DB Response – JS- Education
DB Post
After reviewing the ISTE standards for teachers, I found that a common theme is to continue to grow as an educator and inspire the younger generation. Teachers can be known as facilitators that guide students along the way as they utilize technology in the classroom (ISTE, n.d.). https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-teachers
Select 1 curricular area such as language arts, mathematics, science, or humanities.
Examine mathematics as the focus area.
Design an educational evaluation plan for a school district, college, or corporate site that includes the ISTE Standards for Students as its outcomes.
https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-students
The first standard that I am going to use for the evaluation plan comes directly from the website above.
“Students break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.”
For example, in mathematics, students may break down math-related word problems by identifying the problem first. One of the first steps to solving word problems is being able to comprehend the information (Vula, et al., 2017). Students may then highlight the most important components first and then create an equation. Once that equation is set up, they may continue to solve the word problem. Problem-solving can be a foundation for all math activities (Vula, et al., 2017). Because of this, problem-solving skills will be an area that will be measured in the evaluation plan.
The evaluation plan will be for a school district. The vision for the plan is that students and teachers are enthused about mathematics and demonstrate an understanding of real-world problem-solving.
The initial step in the evaluation plan is to analyze the current curriculum and mathematics standards for each grade level in the school district.
The next step in the plan will be to collect surveys from teaches and administrators regarding the mathematics program at the school. It will give the evaluation team an opportunity to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the program from current school staff members. A survey sent out to parents will also be collected and analyzed.
The third step will be to identify the goals of the mathematics program and track progress towards those goals.
Members of the evaluation team will collect data from classroom observations and data collected from teachers during mathematics activities or tests.
The evaluation team will review the data and propose solutions on how to improve in the areas that are being measured in regards to mathematics.
What are the advantages and limitations of using data from the following stakeholders to demonstrate that standards have been met? Include a response for each stakeholder:
Teachers
The advantage of gathering data from teachers to demonstrate that standards have been met is that the teachers are likely the stakeholders that spend the most time in the classroom interacting with students on an individual and group basis. A limitation of gathering data from teachers may be in regards to how much experience that teacher has in the field.
Education support employees
An advantage of collecting data from education support employees is that oftentimes support employees have the opportunity to work one on one with students that are struggling. Teacher assistants or student teachers may be able to gather data that lead teachers may be unable to obtain. According to Jao et al (2020), student teachers may experience stress or pressure during their first teaching experiences. If a support employee is teaching for the very first time, this could be a limitation.
Students
An advantage of collecting data from students is the data is coming from the primary source. The students are the ones that are performing the work in the classroom. A disadvantage of using students to collect data is that some students may not be able to verbally express their feedback for a variety of reasons.
Parents
An advantage of collecting data from parents is that parents are likely able to see the progress that students have made outside of the classroom that teachers and administrators may be unable to see during the school day. A disadvantage may be that parents may provide bias feedback to make their child look good.
Administrators
An advantage of collecting data from administrators is that they may be able to provide an outside perspective by performing routine or random observations in the classroom. A disadvantage is that administrators may be overwhelmed by the amount of data they need to collect. Instead of collecting data from just one classroom like a teacher is responsible for, they may have to collect data from 15 to 20 classrooms.
Business and community leaders
An advantage of collecting data from community leaders is that it provides a perspective that is outside of the school environment. A disadvantage is that the tools used to gather this data from community leaders may be extremely different than what the school district uses.