Curriculum Calibration
Curriculum Calibration offers a snapshot in time. Student work is collected during a specific week and calibrated to state content standards. The final report gives administration and teachers a slice-in-time view of the percentage of student work that is on, below, or above grade level during that week of the school year. Many schools have repeated a Curriculum Calibration after making adjustments to show the new alignment to the standards and further improve alignment. The goal for any school is to have students complete 90% of their work on grade-level and cover 90% of the state content strands for each grade level.
How it works
Teachers gather one week of student work from three students (one low-performing student, one medium-performing student and one high-performing student) in all classes and send it to DataWORKS for calibration. DataWORKS’ calibrators then analyze the student work and align each piece to specific state content standards. Results are compiled and broken down by grade level, indicating the percentage of work that is below, on, and/or above grade level. The calibrators also make comments regarding any trends they observe. Student work is also returned to schools with comments to help teachers understand the reason for specific calibration decisions. A DataWORKS’ consultant will visit the school to deliver results and answer questions. A two-day workshop is also available. The second day is an intensive training where the consultant will walk teachers step-by-step through the calibration process.
Student performance
Schools are expected to produce a higher percentage of proficient students every year. DataWORKS’ research has found that students are often being taught from two to four grades below grade level. State tests assess grade-level content. Students cannot learn what they are not taught and will not perform any higher than the assignments they complete. Lowering the standards
that are being taught only allows for a greater percentage of in-class and homework done correctly. Only by teaching to the standards laid out by the state will students rise to those expectations. Curriculum Calibration helps administrators identify specific changes to support learning for all students.
Results
Reports are made for:
- Alignment to grade-level
- Breadth of coverage of content strands
- Source of work (teacher prepared, textbook, commercial worksheet, etc.)
- Type of work (homework, test, guided practice, etc.)
DataWORKS presents results, methods, and recommendations to the entire school staff. Administrators and teachers can see whether the work that students are doing is at, below, or above grade-level. After having Curriculum Calibration performed, administrators have stated that it "transformed our school," "someone has shown us exactly what to do to raise our students’ scores," and "this is the best classroom analysis I’ve seen during my entire educational career."
