Growth data is powerful and can have an enormous impact for students, teachers, and administrators. For students, the more they understand their own assessment results, the better they’ll be able to self-motivate and make the most out of learning. Here are 3 ways students can leverage growth data:
- To help create a positive growth mindset. When educators focus on growth, every student matters, regardless of whether they are proficient, not quite there yet, or advanced. MAP® Growth™ can be used to track student progress toward specific goals. The MAP Suite makes student performance visible and quickly understandable with reporting that can be shared with students. Students can then begin to correlate their effort with their outcome, which can go a long way in improving growth mindset and motivation.
- To help set goals. Crafting short- and long-term goals that are meaningful, ambitious, and realistic becomes possible when students can pinpoint where they are in the learning. Growth measures help students see areas of strength and opportunity. Proficiency and college and career readiness projections help students better plan growth targets setting a better roadmap for achievement.
- To help students chart a future course. ACT® and SAT® benchmark studies can help students realize a path to college and career readiness early on–as early as the fifth grade. These studies map student scores to the college admission test scores, helping them think ahead about their future paths. And the NWEA College Explorer Tool uses growth insights to help students research and prepare for post-secondary opportunities.
Accurate and reliable educational assessments can help make growth visible to students, empowering them to drive their own student learning. To better understand how to leverage growth data for students, teachers, and administrators, be sure to download our new eBook, Ready, Set, Growth!
About the Author
Diane Cronin has worked for more than thirty years as a Catholic school teacher and principal. She now partners with schools across the country to determine what assessments best suit their needs on the Catholic team at NWEA. Contact her with assessment questions at [email protected].
