- Creating the Spreadsheet: Create a spreadsheet for documenting standard mastery tailored to your school needs. You will want to include a place for the standards, pacing guide coverage, assessment standard mastery levels, and any other information you’d like to include.If you’re interested in this process already put together into a spreadsheet with the presentation guide included, you can find mine HERE)
- Reflect on Pacing Guide & Lesson Plans: Determine the standard coverage level by reviewing the pacing guide and lesson plans for the year. If the content was fully covered prior to Distance Learning beginning, then I would mark it as “Fully Covered,” but if it was not covered in full prior to that date, then I would mark it as “Partially Covered.”
- Assessment Data Analysis: Complete the Assessment Item Analysis process to determine the Standard Mastery Level for each standard. During this step, you will use all summative assessments from the school year. Make sure each assessment is labeled by standard, and break down each standard to determine the percentage correct based on the students’ assessment data. This part of the process can seem tedious if it hasn’t already been completed, but the information you get from it is valuable.If you have already completed an Item Analysis or if you tested on an online platform that gives you a standard breakdown, you will want to analyze this data and determine the percentage correct for each question based on the data.After determining the percentage correct per standard, you can then move forward with the Standard Mastery Analysis. You will use the percentages to place your “X” in the box that aligns to the Standard Mastery Level. You will want to determine what percentage each level looks like for your school. For example at our school, we use 80% and above as mastered, 50-79% as partially mastered, and 49% and below as minimally mastered. These numbers can change according to your school or system’s mastery levels.
- Additional Commentary: Leave any additional comments for the next grade level teacher here. Think about any extra information that could be beneficial to the teacher. Maybe you want to let the teacher know that you covered a standard in the beginning of the year but didn’t have a chance to review it any before in-school learning started, or maybe you taught a portion of a standard but still had other elements of that standard to cover prior to the end of the year. These kinds of comments will help the teacher better know the level to review or teach the standards next year.
- Share the File: At this point, you will share the file with your administrative team and/or the next grade level teachers. Your school should have a set protocol on the sharing expectations.
- Create a safe space for this process. Teachers need to know that the spreadsheets and information they turn in are non-evaluative and will only help the next grade level teachers be able to best reach their students. There cannot be any shame or guilt for teachers having to admit that standards were not covered or mastered. You want to create this judgment-free culture in your school prior to starting this process so the teachers can feel safe in being honest in all their data analysis and standard reflection
- Practice this process yourself. As your teachers complete this process, there will be questions and possibly some confusion. I highly recommend that you as the guide for this process practice it yourself so you can be well-versed in the steps when teachers contact you for help. This way, you can relate to the teachers and can easily guide them
- Value this process. As with any professional learning, the teachers will not value the process and time unless you do as the leader. When introducing the Distance Learning Recovery Guide, make sure you have stressed the value in this process and the high impact it can have on students achievement for next year. Bring up the potential learning gaps caused by Covid-19 and stress how this process can help combat these gaps by providing teachers will what standards need covering
- Set clear expectations. As you communicate your expectations to the teachers, make sure you have a solid plan for what data they will use, for the steps you want them to complete, the spreadsheet they will use, and who they will share it with. By front-loading all of this information and being clear in it from the beginning, it will help eliminate some of the intimidation and confusion during the process.