Using Assessment Data Changes the Way Some Schools Do Business

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QAR Abbreviated Glossary

Action Research: Projects, like QAR, in which educators work collaboratively to form questions about their professional practice; to collect, analyze, and interpret data; to draw conclusions about their practice; and to use the results of this research to enhance and improve their professional practice.

Annual Goal: Statement that describes what a student with a disability can reasonably be expected to accomplish within a 12-month period in the student’s special education program.

Assessment: The act of collecting, analyzing, and using data in making informed instructional decisions about student achievement. Assessment instruments include norm-referenced, criterion-referenced, district, and classroom tests, as well as observational records, projects, portfolios, and other data collecting devices.

Collaboration: A relationship developed to the level where all work toward the same objectives and exhibit a cooperative working modality to achieve common goals.

Comparative Analysis: A tool used to help organize and think about data, usually using what’s called a Comparison Matrix.

Data: Information that is collected and organized for analysis and used as a basis for making “data-based” decisions.

Data-based Decisions: Decisions based on analysis of collected data. Three types of data can be used for decision-making: outcome, demographic, and process.
Descriptor Skills: Skills that describe more specifically the seven universal skills (see Figure 4).

General curriculum: (sometimes referred to as general education) is defined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as the same curriculum as that established for students without disabilities [34 C.F.R. § 300.347(a)(1)(i)].

Multi-source Data: Data collected from many measures. For special education purposes, using a minimum of three sources is considered statistically sound practice.

Observational Data: Data obtained from observing specific occurrences or patterns of behavior. Usually the data are recorded in what is called anecdotal records.

Performance Assessment: The measure of a student’s progress related to what the student knows, understands, and can do; includes content understanding and process performance.

Personnel Development: (1) Provides access to continuous learning of teachers, special education service providers, and parents. Includes learning to use appropriate technology aids. Supports effective engagement in the teaching-learning process for students with disabilities. (2) A continuous process of improvement to promote high standards of academic achievement and responsible citizenship for all students.

Present Level of Educational Performance (PLEP): Describes how the child’s disability affects her/his progress in the general curriculum. The purpose of the PLEP is to identify the student’s needs and establish a baseline from which to develop meaningful and measurable goals.

Short Term Objectives: The intermediate steps that will assist the student in accomplishing the annual goals; determine what behavior, conditions, and criteria will be monitored.

Triangulation: Using multiple sources of data, three or more, to get a more complete understanding of a student’s achievement. Can also be used to analyze achievement on the classroom, school, and district levels.

Universal Skills: Seven skills inherent to the development of critical thinking patterns: 1) apply, 2) reason, 3) categorize, 4) communicate, 5) imagine, 6) problem solve, and 7) organize.

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