Regents Data and Intervention
During the 2017-2018 school year when Mr. Vizcaino and Ms. Robertson became leaders of UA Global Commerce, we began to investigate why pass rates for regents exams were historically low in our school. Through my role as Science Department Lead, we analyzed regents data and identified reading comprehension and evidence based analysis on Short Response questions to be an area where students consistently struggled. We decided that our focus will be on developing rich discussion to cultivate students’ evidence-based analytical thinking and to enhance their evidence-based analytical writing. Using this information, we have worked to implement strategies to support our students with these skills, including Regents Prep, use of the Writing Revolution strategies and engaging students with authentic and grade level text to encourage evidence based analysis and discussion.
Regents Assessment Data
Living Environment Item Skills Analysis(2017-2020)
Over my career, I have seen evidence of growth in student performance on the Living Environment Regents, particularly for re-takers, students with IEPS, ELLS and graduating Seniors. I attribute this growth to our school's investigation of historical regents data and our instructional focus. Implementing strategies such as the Writing Revolution, using the New Visions curriculum and encouraging the command of evidence in student writing has benefitted all students who take this regents. Most students in our school who take the Living Environment regents in January, and have decided to deaggregate these groups.
2018 Mock Regents Data
In the Spring of 2018, Mock Regents were administered to all students in Regents culminating courses . I was able to us this data to inform my Regents Prep strategy for these students, which included after school Regents Prep classes and targeted supports.
June Exam Data
On Average, about 60 students take the Living Environment Regents in June. The highest pass rate was in June 2018, after using Mock Regents data to strategically plan prep. You will notice that there is a 20% drop from 2018-2019. During this year, I adopted the New Visions Living Environment Curriculum for the first time. One area that I found the curriculum needed modifications was in the Regent's Practice and application. Students struggled with Regents aligned questions. As I became more familiar with the curriculum through PDs and personal reflection, I was able to further make explicit connections between the 5E instructional model and the style of questions that are asked on the regents.
January Exam Data
On average, about 29 students take the Living Environment Regents in January. These students are typically seniors, re-takers and transfer students, which is why I distinguish these two data sets. One challenge with the January exam is that many of these students are not sitting in my Living Environment Class during this semester, so I must support them through after school regents Prep. Student who attend regents prep consistently typically improve their grade on the exam or pass.
Regents Prep
All students who previously failed the Living Environment Regents are provided with Regents Prep classes to help prepare them for the exam. This was particularly helpful for Graduating Seniors, who needed this exam as a graduation requirement. These Regents Prep sessions were planned according to each student and were targeted on improving specific skill such as, graphing, written response questions and strategies for answering MC questions. All students who attended Regent's Prep, including ELLs and students with IEPs showed progress or success on the Living Environment Regents.
Sub-Group Data- Showing success for All students
Seniors are a high priority population, as Living Environment is a Graduation requirement. One example of a senior success story is Arianna Gonzalez. Arianna transferred to UASGC as a senior, however she was behind on her Regent's Exams which caused her to stay an extra year. At her previous school, Arianna struggled to pass the Living Environment regents, even with her IEP safety net . In January 2019, after 1 semester in my class and attending after school Regents Prep sessions, she received a 79%, the highest score on that particular exam for our school.
Student Anecdotes:
Oumou K. - I taught Oumou as a Freshman during my first year. Her original score on the LE Regents was a 62. She retook the exam, without any supports and received the same grade. During her Junior year, she was placed into my Living Environment class and regularly attended after-school regents prep. I continued to encourage her and in June of 2019, she received a 77 exam. I attribute this not only to me improving my pedagogy, but also her commitment and dedication to take advantage of supports such as Regents Prep.
Jesenia S. - Jesenia is a student with an IEP related to Learning Disability as well as a physical health impairment. She was provided with a 1 to 1 para, but still struggled to complete work within the class period. Jesenia met with me daily during her lunch period (after getting her food) to complete classwork, as well as review vocabulary and get assistance with homework. I was also able to get to know her and her family on a more personal level. I began to differentiate assignments, as well as her group in class to help support her. After attending these daily review sessions, Jesenia passed the Regents within her IEP safety net.
