While many associate the winter season with snow and hot cocoa; here at Classworks, we associate it with measuring and celebrating student growth (and we also LOVE hot cocoa) ☕!! 

What should you and your students be doing in Classworks this time of year? Let’s talk about it! 

‍Student Focus

Hopefully, if your students are using Classworks interventions, they are completing one to two units each week with good mastery (remember quality over quantity). As they continue working, this is the ideal time for you to analyze the data you have available to ensure students are responding to the intervention they are receiving in Classworks. 

‍Winter Screening Results

Once students complete their winter screeners, you can easily view how they performed compared to their fall assessments. Additionally, you can see if your students are seeing Progress Monitoring (PM) growth and adjust if necessary. 

Having updated screener results is exciting! There are many opportunities to use this information as you make instructional decisions, measure student progress, and communicate that growth with parents and other stakeholders.

‍Reviewing IEP Goals

With the new winter screener data comes an updated Present Level Summary and refreshed Ready to Learn statements. These new data points are powerful resources when you need to update short-term objectives, adjust support, and prepare for annual reviews or 3-year re-evaluations. Feeling a little stale or need goal inspiration? Dig into creating effective goals and, more importantly, helping students achieve them in this blog post. 

Try this: Use your new Classworks data to create measurable goals. 

‍Progress Monitoring Results

At this point in the year, you likely have 12 weeks' worth of Progress Monitoring data (PM), or very close to that. After 12 weeks, it’s time to begin a new session for students. What is your PM data telling you? If a student didn’t make the growth you anticipated, it’s important to look at various impactors. 

What are you looking for in PM data? Classworks makes it easy for you to prioritize the data you need to see. The Rate of Improvements (ROI) is automatically calculated, and you can focus your attention then on the students who are Below Target. View our session on effective Progress Monitoring and making instructional adjustments where we show you how to analyze your Classworks data and make adjustments to SDI. 

Looking to take your Classworks knowledge to the next level?  Email hello@classworks.com to schedule a Progress Monitoring training session.‍

Making Modifications
When your data tells you that instructional adjustments are needed, it’s important only to make one change. Adjusting one element followed by continued monitoring allows you to see how the adjustment impacted student learning. If you make more than one change at a time, you can’t pinpoint which adjustment made the impact. 

NCII suggests one of these modifications: 

• Content  - What is taught to allow the student to access general education programming
• Methodology - How the instruction is delivered or the practices and approach the teacher uses to teach
• Delivery of instruction - Who delivers the instruction and where and when the instruction is delivered

Some common adaptations to use in Classworks include:

• Assign preset Science of Reading or Early Numeracy Assignments 
• Increase student dosage (time in the intervention)
• Create custom assignments 
• Customize the learning path
• Assign Classworks printable lessons 
• Set SMART Goals 

Learn more about making adaptations to the supports students are receiving in our virtual session, Analyzing the Data and Making Changes to Your Intervention. 

Progress Reports

With winter testing done and nine to twelve weeks of Progress Monitoring sessions completed, you have access to detailed reports!

Some useful Classworks reports include:

• The Skill-Based Progress Monitoring Student Results report - You've been reviewing an onscreen version of this report for each student who has an active Progress Monitoring session. This report shares detailed information with parents and others about the growth the student has made toward their academic goals. It contains the line graph, cumulative item results, weekly assessment scores, teacher comments, and intervention skill progress.
• Student Screener Summary report - This report is a parent report for teachers to share information on how students are doing in each testing window. The report provides an overview of both academic and social screening results. Teachers can share these resources with parents so they have a better understanding of the Screener.
• Universal Screener Results: Annual Growth - The Universal Screener Annual Growth report allows you to track and compare growth for individual students, classes, teachers, and schools over a single school year. This report also allows you to compare the scaled scores to the testing window targets to ensure they are being met. 

• Individualized Learning Results report - This granular report can reveal underlying issues with specific skills in math or ELA.

‍Try this: You can pin your most used reports and schedule them.  

‍Celebrate Success
From December 4th, 2023 until March 31st, 2024, Classworks will be tracking your student’s progress in Classworks with our annual All-Star Contest. At the end of the contest, the top 500 students with the most time in Classworks and 80%+ mastery will earn an awesome prize!

Why 80%? Our data tells us that mastery of 80% and above has the highest impact on student growth according to assessment data. Teachers can easily view students' total mastery and time on task scores in the Individualized Learning tab within Classworks. 

Real-World Example

Mr. Shaw is a special education teacher who aims to progress monitor the students on his caseload and effectively document their progress through their specific short and long-term IEP goals.

Now that we are in the winter months, I know my students are comfortable with Classworks. However, some of my students aren’t responding to their SDI. Let me dig into their instructional data to see what I can do to help them maximize their learning. 

My district uses the Data-based Individualization (DBI) process to determine which students need adjustments. 

First, I need to hypothesize why some of my students aren't growing. I take a look at their Progress Monitoring data to see the overall picture. If a large percentage of my students are not experiencing the growth I anticipated I want to ensure my students use Classworks with fidelity, by:

• Spending a minimum of 30 minutes weekly on individualized learning in each content area
• Completing an average of six to eight individualized learning units each month

Next, I aim to get input from key players like the classroom teacher, school counselor, caretakers, and school psychologists. From this team, the data I am looking for is diagnostic scores from Classworks, student behaviors, and attendance issues.

Now I am ready to make the necessary modifications, which are unique for each student. I will follow along with this valuable webinar from Classworks to see tips for the unique needs for my students and see their next steps. 

Regardless of where my students are, I can’t help but celebrate everyone who has seen growth in their learning through the annual growth report in Classworks. Pizza party, anyone?

District Leaders
With Classworks Insights, tracking district-wide growth is easy. You can see how many students completed the Universal screener during each testing window; and a breakdown by school and average scores. These visual representations of data are very useful to compare yearly implementation easily, document growth in overall performance for the reading and math screener among whole schools and/or grade levels, and to identify instructional areas of needed focus for future months.  

Insights also allow you to view a side-by-side breakdown of placement levels by grade level, race, gender, and other demographic options.

Try this: See all of the features you have available to you in insights here. 

Need Help?
Chat with us using the button below or from within Classworks, or email us at hello@classworks.com. Let us help ensure you see the success we know is possible with Classworks.