficient at the "Goal" concepts.

Some Final Suggestions

Because you have three versions of each assessment at your fingertips, you can use them in so many ways to fit your math differentiation needs and purposes at the time. You should not feel that you are trying to use all levels or all versions of the assessments during the school year {and especially to TEST your students to death}, but that you have them available to you as needed.

After checking the pre-assessment, s hare results with students and have them think about where they are on the continuum of understanding. Remind students that the goal problems are 4th grade goals that you will be helping them master in the upcoming unit and that the "stretching beyond" problems are more challenging than what is truly expected of 4th graders. (Use conversations about their performance to encourage a growth-mindset attitude towards learning in math.) The pre-assessment should not be for a grade but to gather information to assist with your differentiation plans for your math block and to show students where they are in their understanding of that specific concept.

After grading the post assessment, have students compare their pre-assessment to their post assessment and discuss the growth they see. Share this growth with parents by sending home both test versions (have students date each assessment when they take them and note "pre" or "post" assessment in the corner of the test). Prepare students to discuss their growth with parents by allowing them to talk with a partner about what improvements they see and what they still need to understand. I also included a data chart that students can use to record their performance.

In general, I want to find a way to expose my students to one of the assessment versions before testing them in a "final" test setting.

I have students record the date and the way the assessment was used at the top of their paper. They might write "pre-assessment," "practice," "homework," or "post-test."

Overall, using leveled math assessments is meant to be a positive experience for students. By having multiple exposures to the "assessments" at different times in the learning sequence and using these resources in a variety of ways, my students have the opportunity to see and feel the growth they are making in their mathematical understanding and mastery!

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Using Leveled Math Assessments for Differentiation - Tarheelstate Teacher

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How am I using leveled math assessments for differentiation ...let me count the ways! I'm so in love with my leveled math assessment resources for 4th grade math and 5th grade math and I think you will see why as I share all of the ways I've discovered myself using differentiated math tests.

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Sometimes when we do things with our students it is fun to look back and reflect on the activities. I have found a really fun way to get the students excited to look back and reflect is through a video slideshow. Bellow is a small tutorial I put together with information on how this can be done.

As teachers it is our responsibility to ensure all our students have the greatest opportunity to learn and grow. Classrooms and lessons should be designed in a way that benefit both the students who are excelling at a skill, and students who are struggling. One way to do this is through differentiated learning. Tomlinson and Allan (2000) discuss how differentiated learned is a teacher "reacting responsively to a learner's needs." It is our job as teachers to gauge the needs of our students and

This week I want to look at how to use assessments to help students attain mastery in a skill or competency. Currently I am working on creating a movie project for the students in my class. We are reading scripts as a way to practice speaking with more emotion and inflection. As part of reading the scripts we also are looking at the form of writing a script. We have discussed where and how to write character names, slug lines, and action texts. In addition to reading and looking at the form of a

This week my class discussed the effectiveness and use of formative assessments. Throughout the course of the week we looked at many tools and ways to assess students and how to implement them in the classroom. Why are these formative assessments important? Heick (2017) points out the importance of having quick assessments throughout the day. This way the teacher can make adjustments to their teaching immediately, instead of having to make large overhauls later. At the end of the week my

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Sometimes when we do things with our students it is fun to look back and reflect on the activities. I have found a really fun way to get the students excited to look back and reflect is through a video slideshow. Bellow is a small tutorial I put together with information on how this can be done.

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Marzano Posters by Mrs. L's Leveled Learning

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Leveled Standard Template + 4 Square Pre-Assessment Template 

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Leveled Standard Template + 4 Square Pre-Assessment Template 

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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1. What previous concepts do students need to understand in order to access grade level content?

2. What do students need to understand on grade level?

3. What are the next steps if they already understand grade level standards?

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The Learning Continuum report identifies learning statements using two views:

What is the Learning Continuum?

The Learning Continuum is a content explorer that lets educators understand more about the relative difficulty level of the test items contained within MAP Growth. It is located within the MAP Growth reports landing page ( https://reports.mapnwea.org/map) and displays learning statements associated with test items, grouped in 10-point RIT bands.

With the Learning Continuum, you can:

Identify what kinds of skills and concepts are assessed by test items that fall within 10-point RIT bands.

Understand the relationship between test items and instructional areas and standards.

Get a high-level view of the relative difficulty of the assessed components/skills of a standard to inform instructional planning.

Contextualize a student's overall and instructional area scores by identifying skills and concepts on which that score might be based.

Test items and learning statements: How are they related?

Every item in the NWEA item bank is associated with a learning statement, which is a statement that describes the skills and concepts the item is assessing. All items assessing the same skills/concepts are aligned to the same learning statement. With thousands of items in the MAP Growth item bank, it's easy to understand why the Learning Continuum displays so many learning statements within each 10-point RIT band.

For example, if you look at the Learning Continuum for the NWEA version of the 2-5 math test and select the 181-190 RIT range, you will find that there are more than 150 learning statements listed. The presence of a learning statement in the 181-190 RIT band indicates at least one test item with a RIT level between 181-190 is available in the item pool that assesses the skills/concepts aligned to that learning statement. To provide a more specific example, if a test item has a RIT level of 185 and assesses the skills/concepts aligned to the learning statement "Solves one-step linear equations with positive rational numbers," then the Learning Continuum will display this learning statement in the 181-190 RIT band.

Note: The number of learning statements varies for each version of the test.

