St. Margaret’s Academic Dean Jeneen Graham held a Tartan Talk last week to present the school testing schedule, an explanation of data that St. Margaret’s tracks, and the longitudinal analysis of St. Margaret’s students in comparison to independent and national norms. The Tartan Talk discussion in the Library also explained how data is used to inform curricular decisions at St. Margaret’s. 

Dr. Graham gave insight on three key questions related to standardize tests that St. Margaret’s students take:

- Why do we report and analyze standardized data?

- What measurements do we use to measure student outcomes?

- Is this mission-driven?

Dr. Graham broke down the tests that are taken by St. Margaret’s students, from Brigance in the Preschool to ERB and WrAP in Lower School and Middle School to Advanced Placement, ACT, and SAT tests in the Upper School.

Dr. Graham also explained data showing the performance of St. Margaret’s students against the INDEX Norm Group of similar independent schools across the United States in the testing data that is available.

“The overall message to parents was that St. Margaret’s is seeing incredible performance gains across disciplines and grade levels that are not being seen in other competitive independent schools,” Dr. Graham said. “For example, an ERB assessment shows St. Margaret’s students have shown a corresponding and continuous year-over-year growth at rates steeper than most comparative groups over the last five years. “

Dr. Graham also shared some new innovative data assessments such as the Tripod Student Perception Survey that provides teachers high-quality feedback from their students and insights into what students are experiencing. In addition, she discussed the new Tessera non-cognitive assessment that is being used in the Middle School to measure important skill and character strength sets, including organization, responsibility, teamwork, resilience, leadership, ingenuity and communication. 

Dr. Graham's approach to data analysis has allowed her to observe growth patterns from grade level to grade level of a matched cohort sample. Tracking each cohort (grade level of students) over time has allowed her to identify potential strengths and opportunities in St. Margaret’s curriculum. This analysis, in conjunction with research from the Lower School, inspired the curriculum change to implement the Columbia Teacher's College Readers and Writers Workshop.

 

Because of her work in data analysis, Dr. Graham has been asked to present at conferences hosted by CAIS, NAES and ERB and is a member of the CAIS Assessment Think Tank.   

Afterward, a question-and-answer session provided parents the opportunity to discuss the findings and ask questions about the data.