Jared C.- Jared transferred to our school as a sophomore along with his younger brother. In 2018 he scored a 63% on the LE Regents Exam. Looking at his ISA data, I noticed that many of the points he lost were due to not completing the short response questions. In Fall 2019, he attended Regents Prep weekly and I provided him with writing strategies from the Writing Revolution, to build his confidence and strengthen his responses using evidence. After attending Regents Prep he retook the exam and received a 71%.
Brianne R. - transferred to our school having failed the Living Environment Regents. Her confidence as well as her interest in science was lacking due to her experience in her previous school. During her first semester, in January 2018, she took the exam and scored a 58%. I reviewed her ISA with her and observed that she lost points in specific topics such as Genetics and Ecology, which are heavily tested. I targeted her prep using this information, provided her with models and practice problems and in June 2019, after being in my class, she received a 75% on the exam.
Edson B. is a student who joined our school from Honduras in 2017. He was classified as an ELL and knew very little English. This served as his main challenge because the Living Environment is very vocabulary heavy, and not all of the vocabulary translates directly into Spanish, his first language. On his first attempt, Edson originally scored a 55% on the exam. I strategically grouped him with other students who were Spanish speakers and began to implement more supports for all of my ELLs, such as visuals, bi-lingual glossaries and providing him with English and Spanish copies of classwork assignments. Edson scored a 68% on the exam.
Appreciation note from Jesenia S.
Monitoring Student Growth using ZipGrade
Baseline Assessment Data
On September 11, 2019 I administered a Living Environment aligned pre-assessment which monitored student performance in skills and concepts including Graphing and Cellular Processes. I used a digital assessment tool called ZipGrade to collect and analyze the class data. My students in these classes are representative of all subgroups (ELLS, IEPs, Seniors, etc).
Grade Distribution
During this first assessment the average score was a 36%. This was before students engaged with any content in my class. At this time, 50% of students were successful on Graphing. No students were able to appropriately answer short response questions.
Unit 1 Quiz Score Distribution
After reflecting on the data from Unit one, I targeted graphing as a skill, as well as introducing new content on Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis. One month later, on October 11th I reassessed these skills. As you can see in the data, the score distribution shifted to the left, indicating more students scored better after I intentionally supported these skills.
Grade Distribution #2
After one month, the average score on this exam increased from a 36% to a 58%. There were also fewer students that did not complete the exam, including students with IEPs and ELLS.
Unit 4 Assessment
By unit 4, I had a significantly higher percentage of students in the 70-80% range. The curve again shifted to the left, showing evidence of growth. I had fewer students who scored below 20% showing that students who struggled the most were showing growth. In addition to reinforcing Graphing and Cellular Processes, I began to introduce strategies to help students respond to short answer questions using the Writing Revolution, such at Sentence Expansions and Because, But, So.
Grade Distribution #3
By January, the class average on Regents based assessments increased to 60.8%. The minimum score also increased from 10% to a 24%. This can be attributed to students being more confident to ansering short answers using evidence from the text and writing strategies we learned in class.
New Visions Living Environment Curriculum
Vocabulary Supports
Unpacking Learning Objectives
I begin every class by having students read and annotate the daily Learning Objective for key vocabulary and skills. I have found that this is an effective way of supporting vocabulary development. Mr. Vizcaino asked me to share this strategy with my colleagues during our PROSE staff development times on Wednesday afternoons.
Scaffolded Vocabulary Card
Student generated Vocabulary card
Immersive Lab Experiences
Exam Prep and Reflections
Students using assessment data to identify weaknesses and track progress.
2.19 Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration Quiz Unit 2- Regents Aligned Quiz
2.26 PS CR Quiz ReflectionClasswide Quiz Data Analysis
Exam Corrections Reflection - PSCR Exam