The presence of a learning statement in a 10-point RIT band does not necessarily indicate that a student received a test item that assessed the skills/concepts described in the learning statement. This is a result of the fact that there are only 43 items on the MAP Growth test, which means it would be impossible for any MAP Growth test to assess all the skills/concepts aligned to learning statements found in a given 10-point RIT band.

Key Takeaway: The Learning Continuum shows what kind of content is in the MAP Growth item pool, not what was shown on a student's test event.

How to use the Learning Continuum to improve student learning outcomes

MAP Growth best supports the process of planning for teaching and learning at the term and/or unit level, rather than in daily lesson planning. MAP Growth scores are one of multiple forms of data to consider, starting with a review of the MAP Growth class-level data to identify patterns of relative strength and need and contextualize achievement in terms of norms and proficiency projections.

The Learning Continuum represents the content included in the MAP Growth assessment item pools, so teachers needing more information about what a RIT score represents may use it as a content explorer to add to their understanding of the RIT score. Teachers can use the Learning Continuum to develop a better sense of what content is assessed by MAP Growth.

When it comes to planning at the lesson level within a unit, NWEA suggests that teachers rely on strong formative assessment practices, with a goal of homing in on each student's areas of opportunity.

Using MAP Growth as a way to inform unit planning along with high-quality formative assessment to inform daily instruction can identify the most important learning needs and maximize growth for all students.

How to Access the Learning Continuum

You can access the Learning Continuum from View Reports > MAP Reports > Learning Continuum, where you can open either the Class View or Test View (scroll down to reveal).

As a shortcut, open the Class View using links in the Class Breakdown by Instructional Area report.

Note on Class View: The learning statements that appear with student names represent only some of the skills and concepts that support a standard. Because these skills and concepts are likely to be in the students' Zone of Proximal Development based on their MAP Growth scores, the learning statements can be a useful source of information to scaffold or enrich grade level instruction for identified students. However, those learning statements should not be the only source of information that a teacher consults.

Controlling the View

If available*, use Edit Display Options to control what appears in the report.

*The Display Options are not available for all test versions.

Group by Topic-The topic groups provided by NWEA help you locate related content.

Group by Standard -Most useful when combined with the Grade Level Standards filter, so you can isolate particular standards.

Filter by Grade Level Standards -Use with the Group by Standard option:

Use any of the following methods. To restore the full view, click View All.

Use the browser search: Ctrl+F or Cmd+F.

Click a RIT band to view it in isolation, along with adjacent RIT bands. (Class View only)

Note: To restore the full view, click View All.

Click a student name to isolate just that student. (Class View only.)

To restore the full view, click View All.

Print the Display

Note: Printed copy will become outdated as the test calibration changes, so always refer to the online view for the latest information.

1. Use the Firefox browser for the most accurate print rendering; however, any supported browser will work.

2. Display the learning statements you want.

Tip: For the Test View, you can print every third RIT band to avoid printing the RIT bands that overlap.

3. Scroll to the top and click Print (or type Ctrl+P on Windows, Cmd+P on Mac).

4. Optional-For a PDF, you could print to a PDF printer driver:

Frequent Questions for the Learning Continuum

Use Restrictions for Learning Continuum

The Learning Continuum is the exclusive property of NWEA and is protected by U.S. and international copyright. Use of the Learning Continuum by any person or entity other than a subscriber school district or other recognized and subscriber entity ("Subscriber") is prohibited. By using the Learning Continuum, you agree to the following terms and conditions of this Use Agreement (the "Use Agreement").

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The Learning Continuum report identifies learning statements using two views: The Learning Continuum is a content explorer that lets educators understand more about the relative difficulty level of the test items contained within MAP Growth. It is located within the MAP Growth reports landing page ( https://reports.mapnwea.org/map) and displays learning statements associated with test items, grouped in 10-point RIT bands.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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During my teaching career, I've taught 7 years of 5th grade, looped from 4th grade to 5th grade twice, and am currently in my second year of teaching 4th grade at a new school. This year, I partnered up with the 5th grade teacher and am allowed the pleasure of teaching 5th grade math to the 4th graders I had last year.

After 4 years of teaching 5th grade, switching grade levels to loop was an invaluable form of professional development in regards to my math instruction and understanding of differentiation in math. I was able to experience first-hand what my 5th graders were expected to learn in the previous grade and how everything connected as building blocks to the next grade level. As a 4th grade teacher with lots of 5th grade experience, I am able to prepare my students for what they will need to be able to do in math in the future.

As my experiences with two grade-levels' content grew, I began to see a staircase from one grade level to the next. While I can now analyze the standards and figure out the steps on those staircases, I know that my initial understanding of the connections between standards grew from teaching multiple grade levels.

Differentiated math tests were a big Ah-HA that came from this experience. With differentiated pre-tests and post-assessments, I could now use the staircase and connections I saw between the standards in a tangible way-to give students entry points into grade-level content and provide opportunities beyond the standards for students who are ready to take the standards further.

I became fully committed and passionate about utilizing leveled, differentiated math tests and today I want to share with you the biggest reasons for my commitment to this style of assessment!

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Why I'm Switching to Leveled Math Tests - Tarheelstate Teacher

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Do you differentiate, level, or tier your math tests? Today I'm sharing 7 reasons why I made the switch to using leveled, differentiated math tests in my classroom. This post is part of a 3 part series on math assessments that are differentiated and leveled.

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Differentiated Math Assessments for a Growth Minded Classroom