Benchmark+Exam+Analysis

The science department has initiated benchmark exams in order to have consistency in instruction, recognize and improve weaknesses in student skills and comprehension and teacher instruction. The data will clarify areas of need. A line item analysis is created for each exam and the data is analyzed. Correlations are made to determine the following: Once data is analyzed, teachers will meet at the department meetings and clarify the problems. Teachers will explore why students performed poorly on the questions discussed after analyzing the data. The following questions form the basis for an exploration of why students aren’t performing well in a testing area:
 * Which questions a high number of students answered incorrectly.
 * Which questions had a high percentage of incorrect answers for each teacher.
 * Which questions had a high percentage of incorrect answers for multiple teachers.
 * Do all staff understand what students are asked to know and do on the state assessments?
 * Do all staff understand how student performance is scored on the state assessments and what proficient and advanced student responses looks like?
 * Do all staff know how to teach the content standards?
 * Do all staff know how to assess the content standards?
 * Are all staff monitoring progress of individual students on these standards?
 * Do all staff provide interventions for students not demonstrating attainment of an indicator/objective?

As a group, teachers will come up with an action plan in order to address any issues. They will then implement the action plan that will include instructional strategies to increase student performance on future benchmark exams. They will also generate a list of standards that need to be addressed during review for the Regent’s exam.


 * Use of frequent department wide formative assessments that match areas of student weakness
 * Modeling of best practices by teachers whose data on line item analysis is statistically above average
 * Revision of curriculum (pacing calendars) to address areas of concern as identified by the benchmark exam

Analysis for 2011-2012

Analysis for 2012-2013